As the title suggests, my (33M) girlfriend (28F) wants to move in together after 1 year of dating. We have talked about getting married, wanting kids, and have similar interests, so I believe we are compatible. We are definitely in love and we can both see the relationship going further. She said that she wouldn’t move in until we got engaged and honestly, I haven’t really thought about that, because in my experience people move in together first before getting married so that they learn to be more comfortable with each other. Her reason is that it’s out of principle and would want a stronger level of commitment to get engaged first. I suppose I can understand both sides of the argument.
Anyways, I bought a house back in 2020 for a pretty sweet deal and a very low interest rate. It’s in a nice neighborhood and the monthly payments are incredibly low relative to my income. She has always asked me if I liked the area and hinted if I had any desire to move to another location in the same city. Until recently she bluntly asked me if I would be willing to sell my house if we planned to get engaged so that we could buy another house together. To me, it financially makes no sense to sell the home. Realistically, I’d like to keep the house and rent it out as an investment for retirement, but she doesn’t see it that way. Seems like a lot of added stress to plan for a wedding AND purchase another home.
TLDR:
1. Is it normal for people to get engaged first before moving in?
2. Would it be smart to sell my current home and buy another one together?