What Suzie Did Next

Here is the Part 2 of "The Fiscal History of Well-dowried Suzie." If you don't wish to have the plot spoiled, please go to Part 1 where we first meet Suzie as a penniless 11-year-old. 

What Suzie did after getting fired

Suzie, being Suzie, promptly got another job at the same salary. She also went out for coffee with Scooter, and then to lunch, and then to dinner, exciting great interest among their friends from CSU days and motherly types at Mass. 

Scooter shared his professional dreams with Suzie, and she quietly looked up the salary expectations for entry level positions in his field. Scooter was not inclined to talk about money matters, which was just as well, as Suzie still believed with every cell of her body that it was wrong to talk about money outside one's own family. She did, however, begin to offer to split the bill when she and Scooter went out. 

From long habit--and also because it gave her an excuse to talk about Scooter--she discussed "going Dutch" with her mother during their weekly financial conversation. Suzie's mother said going Dutch was fine as long as she never gave Scooter presents or offered to loan him money. Bending a point, she said Suzie could continue to bring a bottle of wine to Scooter's parties and could even give him something small and ephemeral, like homemade cookies, for his birthday.

Naturally, Suzie's mother herself had already looked up the salary expectations for Scooter's field and casually discovered how much he was paying in rent.

Suzie's 24th birthday: another £18, 637 (plus capital gains)

All Suzie can now remember about her 24th birthday is that Scooter proposed marriage when they took Hortense for a walk by the river, she said yes, and then--in a flurry of Jane Austen-inspired romanticism, she suggested that Scooter should ask her father's permission. 

Suzie's father, wondering why his daughters always put him through this, asked Scooter if he could support Suzie in the manner to which she had become accustomed. He was mostly joking. 

"Well," said Scooter. "To be honest, I don't have a bean."

"What?" said Suzie's father. 

Scooter realized that perhaps he shouldn't have put it that way.

"I mean to say, I'm not penniless," he amended. "I mean, I've only got £5,000 in student debt, and I have a second interview with MacLeod & Stewart for an entry level position --."

"Young man," said Suzie's father for the first time since his youngest son had married. "Young man, have you ever done a day's paid work in your life?

"Well, er, of course. Here and there. As you do. Membership counter at the club, that sort of thing. Oh, and teaching undergraduates, of course, although technically my stipend--."

"Are you aware, sir," said Suzie's father, who was rapidly becoming his own great-great-grandfather, "that Suzie has worked almost every week of her life since she turned 12 years old and has amassed a Considerable Sum?"

Poor Scooter had been aware that Suzie had had a job all through university and at some point had begun paying for her own coffees, movie tickets, and whatever else when they went out, but he hadn't had a clue about the Considerable Sum. However, he was a traditionalist, had Strong Views on what the duties of  husbands are, and his parents (at least) were pleased with his academic success to date, so he said:

"No, but I'm an engineer, and.. and... And anyway my wife shouldn't have to work."

"No, she shouldn't. Not when she has small children in the house," said Suzie's father and, suddenly remembering how one of his own little girls had once come home so tired and wet from walking a particularly ill-trained schnauzer that she was shaking, became as close to enraged as he ever did. 

"There will be no wedding until you've paid off your student debt--YOU, not Suzie, and not your parents---and that's all I have to say on the subject," he said. "Now go to your room. I mean, leave my room. My office. Out!"

What Scooter did next

Scooter told Suzie shamefacedly that he had made rather a mess of things, and he was sorry. He described his conversation with her father in painful detail and made wild plans about how he was going to pay off £5,000 within two months of being hired by MacLeod & Stewart.

"More likely five months," blurted Suzie, "and not at the rent you're--."

She blushed scarlet and fell silent. 

"No, go on, " said Scooter. 

"I'm sorry," Sid Suzie. "I never discuss money outside the family."

"But I'm going to BE family," said Scooter. "At least, as soon as I pay off my stinking student loan. And I strongly suspect you're going to be the household accountant."

