39 People Share The Good, The Bad, And The Unexpected Changes When Their Partner Suddenly Became Wealthy

My husband and I started dating in high school. We both came from poor families and had no money. Our dates were composed of a lot of walking and meeting in public places because we didn't have a car and couldn't afford restaurants.

He got a full scholarship to a private university and I went to a cheaper public university. He graduated first and started making good money. He helped me pay for college and started to buy me nice things. We got engaged, then I graduated and we started saving for our wedding. We saved for a house, had a kid... and we're thinking about having a second. Money didn't change him. He's still frugal and scolds me when I spend too much, but he takes good care of us.

I'm 38. When I was 30 I was a barista and had started dating a single mother of 2. Sweet girl, she pushed me to finish school and for the next 3-4 would take classes online and work full time during the day. She was super chill and never expected too much of my time and was happy to just have me over doing homework quietly late into the night. I finished my Software Engineering degree at 34 and got my first industry job making 80k. At the time this was already pretty life changing for the both of us. She was making maybe 25k at the time. Fast forward 4 more years, I jumped into a big tech company and managed to skip a few levels of the bat, got a massive promotion the year later, followed immediately by a corporate acquisition that left me with an enormous tranche of company stock in a major AI player. In 4 years I went from working part time at Starbucks for $15/hour to having a 7 figure net worth.

Life's the same. I had just bought a 265k house where I live in a LCOL area and she's moved in, my interest rate is 3.75%. She's still the sweetest most easy going girl. She doesn't care too much about the money but it does make life a little easier but we keep almost all of it invested. I did end up buying her a car and paying it off outright. Looking to maybe get hitched in the next couple years. I do get asked sometimes by people who don't know us why I'm dating a single mother of 2 in my position but I think it's pretty obvious why.

I was with my ex through medical school and residency. He tried to become a plastic surgeon and was rejected two years in a row. He ended up in family medicine. Once he learned how much money he could make through telehealth, he didn’t care about anything else. He quite literally didn’t do anything but work, eat, sleep, and maybe watch tv occasionally for a year and a half. He went from making $50k to probably a half mill a year. He ended things with me after I told him I was tired of him only caring about making money. He knew I was right, but I don’t think he was able to step up and be the partner I deserve.

We broke up three years ago. Last I heard, he had a bit of a mental break and moved to Hungary. Still doing telehealth, still single.

Best decision someone ever made for me. I’m now in a really happy, loving relationship with someone who makes me a priority. And I kept the dog.

My wife and I have been together since we were broke college students.

I make good money but she makes $350k. Nothing has changed in our relationship since she started making this kind of money 3 years ago.

Wife and I dated since high school. She makes 6 times more than me. Over 25 years together now.

Nothing really changed in our relationship. The extra money absolutely made our lives easier, and helps remove most stressful things in our life. I cant imagine having to deal with some of the s**t we have to deal with without money. Met my wife in undergrad and been with her ever since, she is now a professor of plastic surgery at a university.

My husband and were high school sweethearts, and both came from low income families. We married young & had our first child soon after.

My husband has an incredible work ethic paired with the ability to make good decisions and calculated risks. He now makes approx 100k a month and we have invested in shares and real estate, (both holding investments and flipping properties). I’ve seen him go from a broke highschool kid to a multi-millionaire now at 32.

He has of course matured with age, but I would say the most change I’ve seen has been in his confidence in himself and his abilities. He was also very hesitant to ever spend money on himself, but now will buy himself a shirt if he likes it. He’s incredibly generous & and attentive and loving husband and Dad.

There have been times along the way where he has been obsessive with working, difficult to live with and not very emotionally present. But now that we have “made it” and I think that external (and internal) pressure has lifted- he is back to being “him”. The guy I fell in love with and would see reappear on holidays 😅

Our relationship is wonderful and it’s been such an amazing journey building the life of our dreams and raising our little family together! Some bumps and tough spots along the way, with a whole ton of sacrifices…. But delayed gratification and being dedicated to making our marriage do the distance has proven to be a working combination for us!

I helped him achieve his goals, ambitions. 6 years later, he left me saying he doesn’t feel the same.

Can’t comment for myself but my dad’s wife did when she was with her ex husband. She already had a successful career herself, but her brother sold his share of a big company, became nearly a billionaire and the whole family got rich, because he’s a generous guy.

Her ex husband didn’t take it well. It hurt his masculinity, and he became a raging alcoholic. Family tried to help him, but he was a lost cause, so they divorced.

He died last year.

