Rich Cooper from Entrepreneurs in Cars has re-released a chapter of one of his books that deals with red flags. It’s a genuinely intriguing list and it inspired me to do my own list, except, percentage-wise, my audience is more evenly split between men and women. So, rather than just doing a red flags list for men, it made sense to do one for women as well. In addition, since some things are red flags for either gender, there’s a list of those included too.

PS #1: I am differentiating here between “red flags” and “baggage.” I am treating “red flags” as a warning signal that you need to look out for and “baggage” as more obvious problems that you can see and take into account before going further.

For example, if the person you’re considering dating has $50,000 in debt, uncontrolled schizophrenia, or three children from previous marriages, anyone with half a brain can easily see the potential issues.

Some of the red flags may also seem obvious to a lot of us, but if a surprising number of people don’t seem to see the potential problem, it’s worth including.