Like most people, my thoughts first sprung to monetary, liquid assets (bank accounts, brokerage account, heck even my condo, etc). Then I realized that since I am just starting my journey NONE of those things are very large, nor can they be considered “great” no matter how you want to define the word. This is especially true when we consider the debt I previously wrote about).
So, if bank and brokerage accounts were out, I figured it was time to get a tad bit more abstract.
The next thing I thought of was my education and subsequent earning power. I have a B.S. in Business Economics, a Law Degree (Juris Doctorate for those other law geeks out there), and most of all I am a pretty personable guy, if I don’t say so myself. Believe it or not, I think the last one is the real reason behind earning power, although the degrees don’t hurt at all! Then I came to my senses, while my earning power may be a good asset, it is not great.
Then it/she came to mind, it was,
Before you assume I am sucking up for purposes of marital bliss, she does not know about this blog (yet) (I told her, and she thinks it is great). I suspect that come tax time, if this blog turns out any money (not my goal) and we file Married-Joint income taxes, she will obviously find out. Lets talk about “The Wife” – as much as she is beautiful, she is patient; being married to me can be trying at times! I am opinionated, loud, and depending who you ask, I can even be called annoying by some (if we are going to be honest, by most!)
However for purposes of this post I want to share her views on finance. I have MANY friends who are dealing with wives who think that they deserve $1,000 purses, $500/month cars, and $550K homes all at the age of 26/27/28. My wife is the complete and utter opposite. She is frugal, almost to a fault, but she is easily…my greatest asset.
While some of my friends may joke about her “frugalness” she is the reason we do not need our parents to bail us out. She is the reason I will be able to spend more time with our eventual children, and maybe even retire early. She is supportive, focused, and determined. Whether it’s me taking a chance on a job that was not the norm for a recent law school graduate, or standing by me when my parents follow questionable financial tactics, she supports me.
In a future post I will talk about our attempt to combine savings, checking, credit cards, and overall financial life. As I continue this blog, I am sure I will continue to write about how she keeps me focused (and under control – financially and otherwise). If you are in a similar situation I would love to hear about it.
Update: The Wife has her on Blog Now! Check her out After the Alter
Evan,
Personal article, but done tastefully. I enjoyed reading it as I am in the same situation. My fiance stood out from the crowd, and as odd as it sounds, reminded me much of my own grandmother. Maybe not that odd, it was the fact that she had qualities and traits resembling more that generation than our own (also in our mid-twenties).
I checked out your wife’s blog and plan to pass it along to my own asset. 🙂
PS – Check the html, showing the black diamond ? marks.
hahahah glad you enjoyed it! this was one of my first posts, and I think its great that it is getting a comment 18 months later.
The html code is FRUSTRATING a bunch of my older posts have them. It occured when my OLD host changed their back end server.
Thanks for sharing your story, Evan.
P.S. those you mentioned who go for $550k homes and $500/mo. cars at 26… talk about bling? It’s not cool unless it can be done without mommy & daddy and without a huge load of debt. 😉
Awww bless.
I wish my husband was frugal, but I love many other things about him!
Hi Even,
I saw your article recently and fall in love with the content and the way you wrote them. I’m going through all your articles one by one. When I saw this article, I decided to make a comment, even though the article was posted 4 years ago.
My husband and I have been married for just one year. We are both 26. I have been working for more than one year and he is still in school, full-time. Before he met me, he was very slow in his life. However, I was very efficient in making progress in my life. He is from a top 1% family and never worried about money. I came to the States by myself without anything (only debts my parents had). I am very frugal and I trained him to recognize what’s more important in our life during the past one year. We have been doing a monthly budget and recording every expense (I’m an accountant). Even though we are receiving some support from his parents(not very much every month, but his parents are very generous to us in general), I have been working extra hours to make sure we don’t have to live paycheck by paycheck. He became more focused and mature because of me.
He is very good at doing investment and I’m good at saving. We are a great team. We save about 45% of our total income and are well prepared for big purchases (trips, car, and future house). Our net worth inceased 26% during the past one year, without any debt (his parents are paying for his school and our wedding ceremony). His mom said that she would never worry about us if anything bad happens to her.
I believe that we are doing very well at our age. We are laying a great foundation for our future success.