They changed, they cheated and they left me. I was there supporting their dreams, I was there with them foot to foot supporting their venture only for them to turn around and bite me in the a*s. Now they have nothing and I on the other hand is doing well for myself.

When we met he was so broke but I don’t care about that kind of stuff so I helped support him and cheered him on while he tried to make his big comedy break. It ended up happening and he signed a huge contract. He dumped me that day lmaoooooo should’ve seen it coming.

My sister was dating a guy who inherited a large sum of money. Their relationship accelerated and they moved states , moved In together, bought a house, car, motorbike, huge boat, farm and anything they fancied. Had a child together.

In 18 months they were homeless and bankrupt after gambling and partying flat out. They borrowed money against there assets for investments that went sour fast and had to sell everything for less than they paid for it and ended owing 20-30k which they couldn’t pay. Court bankrupt order was placed on them and they separated.

Five years later the same thing happened again with a large inheritance on his side and they got back together. Travelled constantly and blew enough money that could have bought a new house, furniture, and a car. Separated again and living in a caravan park.

We went from making very little money to him making half a million annually. He began to resent me for still being in graduate school and this continued into me building my career. I would say money made him mean. We divorced a couple of years later.

Kinda the flip case for me? I went from making $20k a year in grad school (which took nearly 7 years to finish) to making a strong 6 figure salary. I’m no millionaire, but I’m doing well.

I met my gf in grad school, and she was with me throughout that long brutal process. She was with me when I was unemployed for 6 months living on food stamps and my credit card and trying to land a job. And now, she’s with me while I’m making good money working remotely.

If anything, the money has made our relationship better; we’ve taken multiple international trips together, we go see live music more often and we go out to dinner more often and at nicer places. We basically just have more fun together because going out doesn’t break the bank like it used to.

I suppose The opportunity is there for me to run off and go wild with sugar babies or whatever, but that doesn’t appeal to me at all. It’s way more fun going out and traveling and planning s**t with a partner, and I’ve got a great one who loves me for who I am. That’s everything.

While I was in grad school, this happened to me. My (ex) partner and I were both teaching part-time, so we didn't have a lot of extra money to throw around. He started a tutoring company as a passion project with some grad school friends, and it ended up being quite successful. Not a billion dollar venture, but he did become a millionaire through it.

And yeah, he broke up with me soon after, when he started getting lots of female attention due to the level of income. He mostly dated teenagers for some time after he got successful and dropped out of the grad program, but recently (allegedly) got into quite some trouble with the tax man.

Person i know basically went from “I am dating…” to “we’re seriously dating -> engaged” immediately after he found out she had been gifted a large investment portfolio - locked them down so fast

Things are going well for them but I’ll never look at them the same way. He’s referred to the marriage as a “financial opportunity” multiple times and it’s kind of crass.

We started from scratch. Met at university, got married and had kids young. She went back to uni to retrain and ended up in a profession earning up to $400k/year. Combined we earned almost $600k/yr

We built up a multimillion $$ asset base in large part for our retirement, but also for the kids. Fast forward a bit and she developed alcoholism. Four-ish years later we separated, and after that she became a d**g a****t and is no longer working.

Three years later and many $$$ spent on lawyers we dealt with our financial separation. Im now financially ok, while she is spending the rest of her $$$ on her new “lifestyle”.

My kids are no contact with her and so it’s up to me to ensure something is passed on to them for their future.

Met my wife when I was 20. We were poor students, she in a bit better situation, but still sharing burgers and beer. She was going faster through career while I was struggling. I really had my lows at some point.
But, we went out of it and we both earn a lot now, not millionaires but more than we ever needed.
Nothing changed between us, happily married after 15+ years.
My learning from my life with her: you need someone who will constantly push and support you to be the best version of yourself.

I ran engineering at a startup and we went from combined annual £300k (me) + £180k (her), which is admittedly pretty amazing, to me getting a £10m+ payout on my stock at exit.

What happened is we moved to a nearby country where her family lives, bought a lovely farmhouse, had two children, and are living happily with the understanding and practice (only joint accounts) that all assets are 50/50, since this is very much like a lottery win. She’s now a SAHM, and I’m running a few small SaaS companies that cover our £180k/year worth of expenses (private schools are nearly half of that). We have the normal ups and downs of every marriage but we agree that having taken the money arguments off the table at the very start of our relationship, when we were on £150k + £50k has made it all much much easier.

I was basically gifted the company I work for the day I found out I was pregnant and as a result my husband got to take at least 4 years off work and be a stay at home dad. We met when we were both 18 but I never had more than a summer job til I graduated college and he had been working since he was 15 with no help from his parents so it feels like everything worked out the way it was supposed to.