I honestly don’t know what I would do without my husband. He is an awesome guy! He helps around the house, in fact last night he made dinner. We complement each other pretty well. He is a talker, I am a listener (until I decide to give him what for, lol) He is outgoing. I am shy. I am the eternal optimist and he is rather pessimistic. Sounds like those two would not go together but actually we keep each other in check. He keeps me from thinking I can fly if I jump off the roof, and I keep him from thinking that the sky is falling.
One area where our styles don’t exactly meet is with finances. He is the spender. I am the saver. Yeah, you can see where this is going. He has been so brainwashed by “them” that he really thinks it is impossible to get ahead with the jobs that we have. He thinks we need to make more money. I have tried telling him how much more money we will have when we are out of debt, or done with daycare, but he has a hard time grasping the idea.
Recently he watched me write 7 checks. I paid off seven creditors (with money from our crisis plan) this was mostly medical bills but it also included my first credit card. I don’t know what happened. It was like some little switch finally clicked in his head. He finally “got” it. He decided he wanted to help!!!!
The only thing I can think of here is that he is a visual learner and actually seeing the debt going away made him realize that it WAS possible. Maybe something like this will help you get your significant other motivated. Let them SEE where the money is going. Let them enjoy that little taste of freedom when you have gotten out from under another creditor.
Think about this. Spenders have to be visual people. Part of the problem they have is they SEE a product, they go into the store and are overwhelmed by the sights and sounds. When they leave they have something tangible in their hands that they can show off.
Here is how things were happening before. I would get online, pay our bills, say nothing to my husband, and go on with my day. He was not involved in any part of the process. It was not a purposeful thing. I just never realized he needed to be part of it. He needed to SEE it for himself.
He isn’t trying to sell his most prized possessions or anything yet, but now that I know this will help, I will make SURE to include him any time I am making a big payoff. Currently he is working on finding a vehicle that is not going to put us further behind and he is actually doing a really good job. It took a few dirty looks from me when he kept going back to wanting a brand new vehicle, but now he gets it and I actually heard him telling his dad the other day…. “The monthly payment doesn’t matter, it is the TOTAL cost we are worried about.” Yea!!! I am so proud!
Saturday, July 19, 2008
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