I want Tacoma things, girlfriend wants ring

Like I said, I was not trying to get too serious, as I hope the OPs take on most of the replies won't be taken too seriously either.

I hope he gets some cool parts.

 

If you are seriously asking this life commitment question to strangers on a forum for vehicles, then she needs to move on.

 

If she moves on, then OP will have to buy a new ride

 

My fiance and I are getting a prenup, we both felt that way long before we were engaged. We both have houses, pensions, toys. We want to leave with what we came in with if things go south and neither of us feel bad about it. It's an easy safety net against when people's emotions are running high

To the op, if you care about keeping her get the ring, it's not like they're going to stop making truck parts.

 

Google Moissanite. Have a serious conversation with her about it. Don’t fall victim to the centrury-old diamond marketing tsunami and ignorant public perception of what is “real”.

 

OP just probably needs to ask himself:

What would @stun gun do?

 

He might not have anywhere else to turn, I've been there. Nothing wrong with taking a wide swath of advice and experience.

 

I had to borrow the $300 from my future wife for the ring I gave her. She made sure everyone knew about it until I paid her back! 37 years ago and going strong as ever today.

 

Well this escalated quickly. For the record, The post was more or less a joke.

We aren’t married after 8 years because of “issues or problems”, and by no means is she demanding anything. The line I use most to describe our relationship is “we are happier than most married people that I know”.

 

3days early,
but like others, get her a nice ring, marry her, bear truck parts, buy kids...... uhm, wait.

 

Priorities... Are material things more important than love for each other?

If so, don't even get married. Rings are apart of marriage.

 

Spoken like someone who has never been through a divorce and sat in family court having everything you built taken away from you because of things far beyond your control when you did absolutely nothing wrong. It happens every day to someone new.

The most basic prenup says you take out of the marriage what you brought to it, and adding in the simple clause that says you keep your marital effort means that anything you buy with your earnings you get to keep. In today's world of both spouses working, this is merely common sense. Pre-nups have little affect on children and custody, because the State always rules in favor of the child's best interests. This is just about protecting your retirement so that you aren't old and destitute with no savings. Divorce attorneys cost a fortune, and just because you don't have it, doesn't mean they can't take it and let you make payments on the divorce settlement.

Your optimism is cute, but its baseless. More than half of all marriages end in divorce. Those stories about someone giving away everything before a divorce are based in truth because its actually cheaper in the long run.

If you have a loving marriage and don't get divorced then good for you. That's the dream. However, if you go into something blindly without protecting yourself and your retirement then you are being foolish. If you don't get divorced then the pre-nup never comes into play, and its irrelevant. If things fall apart, and many times they do, then its only smart to hope for the best and plan for the worst.

My parents met at 15 in geometry class and are still married today at 75, but that's a lot of luck, hard work, and commitment. My sainted mother has been practicing family law for half a century and the everyday stories of failed marriages and endless fighting would make you re-evaluate if marriage was even worth the effort. (It is, btw, if you put in the work.)

That being said, marriages are about love and compassion and the price of the ring should be the very least of your concerns and its a giant red flag if she values the cost of the ring over the value of the relationship.

 

We do what we need to make it happen.

 

Don't worry, I'm not. I didn't come her to seek marriage advice TW. I should have known better than to try to have a lighthearted (sarcastic) conversation about truck parts and buying an engagement ring.

 

She loved you so much that she took negative equity in her ring just to make it happen. You obviously got a winner.

 

The only advice I have is for her not you.

 

People are very emotional in the 3rd gen forum. Its weird

 

At the time, she was a legal secretary and I was a 2nd Lt in the Marine Corps. Between my uniform payments (yes, officers had to buy their uniforms) and my 1981 Toyota 4x4 truck payment, I had no money to spare. When we married, that and an old bicycle were all I could bring to the relationship. She came with a 1965 Mustang, kitchen table, two chairs and a refrigerator. Boy, did I luck out!

 

Do you still have the mustang? If so we need photographic proof.

 

A ring doesn’t signify your love to a woman. That’s just what the jewelry industry crams in your head. Most women now days never wear jewelry when they go out. They wear a band when they go to work and back but the big rock stays home.

as long as you keep the truck, I say mod on and get her a 300-500 ring. Don’t go all out. Then upgrade it every 3years.
So the longer she’s with you, the bigger the ring gets. Women need to learn the earn their stay.