Well those aren’t my words; to be exact they belong to the infamous Kanye West in his hit “Gold Digger” a couple years back. With all the buzz surrounding Janet Jackson and her hubby Wissam getting married last year in secret, I felt it was only right to address the financial situation when you decide to spend your life with someone.The last we heard, Wissam who is from the Middle East and extremely wealthy - even wealthier than the Jacksons imagined, was presented with prenup papers by his lawyers, which he immediately tore up and simply stated that in case of a divorce, Janet Jackson would walk away with 500 million dollars, on the condition that they have been married for at least five years.In the average man and woman’s life do prenups really have to be drawn? Or are there certain agreements that protect individuals’ finances in case their love doesn’t last?Personally, I do think some protection needs to be given. A lot of women are out there giving up their dreams to carry out another dream of raising their family, but in that process they lose out on their own financial independence. This can be said for men too, I do not think these choices are limited to women in this day and age when more men are deciding to take a step back and let their women shine while they take care of the home situation.However, in Rwanda, in some marriages, you can choose to either jointly own your property or maintain it as individuals and maybe a certain agreement should be drawn up to protect those involved, mostly the children.We do not need to be extremely wealthy to share up if things go south but the little we have should be shared amicably. Drawing up an agreement does not mean you’re setting yourself up for divorce but it puts you in the mind-set to know that certain things in life happen and there should be a Plan B and Plan C. At the end of the day both men and women should have some financial independence in a relationship and should be able to rely on each other when times are hard. Having that plan C somewhere very far does not change your current situation and the feelings you have for someone, it simply exists.What do you 21st century ladies think about a prenup?
