Financial Stages that I have experienced.

Single with no children; “Caught up in the here and now life of the young, they give little thought to keeping financial records or making long-range goals.” I definitely can identify with Poduska’s description of single finances. I bought a fast car had a plethora of department store credit cards and if I wanted it I bought it. By the time I was preparing for marriage I had, including my car, over 10,000 dollars in debt. I also had a sweet car, amazing wardrobe and a lot of amazing shoes.

Married with no or young children; This stage can be broken into two stages before and after children. “Financial responsibilities and common financial mistakes are an integral part of both phases.” My fiance and I agree that starting a marriage with that much debt was not a great idea. The summer before I got married I moved home, got two jobs and poured all of my money into my debt. By the time our marriage came along all I had left was the debt from my amazing car. Both my husband and I worked and he went to school we didn’t have a lot of money to spend or time to spend money. Our first child came 16 months after we were married. I became a stay at home mom and we were living on beans, however, we thought we could afford to buy a house. After we bought the house we continued on with excessive debt with credit cards. I’m not sure why this happens but we just bought our fifth house and after buying a home for some reason we spend money. We have been back and forth, in and out of debt for 19 years. In my experience babies and toddlers are expensive because of diapering, clothing, and feeding but after that younger children, ages 3 to 9 are not a great financial burden. My children began piano and participating in sports at age 7 and that added to the financial responsibility but it was nothing compared to what was coming with teenagers.

When children become teenagers; “This stage requires increases in almost all categories of the family budget.” This statement has rung very true within our family. Food, clothing and “pampering” expenses once again escalate. Sports, driving, camps, private lessons, friends, entertainment and I could go on and on. Life becomes an endless array of I need money for this and that, some legitimate others not. I am so grateful that as they get older my husband became more advanced and educated in his career. We have three teenagers at home right now the second getting ready to drive, my husband is also now making more money than he ever has before. Grateful for the progression of life.

Reference

Poduska, B. (2000). Till Debt do us Part, (Chapter 2). Salt Lake City, Utah: Shadow Mountain.