Our Secret Sauce, My Recipe - We Love Us More Than Stuff (Part Deux)

Our Secret Sauce, My Recipe - We Love Us More Than Stuff (Part Deux)

A LOT OF THE FINANCIAL success Steve and I have enjoyed is due to the fact that we talk, in advance, about our spending. Because just as we save, let me promise you, we spend, too!

We believe in treats. We enjoy our money and make very deliberate decisions about what we will buy and what we won’t. This takes some planning and ongoing communication. Girlfriends, don’t wait until you’re at the car dealership or at Best Buy to begin this conversation—it will be too late.

We believe in peace (the wedding day). We’ve proactively planned for major expenditures. After our daughter and son-in-law’s engagement, my husband came up with a fabulous idea. Shauna and I are very close, and Steve could predict the wedding planning and expenses might get out of hand. Thus, he proposed we research what a nice wedding would cost and give that figure to Shauna and Adam in cash. Yes!

We wrote our daughter and future son-in-law a check, and they opened their first joint account. This gave them an opportunity to work through important issues, prioritize their wants and desires, and make their own decisions regarding their big day. Not once during the yearlong planning was there ever a tear. My husband is a pure genius.

We believe in gifts. I think you can tell a lot about a person from the way they think about their money—and how much of it they’re willing to give away. I don’t really consider money mine in the first place. Everything I have belongs to God. The air; the grass; the sun; the moon; the stars. How do you ever repay him for that cool stuff? I am blessed with a healthy body and a strong mind, and I can work—these, too, are gifts. Thus, I believe in giving back. We give more than 10 percent of our income because we feel called to do it; I’m not sure everyone is. But when you can learn to give it away, I have found it always makes its way back to you. Simply amazing.

Don’t love money; be satisfied with what you have. For God has said, “I will never fail you. I will never abandon you.” (Hebrews 13:5)

Our consolidated position on matters of money is not an accident. We strategized before we married as to how we would treat our money and what type of priority we would put on stuff. We’ve not once had a disagreement on money matters, because we developed a plan and have stuck to it. We love us more than $tuff. Now that’s something to be grateful for.