Mad about Saffron: Golddigger phobia

Nov 4 2008 By Saffron Pineger

A few months ago, my housemate Kat turned to the charms of Match.com to find a date.

After much searching and emailing potential candidates she eventually went out for drinks with a certain Adam.

Before they met, Adam told Kat that he was an actuary, which is like being an accountant but richer. They deal in forecasting the financial future for companies.

Kat saw his job as something they had in common as she works for an actuarial company in human resources.

What she didn’t dwell on was the fact that he probably earned a lot more than she did.

Unfortunately, he did dwell on it.

“From the first date, he was asking me how much I thought he earned, hinting at how much money he had and talking about what he had bought and what he planned to buy,” she told me. I could hear the disgust in her voice.

Maybe she wouldn’t have minded him being such a show-off if this obsession with cash didn’t extend to him also being paranoid that women only go out with men for their money.

“He took me out in Canary Wharf for drinks after work and then went on about how girls dress up all tartily and go there to meet rich City workers,” she said. “He seemed obsessed by the idea and kept asking me how much an average actuary earns in my company.

“I told him I’m not allowed to say. I didn’t really understand what he was doing.”

This being their third date, the flirting increased in the swanky bar and he suggested they played a game which involved making bets. The loser had to discreetly remove an item of clothing without leaving the bar.

Kat lost her black tights and later found herself walking bare-legged through the Wharf with her date on their way to another bar. Rather than being impressed at her gameness, Adam merely looked down at her naked pins and said: “Ugh, now you look like one of those girls who come here to hunt us down for our money.”

As she explained, Kat has been out with poor men and rich men. She doesn’t mind as long as they actually have a job. One man lived in a camper van and she happily went out with him thinking he was a penniless hippy. Months later she found out he was actually a millionaire and owned several properties.

Eventually, Adam the Actuary's shallow attitude caused the relationship to fizzle before they got the chance to go on another date.

I know the credit crunch is on everyone’s minds but you’d think he could take his mind off money for long enough to enjoy the moment as Kat said there was a lot of chemistry between them.

The sad thing is that she and Adam might have had a chance at being a couple if he could stop jingling his gold coins for a few minutes.

Now that everyone’s tightening their purse strings, I hope this incident is a one-off and won’t become normal for men infected with financial fear since the markets crashed. Otherwise, us girls could be in for a hard time proving that we really do love for love’s sake, not money.