Can you relate to our debt reduction story?
I had the “husband” part down cold. I loved my wife (still do), and I was ready to be passionately devoted to the girl of my dreams. But man, no one told me about the married-couple-money-roller-coaster.
Early Days
Up until marriage, I was an average college student with a credit card and some manageable credit card debt (maybe below average if you check out today’s average credit card debt). Yes I spent a little more than what I earned, but I always paid at least half of the balance each month. Suckers only pay the minimum required payment, right?
But then I bought the ring, shared the cost of the wedding with my soon-to-be wife, and booked the Hawaii honeymoon. Needless to say, I could no longer pay half of the credit card balance. And so began the debt sink hole.
It’s funny, but when you incur debt that you cannot afford to pay off, you say to yourself (or at least I did), “What’s a few more dollars going to hurt? I already have so much to pay off, one more night out won’t do that much harm. Besides, eating out tonight will make me feel better about everything.” Not true!
Money Roller Coaster
So after our combined credit card debt, our combined wedding costs, and living out our first married year not paying attention to our income vs. spending habits, we found ourselves roughly $12,000 in debt by our first anniversary. Definitely not something commemorated in an anniversary card.
I call it a roller coaster because our purchases were fun (for the moment), dangerous, and they left us with a sick feeling after it was all over.
Recovery: How We Got Out of Debt
Nothing sparked an interest in our financial situation besides the desire to get out of debt. There wasn’t an intervention, we didn’t attend the Dave Ramsey conference at our church, and we didn’t have any savings or retirement goals.
We didn’t have any financial aspirations other than spending less than what we earned and paying off our credit card debt.
I gathered our previous month’s credit card and bank statements and started tallying up the scores. I found that we spend nearly $800 a month just by going out to eat! What kind of couple does that?
We were all over the place, financially speaking. We wasted money left and right on luxuries disguised as necessities that we had no business (or budget) buying in the first place.
So, we pulled in the reigns…heavily! We created a budget that fit our income and we stuck to it. We started dealing with our debt and marriage like adults.
I’m glad to say that within 16 months we had eliminated all of our credit card debt. We still had our student loans (moderate-sized state university loans), but fortunately we were still both driving our first cars.
I wish I could tell you that it was an ingenious program or a 5-step process that lead us to financial victory. Those would be simple to list out. But in the end, how we got out of debt was our desire to get back on course and the willingness to say “no” to unnecessary purchases and “yes” to mature and responsible financial execution.
Although it happened the hard way, I found out that you have to pay attention to your finances. To date we’ve financially survived 2 car breakdowns, one lost job, and one beautiful baby boy. Our financial future is promising because we learned from our mistakes, we developed a sound financial strategy, and we have continued to follow through with those guidelines.
Photo by Katie Tegtmeyer
{ 8 comments… read them below or add one }
Great post! I find it very inspiring. It isn’t easy to step away from debt and it definitely takes motivation and drive. Keep up the good work and soon you’ll be liability free!
-Ravi Gupta
Good for you for getting your finances under control early on in your life and marriage. My husband and I are finally on the right track, but I wish we’d done it ten (or more) years ago.
Ryan, congrats on getting got married young and feel the same way about my wife. There’s no book on how to deal with finances, only the school of hard knocks it seems
Reading your post brought up some old memories. We’ve faced some financial challenges, but have gotten to the point where we have paid off debt and feel good about where we’re at.
Working as a team to get out of debt is an important key. You can work better together than individually. Thanks!
Wow, great to hear you’re out of credit card debt after 16 months. I have not yet said the “I do’s”, however I’ve noticed a trend with my out of control food budget and unnecessary luxuries that at the time, seemed next to nothing next to the total amount of debt I’d accumulated. Thankfully, I have tightened the reigns as well and have been making some steady headway. Best of luck for your future financial twists and turns!
Not much is said about these things before you get married. My wife and i started out debt free which gave us a lot of choices and flexibility. We had other issues which were less controllable. I was drafted into the Army within a few months after getting married. Our life was in someone’s control for nearly 2 years. Then I left the army and went to graduate school. No debt, but life was on hold! I always did well with our finances because it was also my career (CFO). As you see, we all have to contend with something no one prepared us for before you get married.
When my wife and I decided to get out of debt, we thought the whole process was kind of fun. Making the sacrifices together in our new marriage: it was like us vs. the world. It still gives us stories to tell (like eating hardly anything but Ramen noodles for almost a year) and makes us proud to think we accomplished it together!
Thanks for the congratulations and encouragement everyone! I would have to agree with Mike Young about the excitement of the debt reduction process. Our debt was like this monster that kept taking down everyone around us, but we found a way to stand up under it’s pressure.
Great post!! I think this probably rings true for most people, married or not, about the first couple of years after university. I graduated a year ago, and though I’ve managed to stay out of debt, I definitely underestimated how difficult it could sometimes be to stay afloat, even given how frugal I was in university. Super cheap activities (like sweating it out in the summer because your apartment doesn’t have AC) that seemed fine in school now seem crazy, and without next year’s tuition bill to be working towards, it can be hard to escape the monster of “Well, I make all this money — I better enjoy it!”
Plus, there’s all the grown up costs that you have to take care of that, at least for me, I didn’t really think of before. Like, the first of my friends are getting married this summer, which means I have to get a gift, and a shower gift, and take a half-day off work to go out of town, etc. etc. It adds up fast!
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