I'm 27 and my boyfriend is 28, together 2 years. My bf and I live with my parents. My dad is disabled due to multiple strokes and can't do much around the house, leaving my mom with 99% of the household responsibilities. My boyfriend has become the de facto man of the house, fixing broken items, doing heavy lifting, etc. My mom struggles with mental illness, but loves us around because we do help out.

My boyfriend was unemployed for 6 months and went through an awful bought of depression. He's a programmer and computing is his passion. Each job rejection was a huge blow to his ego. I told him I wanted a future with him and he responded pretty hopelessly, like "I don't even have a job."

Thankfully, my prayers were answered and he landed a high paying job that he's excited about. He starts in March and his mood is lifting. He's starting to become forward thinking and writing down goals.

He's much more affectionate with me now and tells me he loves me and is happy with me more often. He talks about planning ahead, helping me tackle my credit card debt so "we" can be debt free, taking my parents and I on a cruise, and looking at apartments. He even wants to sign us up for financial counseling at our local church (Dave Ramsey's Financial Peace University).

He's given me every indication of commitment and seems to be excited about planning future goals with me, although no engagement or marriage timeline has been brought up yet. I'm marriage minded and I have chosen him as the man I want to marry.

I know he needs to get back into the swing of things. Job loss can be devastating for a man and he's very focused on getting acclimated at his new job. I don't expect a fancy ring or wedding, but I'd like something reasonable. I want to bring up the subject to him, but I struggle with anxiety about it and don't know how to catch him at the right time. I don't want to be too demanding. Should I take his actions at face value and assume that this means he's thinking about proposing or should I bring it up to him?

He knows that marriage is something I value based on how I've talked about it in the past outside the context of us.