Marriage Advice & Tips for a Happy Life

Announcing Married Money Management: 9 Steps to Financial Success

In the early years of our marriage, money was not a fun subject as we struggled with a lot of debt and only a little understanding of the importance of financial harmony in our life together.  We had no plan and just followed the (really, really poor) example of money management we witnessed among our friends and in our culture as a whole.

Fortunately, we learned a lot along the way and now enjoy a great deal of freedom in the financial area of our marriage.  We’re debt-free and honestly never argue about money.

I want to share our journey and give you the guidance that I wish we would have had before we were married nine years ago. Like our own path, this journey will generally follow the advice of Dave Ramsey’s Baby Steps, but it will include our personal experiences and specific advice for engaged, newlywed and not-so-newlywed couples.

To give this important topic the attention it deserves, I plan to break it all down into (at least) nine different posts.  I’ll begin sharing this series on Monday, and we’ll look at a new step along our financial journey each week for the next two months or so.  



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Happy Birthday to Engaged Marriage!

I almost had a heart attack last week.

On Friday morning, a reader emailed me to say Engaged Marriage “looked funny” and no posts were showing up.  When I clicked over, it was clear the site had been hacked or the host server had been corrupted in some way.  Literally, almost one year to the day since I launched this site, I had a moment of trepidation thinking that all of the content shared between us could be gone forever.

Thank God for back-ups!  Within a few hours, I was able to restore everything back to normal with only minor interruptions (sorry to those that received duplicate blog posts in their email inbox on Friday…this was the culprit).  However, seeing the life of this site flash before my eyes made me realize just how much it has become a valued part of my life, and it reminded me that we just passed the one-year mark!

Looking Back to the Start

It’s crazy to think that just over a year ago, I had literally never even read a blog in my entire life.  While on vacation last August, I felt a call to share our pro-marriage message to an audience larger than the participants at the marriage preparation courses we present at a few times each year.  I figured I should look online and see how I could get started.  



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Christian Family Planning Network: Supporting Natural Forms of Family Planning

Blow Up My Marriage !?!

Argue Fairly With Your Spouse: The Rules of Engagement

This guest post is presented by Jason from Live Real, Now, a blog about life and money in the real world.

Everyone, at times, has disagreements.

How boring would life be if everyone agreed all of the time? However, if you handle those disagreements the wrong way, it could mean disaster.

This is particularly true when you are arguing with your spouse.

You spend most non-working moments with this one person, this wonderful, loving, infuriating person. Your emotions will naturally run high while discussing the things you care most about with the person you care most about. Arguments are not only natural, but inevitable.

How do you have an argument with someone you love without lasting resentment?

As strange as it may sound, you have to argue fairly.

The Rules of Engagement

There are a few principles to remember during an argument with your husband or wife:

• When your partner is talking, your job is to listen with all of your energy. You are not interrupting. You are not planning your rebuttal while waiting for your turn to talk.

You are listening, nothing else. If you don’t listen, you can’t understand. If you don’t understand, you can’t find a resolution.  



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