Once upon a time, not so very long ago, there lived a young woman of independent mind and independent means. She was diligent in her work and careful in her spending. Like so many young women in those days, she had taken out a mortgage to buy her own little house in which to live, and a loan to buy herself a little car, so that she could travel to work. She also had some savings kept by for a rainy day.
Which was a good thing because one rainy day, sheltering from an unexpected downpour at an open-air music event, she fell in love. Which changed everything.
Having finally found a suitable young man to settle down with, our young woman decided that she would not be like one of those frivolous young things who spend all their savings on a fabulous dress and a horrendously expensive honeymoon. Being a woman of independent mind and independent means, she decided that she would use all her savings, every last penny, to pay off her mortgage and her car loan. She was determined to enter into her new relationship debt-free.
The young man in question was also very hardworking and he too had a house and a car, a mortgage and a car loan, and some savings kept on one side for a rainy day. He was also a fairly good musician.
The young man decided, in order to support his new wife, he would not just work all day at his fairly good job. He would work in the evenings as well. He invested his savings in a better guitar, a new soundboard and a set of amplifiers, sold his car to buy a van and began to earn money doing the thing he loved best.
The day of the wedding came and so did the day after. And in the days and weeks that followed, the hardworking young groom was out all day, most evenings and sometimes into the night, building the career that would help him support his new family.
Meanwhile the frugal bride, who had given up her house and her car, all her savings and some of her dreams, so she could enter into her marriage debt-free was now a wife. And as a wife she was equally responsible for all the debts on the house they shared as well as the van, guitars and expensive music equipment.
This being a modern story, our hardworking young couple didn’t live happily ever after. Instead, all too soon they began spending what little they had on counsellors, life-coaches and, in due course, solicitors.
How frugal was that?
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