That was too much for Suzie all at once, so they made a date to talk about money, and Scooter went back to his overly expensive flat more determined than ever to get that job at McLeod & Stewart. He looked at his dusty guitars with revulsion and wondered how much he could get for them on eBay. 

Suzie, deeply disappointed that she would not be a June bride after all, tried to reason with her unusually truculent father. What did it matter if she paid off Scooter's silly little loan?

"I want to know that he can do it himself, that's what," said Suzie's father. 

"But Daddy--!"

"Don't 'But Daddy' me. By sending that young man into my office, you were asking me to stick my oar in and so my oar in I have stuck. No wedding until he pays off his debt."

"But that will take months," wailed Suzie. "Even if he gets this job with MacLeod & Stewart, his take-home pay will probably be only £1800 a month, and his share on that 2-bedroom flat is £500, and he's paying a 'Band F' council tax, and his gym membership is £100 a month (unless he's on the off-hours rate), and there's the telly licence and his car and he'd have to live on rice and beans!"

"So be it," said Suzie's dad and threw her out of his office. 

Scooter got the job. His take-home was actually £1820.50/month. He very much appreciated that extra £20.50. 

Suzie's 25th birthday/Wedding Day: another £18,637 (plus capital gains plus rings)

Suzie would have had a net worth of £171, 555.86 on her 25th birthday/wedding day had she not chosen to spend £10,000 on her Dream [if Winter] Wedding and Honeymoon. To her tearful surprise, Suzie's parents told her they would make up the rest from the money she had given them for room and board. Thus, Suzie's net worth was £161, 555.86 (not including the wedding presents, which were many and generous). 

Scooter's net worth was---we won't go into that. But at least he had paid off his debt and could look Suzie's father in the eye. He refused Suzie's offer to contribute to the household bills 4% of her net worth per annum, saying that there was as yet no need. MacLeod & Stewart had given him a raise, so his take-home was now £2000.80 a month. (The 80 p went into the change dish at After Mass Coffee and Tea, 20 p at a time.)

Suzie quit her job a week before her wedding day, which made many of her colleagues uncomfortable, since it reminded them of the Bad Old Days when most women did that. And interestingly, after her nice long honeymoon, Suzie discovered that housework and cooking weren't enough work for her, so she found some nice dogs to walk at 30/hr and learned to sew. 

2024

On her 26th birthday/1st wedding anniversary this week, the now-pregnant Suzie was amused to see that her Stocks and Shares ISA capital, which she has still not touched, made £10,000 during her first year of marriage. (She herself had made £3000 from dog-walking, which she contributed to the household expenses, although most of that ended up in a Down Payment for House fund.) 

To unroot ourselves from the realities of sex, class, ontology and, above all, inflation, Suzie had become Mr. Darcy. And now Scooter is reading FIRE books, so that one day he might become Mr. Darcy, too.

THE END

UPDATE: I believe that spending over £10,000 (let alone £20,000) on a wedding is shocking--and that expectations in this area actually discourage marriage--but I'm not going to throw stones at a girl who began saving for her own when she was 12. In fact, it was that goal that first led her towards making her the relative fortune she has now. Suzie also permitted herself to spend up to 25% of her regular earnings, which prevented FOMO syndrome.

Meanwhile, I think I have proved that it is indeed possible for someone to save £150,000 before his or her wedding day, if he or she works for it and saves 75%-80%. Benedict Ambrose thinks the story is rather lowering, and that it would take an unusually determined and disciplined teenager to work that much and that consistently. However, I pointed out that until Suzie was 16, her work was babysitting (which is easy once the children are asleep) and dog-walking. 

What I find lowering is thinking about all the money I have made since I first began to babysit at 12 or so. Where are my youthful earnings today, eh? Where are my not-so-youthful earnings? Gone with the wind, moi drodzy! Gone with the wind.