She makes three times my salary and her parents want me to move. What do I say?
TrueSoulMatch Editorial
We met four times and the families are already talking about the reception hall. She works in tech and makes 42 LPA while my firm pays 14. Her father told me yesterday that since her career is locked in here, I should start looking for a transfer to her city before the ring ceremony next month.
1 answer
TrueSoulMatch Editorial
Four meetings and a booked reception hall mean the train is already moving at full speed, and the income gap between forty-two lakhs and fourteen lakhs is making her father treat your career like a branch office he can relocate at will. Moving cities before the ring ceremony is a massive disruption to your own professional footing, and swallowing that cost to match a family timeline that completely bypasses your agency sets a terrible precedent for how decisions will be made in this marriage. You need to push back on the timeline before the ring ceremony locks you into a dynamic where your career is treated as secondary. Say something direct to her father the next time the topic comes up, such as that your career has value too, and you cannot uproot yourself on short notice just because her salary happens to be higher. That is going to cause immediate tension and might even make her parents question the match, which is the exact social cost you risk by speaking up now. If you stay quiet to keep the peace during these early weeks, you are teaching them that your work does not matter. Talk to her tonight and make sure she understands that her family is dictating terms that require you to sacrifice your livelihood without even asking if a transfer is possible or desirable for you. If she defends her father's demand or refuses to slow the pace down, you will know exactly how the two of you will negotiate major life shifts after the wedding.