SERIES: YOU Answer The Question – Part 1

Welcome to the latest series – YOU Answer The Question!

One thing that I love about traveling and teaching about finances is that I learn so much from the people I meet!

So here is how this new series works.  I will share a question that has been sent in to me, and YOU Answer The Question!

QUESTIONWhat do you do when you really want to get on the right track financially and your spouse is not as willing to participate?

Share Your Answer!

Do you have a question of your own?  Ask me HERE!

4 Comments

  1. D. Whitten on June 9, 2008 at 5:20 am

    My spouse isn’t on board with “budgeting”, but since I am the one who oversees the finances & pays the bills, does the grocery shopping, and makes the meals, I keep him up to date with how much we’re spending and let him know where we need to cut back. I do my part to cut back by shopping sales with coupons, shopping discount stores, and making sure that I have meals available as to avoid the temptation of eating out. I try to “budget” using trends from the previous months and work on our debt snowball taking those things into account. Knowing that my spouse likes to periodically splurge on items, I just plan that we’ll both have some money set aside for spending every month.



  2. Travis on June 9, 2008 at 6:08 am

    this is a bit of a funny (and true) story…

    I started in on by reluctant spouse by (shall I say) putting “pressure” on the wife. Just FYI, not a good idea….

    You see, I was beating her over the head with this new “club” that I had found. However… I knew that she cared and would come around if I could just get her to agree to read Dave Ramsey’s book. (This was back in 2005) So, I began thinking…. Then, one day on the radio, I heard somebody saying that it was money well spent to pay your kids for a book report on a book of your choosing. That is when it “clicked”…Pay her to read the book?

    Back then we had a newborn and a toddler and we had not been doing a any sort of budget. Needless to say, money was kind of tight… and spending money on ourselves had been somewhat of a “sticky” point. (again we were not doing a budget)

    That evening I sat down with her at the kitchen table and said “What would it take to get you to read this book?” She sat back, drew in a breath and said “A trashcan with a lid and an electric ice cream maker” to which I replied.. “Go get in the truck, and I WILL GET THE KIDS!!” (the night before the silly lab got into the trash while we were asleep and the fourth of July was coming up) That my friends was all it took.

    **** Here Is The Point****
    I realized that I could not PUSH her. I had to find a way to PULL her. Do yourself a favor, try to find your spouse’s rope and start pulling.

    That is our story… I hope someone else will find it usefull.

    Travis



  3. Karen on June 9, 2008 at 8:53 am

    During our 25 years of marriage, I have been following Larry Burkett and Dave Ramsey. I have read their books and tried to apply their teachings. But my husband wasn’t on board and only rolled his eyes when I tried to have a conversation on how we too could be out of debt if we would apply the principles I had learned.

    Finally, I was able to convince him to meet with Joe, and this was only because it was at New Spring. For some reason he was more willing simply because it was at our church. He still wasn’t crazy about the idea of talking about our finances and didn’t really want to hear about the things he was doing wrong. But after hearing Joe out, he jumped on board with both feet! That’s not to say that we haven’t fallen off the wagon a time or two (just a short fall), but we have our goals set and we are working diligently to reach them.

    It took a lot of prayer for my husband to come around, but if it’s not too late for us to get on the right track after 25 years, then it can be a reality for anyone. So keep talking and keep praying and watch God work in His time.

    And THANK YOU Joe for following God’s desire for your life and for being there for us when we needed you. We appreciate you more than you can know.



  4. Geoffrey on June 10, 2008 at 11:30 am

    Start with fixing your marriage – get some counseling, go to a class, work on some marriage enrichment and grow your relationship to the point where you can work on details in the marriage, including finances.



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