Love and Money (combining finances after marriage)

[00:19:47] Ron: I’m nervous just because of the way that we grew up. We had some really good times, and then we had some really bad times. So I never want to put us in any financial troubles. That’s why I am the way that I am.

[00:20:02] Ramit: The troubling times happened, what, in your teen years?

[00:20:06] Ron: Great school middle school. High school, we had real good and then real bad. My dad was a contractor, so we’d have a good year, then we’d have a bunch of really bad months, and so fluctuated.

[00:20:17] My dad was the only one that worked in the family, so when he wasn’t in a contract, 23 still had bills to pay, so we had to borrow money from family sometimes. We almost lost the house, but grandparents helped out with that. I’ve got two older brothers, mom, and dad. We didn’t do a lot when we were kids because we didn’t have the money. 

[00:20:44] We didn’t go on vacations. We didn’t go out to dinners. We still had a lot of fun because it was growing up in the 80s, but seeing the way that my parents fought about money or the lack of, I don’t want us to be like that. So those are things I just don’t want to have happen, and I would hate to ask for handouts from people.

[00:21:09] Ramit: Did you grow up in the Midwest?

[00:21:10] Ron: Yes, sir.

[00:21:11] Cristina: So whenever he said he was poor, he was cheap, he was this, not to diminish what he experienced because I get it, but it’s like, you don’t know war until you go in the Philippines. We were homeless at some point. I would have to beg neighbors for food, for dinner, so that our family could eat. That’s how poor we were. 

[00:21:36] Ramit: Do you think that there’s a way to be a sensible spender without being cheap?

[00:21:44] Ron: Yes, if we have a budget set aside for each of us for each month. We can only spend this amount. You can spend this amount. I can spend this amount. And if that’s the case, then she can go do whatever she wants to with it as long as we’re still saving at the same time.