Amber and I celebrated our 20th anniversary last Wednesday. And, when you get married to someone, you know a lot about them, but there are always a few surprises along the way. When we got married, Amber knew I wasn’t great with money. I was really good at spending it, but really bad at everything else.
So, when we got married, Amber knew she was inheriting some of my debt. It was part of the package! What she didn’t know was exactly how bad my spending habits were and that my debt also came with a side of low credit score! But, she quickly found out and some of our first arguments as newlyweds were about my spending habits and use of credit cards. I have this keen ability to justify any purchase I want to make and it was stressing her out!
But she stuck by my side, and after a few years, we started getting our financial feet underneath us, but we weren’t making the best choices with our money. We bought a small house well within our budget...which was wise...but then we went out and bought two brand new vehicles. By that, I mean we financed nearly 100% of both of them because it was pre-2008 and banks were like, “Sure! You want money, we’ll give you money!”
We continued to use our credit cards WAY too much. Add to that our student loans that we were paying back...and even though we were both gainfully employed, we found ourselves strapped for cash.
Join us Sunday (January 15, 2023) to hear part 2 in worship or hear on the blog on Monday (January 16, 2023).
(continue listening to Pastor Shawn from Week 1 of Strapped).
