Debt-Proof Your Marriage: How to Achieve Financial Harmony [With 6 Months Free Cheapskate Monthly Online]

Something has happened to Mary Hunt since her 1999 publication on Debt-Free Living. Or perhaps it's happened to her editor. Or perhaps a ghost writer has slipped into her life. Regardless, the same passion and good sense is now expressed with a pleasant and flowing presentation that makes her medicine all the more bearable to the debt-laden patient. Simply put, this lady can write! Mary Hunt's book about finances in marriage sparkles. She has taken conventional wisdom about marriage, gender differences, and biblical teaching about a generous Creator and woven it together with her trademark 10-10-80 approach to managing money (give 10%, save 10%, spend 80%). Revell has helped out by packaging a supremely attractive book (the colors, the spacing, the flawless editing ...) at a decent price. A major first section sports the title 'Get Your Relationship Ready for Financial Harmony'. Hunt's own story reveals that she knows how taxing financial stress and indebtedness often are on a marriage, so she's chosen to invest significant pages reminding her readers of some basic gender patterns and communication skills. You'll get a little bit of 'Men are from Mars, Women from Venus ...' language in this section, but always winsomely packaged and with an awareness of how individuals vary. Then it's on to 'How to Debt-Proof Your Marriage', ten short chapters that present material Hunt has developed and presented elsewhere since the 1992 launch of her 'Cheapskate' business. A third section ('Unique Solutions for Common Dilemmas') is almost an extended set of appendices, each valuable for reference or inspiration. As a reader of a fair amount of material on debt and its effects on individuals and families, I have gravitated to Mary Hunt's work as the steady best. Debt-Proof Your Marriage is her high watermark thus far.

When it comes to financial matters, do you find that you and your spouse speak a different language? Is one of you a spender, the other a saver? Would your marriage be stronger if you could somehow work as a team to manage your finances and get out of debt? Notice that I didn't ask if your marriage would be stronger if you had more money. Mary Hunt aptly notes that money problems are about more than a lack of money. Money problems are the result of conflicting attitudes and habits, and indicate just how well you and your spouse communicate and combine the two. Debt-Proof Your Marriage is written in three parts. Part 1 explains the relationship side of the equation, enabling you to prepare the groundwork for financial harmony. Part 2 gets into the numbers, starting off with six debt-proof principles that are powerful and easy to understand. Part 3 provides resources to help you apply parts 1 and 2. All of this is written from a Biblical perspective, from someone who has walked the walk. Both frank and friendly, this is a sound message that will improve both your pocketbook and your marriage. Larry Hehn, author of Get the Prize: Nine Keys for a Life of Victory

When it comes to financial matters, do you find that you and your spouse speak a different language? Is one of you a spender, the other a saver? Would your marriage be stronger if you could somehow work as a team to manage your finances and get out of debt?Notice that I didn't ask if your marriage would be stronger if you had more money. Mary Hunt aptly notes that money problems are about more than a lack of money. Money problems are the result of conflicting attitudes and habits, and indicate just how well you and your spouse communicate and combine the two.Debt-Proof Your Marriage is written in three parts. Part 1 explains the relationship side of the equation, enabling you to prepare the groundwork for financial harmony. Part 2 gets into the numbers, starting off with six debt-proof principles that are powerful and easy to understand. Part 3 provides resources to help you apply parts 1 and 2.All of this is written from a Biblical perspective, from someone who has walked the walk. Both frank and friendly, this is a sound message that will improve both your pocketbook and your marriage.Larry Hehn, author of Get the Prize: Nine Keys for a Life of Victory

The great thing about reading a Mary Hunt book on finances is knowing that she writes from experience and not just from abstract theory. This woman had run up something like $100,000 in unsecured debt (credit cards and such) and worked her way out of that crushing load of debt, without a high-paying job or an inheritance or a windfall of any kind. She simply persevered. Of course, that's only half of the story. The other half involves her husband who, of all things, was a banker during some of the time she was amassing a heavy debt load. Like many spouses, she kept thinking she could handle it --- she would figure something out, or some magic reversal would wipe out their debt. Really, it's a wonder they didn't duke it out once she decided to come clean with him. The plan Hunt outlines in DEBT-PROOF YOUR MARRIAGE is legitimately workable, for all you skeptics who think hers is just another budgeting plan that will never work for you. She doesn't propose living in a tent and boiling roots to make tea, though she probably wouldn't try to stop you. While she gives lots of very specific, very detailed information on how to eliminate credit card debt quickly, how to pay off your mortgage early and how to create a spending plan that is based on freedom rather than restriction, she is careful to emphasize that couples must customize their financial plan to fit their lifestyle and temperaments. Hunt writes in a friendly, nonjudgmental style. I doubt anyone could come away from this book feeling worse than they did when they started reading. Hunt is a master at encouraging people to do what they can do, a little at a time, rather than feeling they have to grovel over their shameful financial mismanagement. She uses humor, anecdotes and illustrations to underscore the serious point she's making: that financial disharmony can destroy a marriage, while financial harmony --- no matter what it takes to achieve it --- can strengthen and save a marriage. Before she gets into practical matters, Hunt establishes a foundation for understanding the factors that result in money-related problems in a marriage by discussing emotional differences, myths about money, and marital problems that are exacerbated by financial conflict. She pretty much follows a conservative Christian blueprint for marriage, conflict resolution and the like. About the only thing that leaves me cold are the sections on making deposits in a "Love Bank" --- the idea being that every little thing you do to show your love and respect for your spouse is deposited into an account that incrementally adds up to a significant balance. I don't know. Maybe some couples like to talk and think like that. I've just never met one, or one that openly discusses it. Anyway, this idea isn't original with Hunt; she attributes it to Willard Harley, so her only responsibility for it is in repeating it. Oh, and then there is the implied suggestion that engaged couples exchange credit reports. I'm not sure why I

We've read Mary's first book "Debt-Proof Living" and tried to apply her adviced but it was only when reading this new book that all the principles and how it related to our marriage came together. We are restarting our Rapid Debt Repayment Plan, saving for emergencies and giving money to charity...we feel almost rich and all on the same salary we were making! I recommend this book to everyone!