Many people have asked whether Mr. Lincoln and I were smart about money from the get-go.
In short, no.
Our life together kicked off well before the inception of our debt snowball.
Marrying Mr. Lincoln
In the fall of 2013, Mr. Lincoln (ML) and I were married in a quaint, Shakespearean-style church in front of 50 of our closest friends and family, which included daughters Abbie and Gabbie. It was the most wonderful day that was followed by a romantic, ten-day Aruban honeymoon. The entire experience was everything I had hoped and the perfect beginning to our marriage.
Home Sweet Home(s)
When we returned from Aruba, it was business as usual. We resumed our full-time jobs and our every-other-weekend visitation schedule with the kids. But the months that followed were anything but carefree. “Newlywed bliss” turned to “newlywed stress” rather quickly.
During this time, we were still attempting to sell ML’s home and move he and the kids into mine (it was slightly larger and more suitable for four people). We were paying two mortgages and two sets of utility bills, not to mention the time and extra money we were hemorrhaging in property upkeep.
I should also mention that ML also brought some credit card debt (around $3000) and a hefty school loan from 2001 (a little under $9,000) into our new union.
We were supporting two homes, living paycheck to paycheck, and also in debt.
Yeah, it Got Worse
Roughly one year later, in October of 2014, ML lost his job. Miraculously, we closed on his house within days of this significant financial blow. Unfortunately, we came out upside down on the house deal by $500. Nevertheless, we were relieved that it had finally sold.
The school loans went into deferment and we started paying minimums on the credit card. I eventually paid the latter off completely using money that I had squirreled away from when I was single.
The Waiting Game
Our home isn’t located in a booming metropolis, or even reasonably close to a major city. We live in a blue collar town of just over 100,000 people, which means professional jobs in my husband’s line of work are extremely scarce.
After applying to what felt like hundreds of companies (in reality, probably only like 20 or 30), he finally got a bite.
Five months after supporting two kids and ourselves on unemployment compensation and my middle management income, my husband was finally back in business – literally. He started his job in March of 2015 and we were able to get back on our feet.
Stupid Tax
If you’ve read anything by Dave Ramsey, you’ve heard the phrase “Stupid Tax.” It’s another way to define a terrible decision to purchase something ridiculous and/or stupid given your sub-par financial situation. In other words, when you do something stupid with money, and you lose money – that’s stupid tax.
Instead of getting our you-know-what together and paying some of our debts, we decided to continue making poor choices financially. Here are some decisions that resulted in a sizable Stupid Tax.
- Snowboard Gear for 4: We used our entire tax return to buy snowboard gear for the four of us while my husband was still out of work. I still cringe when I think about this.
- A Used Car that was Way out of Our Price Range: Just because it’s used, doesn’t mean it’s a good idea! We bought this expensive vehicle four months after my husband secured his new job. The car was a year old, but the sticker price was almost more than I make in a year, and we certainly didn’t pay cash.
- Overdoing Christmas: Also while my husband was out of work, we used our emergency fund to buy $1,500 in Christmas gifts for the kids. It was only our second year as a blended family and I think I might have been trying to overcompensate a little bit. (whoops).
Using our Brains
It’s pretty sad that it took us so long to “get it”. We thought that since we paid off our credit card balances each month, had a cushion in our checking account, and some money in our emergency fund, that we were doing just fine.
WRONG.
We were living way above our means and clearly fooling ourselves.
It wasn’t until we hit our rock bottom in 2016, that we really started “Pinchin’ Lincolns” – and our life hasn’t been the same since!
