marriage

What I’ve Learned About Marriage From Buying a House – Part 6

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“You have to be patient.” I didn’t like hearing that advice as a child and I’m not a big fan of it as an adult. It’s difficult to be patient. If you don’t believe it, check out the video The Marshmallow Experiment.

We’re one week away from moving into a new house. We still have some packing to do, but we’re so close it’s hard to be patient. There are things we want to do, but we can’t because we’re not there yet. We have to be patient.

What I’ve learned about marriage from buying a house is there are times in marriage when you know what you want, but you’re not there yet and you have to be patient. For example…

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What I’ve Learned About Marriage From Buying a House – Part 5

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“You’re not done yet.” This is what I’ve been telling myself lately. We’re very close to moving into a new home, and I’m sure some of you are tired of hearing this continuing saga. I’m with you. I’m tired of living it. Still, this experience keeps teaching me things about about marriage…especially this week.

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What I’ve Learned About Marriage From Buying a House – Part 4

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Let me just cut to the chase here. One of the things I’ve learned from this house buying experience is that if you want to get from the house you have to the house you want…it’s going to cost you.

Certainly there’s the cost of the new mortgage, but there’s also expenses like fees, repairs to your current house, appliances for the new house, and moving expenses. Then there’s the amount of time and energy you have to spend. All this can easily cause you to loose site of the ultimate goal…to get to a better place.

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What I’ve Learned About Marriage From Buying a House – Part 3

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Have you ever had a total stranger hand you a list of things they believed needed to be changed about something really personal to you? That’s what a home inspection list is.

I niavely thought it would be smooth sailing after the contract was signed. After all, we had a buyer who wanted the house enough to sign a contract. “We’re there!” I thought. But there was more for me to learn.

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What I’ve Learned About Marriage From Buying a House – Part 2

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Remember the first time you saw your spouse’s eyes light up? Maybe it was the first time you gave them a special gift or picked them up unexpectedly. Maybe it was when you got engaged or when you saw each other on your wedding day. Maybe it was the first holiday you spent together. Maybe it was when you found out you were having a baby or when you got your first glimpse of that baby.

Now, when’s the last time you saw your spouse’s eye light up? If it’s been a while, maybe you should ask yourself why it’s been that long.

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What I’ve Learned About Marriage From Buying a House – Part 1

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My wife and I are in the process of selling our current house and buying a new one. (It’s a big deal to us since it’s probably the last house we’ll own before our kids put us in the nursing home.) It’s a daunting process. Since we’ve been in our current house for twenty years, the process of selling it and buying another feels a little overwhelming.

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Counting Pennies

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stack of penniesIn some marriages, “counting pennies” means being very frugal and saving every penny you get. But in other marriages, “counting pennies” means turning over sofa cushions to find enough change to get the bills paid.

I looked back over the last year of blog posts and realized I have not written any posts on marriage and money management. Maybe that’s because, unlike other areas of marriage that come fairly easy, money management is an area of marriage that’s never really come natural to me. (My wife is the financial strength in our marriage.)

Don’t get me wrong, we’ve always been able to pay our bills, meet our obligations, and even save some money, but it just doesn’t come as natural as other things.

I remember where we really started to learn about managing money.

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What’s A Good Marriage Look Like?

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Depositphotos_19059467_xsWhat’s a good marriage look like? Even if we don’t ask this question out loud, we all wonder what a good marriage really looks like. Maybe you have your own ideas about what a good marriage looks like. When you think about a good marriage, maybe you picture a husband and wife…

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