Mary was a “spender” and I was a “tight wad.” At least those were our thoughts and to be honest, sometimes our spoken words. If Mary had cash, there was something to purchase. If there was money left over at the end of the month, I thought it was there for only one reason, to save. This is how we operated for years into marriage until one day we discovered a morsel of revelation.

What if we could combine these two areas and have them actually become our strength in marriage rather than a point of contention? Mary is simply great at finding deals and I love to make sure we can save for future purchases of assets. It could be a win/win if we could just get it worked out. Not everything we need to purchase is an asset and Mary loved that form of shopping, e.g., kids cloths, groceries, gifts and home furnishings. I loved to pay extra on our home mortgage and save cash to purchase out next car rather than securing a loan.

Here is the revelation that we discovered and it may serve you also. Mary was more of a “giver” than simply a spender. She seemed to always see the needs of others and wanted to invest a gift or help with a need. On the other hand, I was not being a tight wad as much as I was attempting to “invest” in our future. It wasn’t saving for savings sake, but rather growing our financial wealth. We needed both of these areas united and rather than fighting and arguing we would pray and agree for the purchase of both necessary liabilities and assets.