When we started this journey to become debt free we had already been on one income for 2 1/2 years. Because of how I saw my parents manage money I always knew that I would have a joint account with my husband when I got married. My thoughts – if I loved you enough to marry you and trust you enough to be intimate with you how could I not share my finances with you? If I give you my body, what sense does it make to withhold anything else? That’s my personal opinion though.
We never saw money as my money because he was in school and I was the one working. It was always OUR money. Once we got married everything went from I to WE. We discussed money and finances prior to marriage in pre-engagement counseling and we agreed we would have a joint account for all bills and have our own fun money accounts to buy what we’d like or surprise each other. We believe two truly become one and that’s how we’ve lived our lives and we are the better for it. Having one account made the debt free journey much easier. It was easier to have budgeting discussions with one joint account, with everything combined and it helped our communication because we had access to everything together.
I knew coming into our marriage that the Mr.HutchLife was a saver and that he wanted to go to the seminary. I knew that when we said for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, we both took those words very seriously and divorce was never an option. We pray together every day and ask for wisdom and guidance on how to love each other the way we need to be loved not the way we think the other person wants to be loved. With prayer we have become one and on one income it was no different than having two incomes. We made decisions together and consulted each other on big purchases.
We knew that when Mr. HutchLife graduated we would have to pay the additional seminary loans on top of our current student loans and credit cards. We prayed for wisdom on managing any increases in income we would receive, but prayed specifically for the increase in income to be able to pay the loan and still tackle the debt snowball. We didn’t become discouraged, but were hopeful because of our faith. It has never failed us and honestly having one income brought us closer together.
Are you on one income? Are you thinking about going from two incomes to one? What encouraged you to make that step? What’s discouraging you from taking that step?
