Debt-Proof Your Marriage: How to Achieve Financial Harmony with Coupons [Hardcover]

Mary Hunt (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 2003

Financial DISHARMONY can blow a marriage apart. But financial HARMONY can bind it together.

No matter what your financial situation looks like right now, you and your spouse can take steps toward being debt-free - and strengthen your marriage in the process. In this highly practical book, Mary Hunt helps you bring the principles of intimacy, the foundation for harmony and debt-free living, into money management. These principles include acceptance, freedom, safety, and honesty, creating an atmosphere that unifies two lives into one.

'Debt-Proof Your Marriage' is packed with real-life advice, sprinkled with humor, that will renew your hope and determination. It covers everything you need for managing your money in harmony, including the "80 percent solution," forty places to find money (that you didn't know you had), how to reconcile different money behaviors and beliefs, and much more.

Reading this book will empower you to take care of the present, clean up the past, and prepare for a successful, debt-free future.

Most importantly, it will empower you to live debt-free - protecting your marriage, your money, and your peace of mind!

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Hunt, founder and publisher of the money-saving newsletter Cheapskate Monthly, offers advice for couples wanting to keep their finances on track. She begins by recounting her own financial missteps, which started when she and her husband incurred incredible debt while trying to start their own business. To regain financial security, they cut back dramatically and spent several years rebuilding a nest egg. This is a common pattern, says Hunt, even for those not facing a hefty investment, because spouses often have different "money personalities." When spenders marry savers, conflict is inevitable unless the pair works out a financial plan. With Hunt's deep Christian sensibility, she presents the "10-10-80" plan: giving 10% of one's income to charity, paying oneself 10% and living on the remaining 80%. Following this strategy can be liberating and prevent most major financial crises, writes Hunt. She offers an array of useful, though not original, budgeting basics, from living frugally to borrowing smartly. While the information is helpful, Hunt's religious and generally old-fashioned attitudes aren't for everyone. For example, she advises men to make deposits in their wives' "Love Bank" by "bring[ing] her little presents for no particular reason" and "put[ting] the toilet seat in the down position. Every time." Hunt also offers "A Call to Faithfulness" chapter. Given the abundance of books on this topic, Hunt's will be best appreciated by her existing fans.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From the Back Cover

ìMary Hunt is one of the countryís leading experts on getting out of debt.î

Biography magazine ìHuntís upbeat attitude doesnít come across as a lecture, and she makes it clear sheís not denying herself simple pleasures.î

Los Angeles Times Financial disharmony can blow a marriage apart. But financial harmony can bind it together. No matter what your financial situation looks like right now, you and your spouse can take steps toward being debt-free-and strengthen your marriage in the process. In this highly practical book, Mary Hunt helps you bring the principles of intimacy, the foundation for harmony and debt-free living, into money management. These principles include acceptance, freedom, safety, and honesty, creating an atmosphere that unifies two lives into one. Debt-Proof Your Marriage is packed with real-life advice, sprinkled with humor, that will renew your hope and determination. It covers everything you need for managing your money in harmony, including the ì80 percent solution,î forty places to find money (that you didnít know you had), how to reconcile different money behaviors and beliefs, and much more. Reading this book will empower you to take care of the present, clean up the past, and prepare for a successful, debt-free future. Most importantly, it will empower you to live debt-free-protecting your marriage, your money, and your peace of mind! Mary Hunt is founder and publisher of Cheapskate Monthlyô, which has 35,000 print subscribers and an average of 800,000 web site hits per month. Her books have sold nearly a million copies and her daily newspaper column, Everyday Cheapskate, is syndicated through United Features. Hunt is also a weekly contributor to KNBC-TV Midday Report in Los Angeles and has been featured in magazines such as Womanís Day, Family Circle, and HomeLife. She speaks widely on personal finance and has participated in shows such as Oprah, Good Morning America, The OíReilly Factor, and Focus on the Family. She and her husband live in Paramount, California.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 278 pages
• Publisher: Revell (August 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 080071847X
• ISBN-13: 978-0800718473
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.3 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (27 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,146,268 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Debt-Proof Living founder Mary Hunt has authored 18 books on money management and becoming debt-free. Her nationally-syndicated newspaper column, "Everyday Cheapskate," appears in newspapers across the country and is also distributed electronically to opted-in subscribers every weekday. She is the money editor at Woman's Day magazine and is a regular guest on national radio and television shows.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars How to get financially naked, July 24, 2006

By 

David A. Baer (Indianapolis, IN USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Debt-Proof Your Marriage: How to Achieve Financial Harmony (Debt-Proof Living) (Paperback)

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.

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars save your money and your marriage, April 25, 2004

By 

Larry Hehn "Christian in the Rough" (Toronto, ON Canada) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Debt-Proof Your Marriage: How to Achieve Financial Harmony with Coupons (Hardcover)

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

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars I love this book!, May 6, 2004

By A Customer

This review is from: Debt-Proof Your Marriage: How to Achieve Financial Harmony with Coupons (Hardcover)

I have just started reading this book, but feel that it was written for my husband and me. I love it and wish I could take a day off work and just read it. I am already planning to buy this book to give as a wedding gift. I wish my husband and I had had it when we got married. What a lot of grief it would have saved us.