It’s no secret that plenty of people have debt, sometimes lots and lots of debt, prior to getting married. And if it is a secret, hopefully, it comes as no surprise to the person who is about to be affected by this debt as well. Regardless of when you find out about your significant other’s debt, the question stands, For Richer Or Poorer, Do You Take This Debt Too?
The current breakdown in the total owed by average US households carrying this type of debt is as follows:
- Credit Cards: $16,425
- Auto Loans: $29,058
- Student Loans: $50,868
- Mortgages: $180,018
Of course some people might have more debt than this and some people might have less than this or even other types of debt like medical bills.
And we were no exception. Before getting married we both dealt with auto loan debt and credit card debt. And one of us had student loan debt. Once we were married, one of us was debt free and the other was not. So what were we to do?
Kim’s Thoughts
Each of us paid off our credit debt prior to getting married. However, I still had my car loan left, which was originally around $12,000, while Omar had already paid off his car loan.
Luckily and thankfully to Omar’s dad, Omar was able to avoid student loan debt altogether. I, on the other hand, wasn’t so lucky. By the time I finished nursing school I had $36,500 in student loan debt.
After paying off my credit card debt I knew that some of my student loans would be next since I had decided that I would pay off my debts from smallest to largest. I did manage to pay some of them off before Omar and I got married. However, a big chunk of my student loans, as well as about half of my car loan, remained. I knew that even after we got married I would continue to pay off my debt. But, how did Omar feel about For Richer Or Poorer, Do You Take This Debt Too?
Omar’s Thoughts
For me, the answer was a resounding yes. There wasn’t a point in getting married if Kim and I weren’t all in on this adulting thing. Before we got married I was debt free and Kim had 48K in debt. It was a no brainer for me. Yes, I was “inheriting” 48K in debt but I was also getting a person who was dedicated to getting rid of it and dedicated to living without debt going forward.
Our Podcast Interview
For more details on our journey to becoming debt free as a married couple, check out, How Omar and Kim Broke Free From $48,000 of Debt, which is a Podcast interview that we did with Talaat and Tai of His And Her Money.
It’s the very first Podcast we’ve ever been featured on. We were thrilled when Talaat and Tai reached out to us, but as the days got closer and closer to our Skype interview… We were very nervous. Lol. But we quickly overcame that once we started talking to them and sharing our story. We hope you get a chance to check out the interview and enjoy it!
Love it and I love how Omar didn’t say, “Nah babe. That’s your degree, so your problem.” Lol. It would have been messed up, and 100% valid choice if he did choose to make it, but kudos to both of you for the decision to do it together. I’m sure in the long run, taking on the ‘burden’ with her helped with being able to pay off other debt you guys accumulated together faster.
Lol. I’m glad he didn’t say, “Nah babe,” neither! In the long run, it did help with being able to get out of debt faster so that we could move on to other goals. But we didn’t have any debt that we accumulated together, only the debt that I had before marriage. Once we decided to not go into debt for the wedding… the only thing we’ve gone into debt for has been our home.
My wife and I talked about my debt about a year before we got married since she was debt free. I had CC debt and student loan at the time. She pretty much motivated me to get out of it by our wedding by saying she would not be a happy camper for having that debt hover over us. So i knocked off my CC debt a few months before our wedding and wiped off my student loans a few months after our wedding by cashing out my brokerage account. These financial decisions was crucial because I have been debt-free since and trying to maintain a goal of being FI(financially independent).
Hey both of you are on a podcast? I gotta listen to it soon.
That’s great that y’all talked about it beforehand and she motivated you to pay off as much of it as you could before marriage. I paid off some of mines, but there was no way that I could have paid off all of it or even half of it (thanks to my student loans)! Lol. Yes, we were both interviewed on a podcast for by His and Her Money. It’s linked above in the blog post if you want to check it out!