Our Debt-Free Marriage: How We Paid Off $54,500 in the Name of Freedom

Would you like to have a debt-free marriage?  Does it seem possible?

I can tell you from experience that it is not easy.  But it is so worth it.

There have been several events in our life lately that have caused us to reflect on our own journey to financial freedom and all that it has meant to our family and our marriage.  I am excited to share our story with you with the hope that you will find some information and motivation that will help you wherever you may be in your own financial life.

The Debt-Laden Duo

When Bethany and I got married in 2001, we already had a fair amount of debt under our belts.  It was nothing extreme by any means, and we were probably on the low end compared to many of our friends.  We didn’t even have any credit card debt at that point, just a car loan and good ole student loans from college.  



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Engaged Finances and Engaged Marriage- So Happy Together!

Editor’s Note: This is a guest post from Fern Alix-LaRocca who gives five great tips for achieving financial harmony in marriage.

Some couples will immediately combine their finances in a marriage and some will keep their money separate. It doesn’t matter how you divvy it up. What does matter is what you decide to do with it- together.

Many couples are squeamish around discussing money because maybe they are ashamed of the debt they accrued or maybe they feel bad about not knowing how to manage it properly. You can engage your finances together with these 5 tips:

1. Let your goals be your guide- not the economy or newspaper journalists. When you have the end result in mind, it’s a lot easier to save together to fund that goal. Figure out if you want to own a house, take off of work to be with a new baby, prepare to be self- employed, etc. Then use some of the free online calculators to figure out how much you need to save and invest to meet your goal.  



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You May Be Married, But Are You Truly United?

Editor’s Note: This is a guest post by Brad Chaffee.  Engaged Marriage is sponsoring his Manage Your Money Challenge, and I encourage you to check it out.

Every year we find ourselves celebrating our anniversary with the one we love. What is it that we are celebrating exactly? What does it mean to be married? Marriage symbolizes unity, or the coming together as one, but is that what we are really celebrating?

It’s what we should be celebrating, but is it? Maybe what you are really celebrating is a social achievement that acts as a mask, covering the real reason that getting through another year is so special. Let me explain.

Before I go on let me just say that I am guilty. I am guilty of taking that day for granted sometimes. Don’t get me wrong. I love my wife with every ounce of my soul and being married to her is so wonderful, BUT the truth is that I sometimes fail her. Sometimes I do not act as if we are a team, and she would probably admit she has her days as well.

It’s a part of being married. What do you do?  



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Budget Software Reviews: Choose Your Tool for Successful Money Management

Building a budget is a primary step toward achieving financial success for your family.  Our family has used some homemade Excel spreadsheets as our “budgeting software” of choice for several years.

However, as I explained previously, our day-to-day money management has really grown stale recently, and it had a lot to do with the cumbersome way that we have tracked our personal finances…think piles of receipts accumulating until month’s end followed by hours of data entry among several spreadsheets.  Our system lacked efficiency, and it frankly got so boring and time-consuming that we let it slide.

I decided it was time for a change.  So, I’ve spent a great deal of time lately researching and reviewing popular budgeting software.  And, lucky for you, I am going to share with you what I’ve found.  You will find below five of the top budget software tools available along with an overview of their features and my opinion on who may find them most useful.

The Best Budgeting Software I’ve Found

1. You Need a Budget

UPDATE: Since my original cursory review, I completed a detailed review of YNAB.  Please read my full review of You Need A Budget.  



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Holy Crap! I Eat Out A Lot!

My wife and I have recently recommitted ourselves to the budgeting process.  We’ve lived on a budget for the past several years since we discovered Dave Ramsey and followed his plan to become debt free in 2008.

However, in the past six months or so, we got a bit lazy and lackadaisical in our day-to-day finances.  I decided to check out some new budgeting software that would make things both easier and more fun to track than my good ole, self-made Excel spreadsheets.  I learned a lot about what’s available in the world of budgeting software, and you can read my review of five top budgeting software systems for the details.

For this post, I just had to get something off my chest…I seem to have a big problem with eating out at restaurants!

Every day?  Yep.

As I took the time to reflect on our spending habits over the past several months, it quickly occurred to me that I had eaten at least one meal at a restaurant virtually every…single…day!  



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