Eight Fairy Tale Marriage Myths

Marriage Myth # 1:  What he/she doesn’t know won’t hurt them.

BONK!  Wrong answer!  Thank you for playing the Newlywed Game but you’ve just lost more than a game show prize.

Hear me…there are NO money secrets in marriage.

I can’t tell you the number of people over the years who told me they had no idea how much debt their spouse had before they got married. 

I’m talking serious money…can you imagine finding out after you’re married that your spouse has $40,000 in credit card debt…or how it feels to have a process server shows up at your front door with 3 judgments for defaulting on loans?

If you begin your marriage with dishonesty. . .it’s more of a trick than a treat.

Marriage Myth # 2: Double the income, half the expenses.

There is a chewing gum commercial…Double Your Pleasure, double your fun with Double Mint gum.   Getting married and merging both salaries will not necessarily double your income and cut your living expenses in half.

Parkinson’s Law says that expenses will always rise to meet income…so you really need to have a family financial plan or you could see expenses rise faster than a speeding bullet.

Our advice is to live off one income and save or invest the rest.  This approach will always ensure that you’re never snagged into trouble by the changing economic climate.

Marriage Myth # 3: There are things we just gotta have. No there isn’t.  We live in an age of unrealistic expectations.  You see the result by the number of people in debt all around you. You don’t have to have matching new cars, furniture and all the latest electronic toys. 

Make a pact that you will never go into debt for "stuff." Period.  Paragraph.

Marriage Myth # 4: We can afford the payment. That kind of logic will plunge you into a Financial 911 quicker than you can say, “You’ve lost that loving feeling.”

Here’s the bottom line…if you can’t pay off your credit card balance in full each month or if your mortgage payment, insurance and taxes represent more than 30 percent of your net income…don’t sign the dotted line.  Just because you get the credit, doesn’t mean you should get it and spend it. 

Marriage Myth #5:   We’ve got plenty of time to start saving money and investing for the future.

Years ago we came across an illustration that more than proves the benefit of starting your savings early.   Using the example of twins, Lori and Larry graduated from college at age 22.

Lori decided she’d better start saving for the future so for the next 8 years she put away $2,000 a year.  After eight years, she quits saving but leaves the money in an account.

Larry, who has not invested at all, decides at age 32 that he’d better get a plan.  He then begins investing $2000 a year until he retires at age 65 some 33 years later.  If both Lori and Larry had a consistent 8% return on their money, at age 65, they will both have $347,000. 

Does that explain the benefit of compound interest?

Albert Einstein once said the greatest invention he’d ever seen was compound interest. 

After you tithe. . .learn to pay yourself by putting another ten percent into a savings/investment program. You won’t regret it.

Marriage Myth # 6: My spouse doesn’t need to know everything I spend money on.    That’s a prescription for divorce.  Surveys shows that 48% of spouse do not tell the other spouse the full purchase price for items they’ve bought.

Financial infidelity will ALWAYS be exposed. . .you may get away with it for a season. . .but there will come a day of reckoning.

Marriage Myth # 7: We just need to make more money and then everything will be alright.

Never make financial decisions and purchases based on hope of future income.

Way too many couples are living at Bed, Bath and Beyond Their Means.

As the old saying goes, a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush.

Marriage Myth # 8: We are too deeply in debt to ever get out of this mess.

I have never talked with anyone that I couldn’t show how to be debt free in seven years or less….but if husband and wife. . .who are scripturally speaking ONE FLESH… become one flesh in finances…then things will turn around a whole lot quicker.