Cherie Lowe - Your Money, Your Marriage: The Secrets to Smart Finance, Spicy Romance, and Their Intimate Connection

Contents

Information about External Hyperlinks in this eBook

Please note that footnotes in this ebook may contain hyperlinks to external websites as part of bibliographic citations. These hyperlinks have not been activated by the publisher, who cannot verify the accuracy of these links beyond the date of publication.

Ebook Instructions

In this ebook edition, please use your devices note-taking function to record your thoughts wherever you see the bracketed instructions [Your Notes]. Use your devices highlighting function to record your response whenever you are asked to checkmark, circle, underline, or otherwise indicate your answer(s).

Money isnt easy. Marriage isnt easy. And when you combine the two, chaos is often the result. Your Money, Your Marriage will clear up the chaos, get you on the same page as your spouse, and most importantly, improve your relationship. Brian and Cherie Lowe do a great job of being vulnerable and transparent, while also providing you a treasure map to a successful marriage.

Peter Dunn, Pete the Planner, personal finance expert, USA Today columnist, radio and television personality

America is in a period of unprecedented darkness during which many married couples are struggling to survive. In such a moment, I cannot think of a more needed book than Your Money, Your Marriage. The Lowes offer a combination of inspiring principles and practical tools in a book that is superbly written. This book has the power to save your marriage if it is hurting or strengthen your marriage if it is healthy. If you long for a deepened intimacy and secure financial future, read this now. Its a flash of light in a dark world and comes to us not a moment too soon.

Jonathan Merritt, contributing writer for The Atlantic and author of Learning to Speak God from Scratch

Invest in your marriage by reading this book! Cherie and Brian offer smart strategies and practical tools through humorous storytelling.

Margaret Feinberg, author of Flourish

Speaking from personal experience, there is no bigger source of conflict for couples than money! I love how Brian and Cherie open up their lives to encourage and empower couples to get on the same page about money, and improve their intimacy in the process!

Ruth Soukup, New York Times bestselling author of Living Well, Spending Less and Unstuffed

This book is powerful because it combats the areas of marriage that are the most vulnerable. In the pages of this book lie incredible truths and practical wisdom that will surely help you transform your marriage and your finances to new levels of harmony.

Talaat and Tai McNeely, founders of His and Her Money

ZONDERVAN

Your Money, Your Marriage

Copyright 2018 by Brian Lowe and Cherie Lowe

Requests for information should be addressed to:

Zondervan, 3900 Sparks Dr. SE, Grand Rapids, Michigan 49546

Epub Edition August 2018 9780310351238

ISBN 978-0-310-35122-1 (softcover)

ISBN 978-0-310-35544-1 (audio)

ISBN 978-0-310-35123-8 (ebook)

All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from The Holy Bible, New International Version, NIV. Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide. www.Zondervan.com. The NIV and New International Version are trademarks registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office by Biblica, Inc.

Scripture quotations marked MSG are from The Message. Copyright by Eugene H. Peterson 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002. Used by permission of NavPress. All rights reserved. Represented by Tyndale House Publishers, Inc.

Any internet addresses (websites, blogs, etc.) and telephone numbers in this book are offered as a resource. They are not intended in any way to be or imply an endorsement by Zondervan, nor does Zondervan vouch for the content of these sites and numbers for the life of this book.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any meanselectronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, or any otherexcept for brief quotations in printed reviews, without the prior permission of the publisher.

Author is represented by The Christopher Ferebee Agency, www.christopherferebee.com.

Interior design: Denise Froehlich

First printing July 2018 / Printed in the United States of America

S ex and money.

We cant think of two things that make people go more absolutely crazy or feel more awkward. You only have to flip through People magazine, dive to cover your kids eyes during a movie preview, or even find yourselves bickering about overdraft fees and spending habits to confirm it.

Perhaps were just gluttons for punishment. Our first book, Slaying the Debt Dragon, shared our story of paying off over $127,000 in debt. Spilling our guts about exactly how we first racked up that much debt and then found our way to a financial happily ever after might have shocked some of our friends and family. For us, it was cathartic. Release and true freedom resulted from knowing our journey might help someone else who felt hopeless in their current state of personal finance.

In this book were taking things one step further and frankly talking about the strong connection between sex and moneyin our marriage and in yours. If you never contemplated the link between your finances and intimacy before, we can promise you they hold hands every single second of the day. Just think about the last fight you and your spouse had about money. Did it end in a night of hot passion? Um, yeah, thats a negative.

In a culture riddled with divorce, where the top reasons for ending it all involve, you guessed it, sex and money, how can a couple even pray to make it to until death do us part when couples really mean until debt do us part?

We have learned, however, that the better we manage money as a couple, the closer we draw together in other ways too (insert bow, chicka, wow, wow here since we clearly have the sense of humor of fifteen-year-olds). This led us to a big what-if dream.

What if we...

explained how couples can get on the same page about money?

opened an honest discussion about what its really like for husbands and wives to balance a household budget and stay married?

helped couples overcome that initial awkwardness of communicating about and managing money together?

shared our successes and mistakes to help other couples gain restored hope for both their finances and their relationships?

talked about how our attitudes toward spending, saving, games of comparison, and hopes for the future neatly mesh into how things work in every area of marriage?

pushed back against a culture that confuses desire with commitment and lust with marital intimacy?

Through our own experienceand through researchwe discovered that the way you approach your money spills over into every aspect of your marriage, including the bedroom. So we decided to explore that very concept with you and share a bit of our experience. Best of all, we mutually agreed to this crazy idea of lending both of our voices to this book, so you could get honest opinions and ideas from a husband and a wife who live this stuff every day. Were far from perfect people, but were always happy to open up our lives if it might encourage one person or enrich one marriage or change one financial relationshipproviding more intimacy and an abundant life.

Because of this unique format and style of authorship, well do our best to provide obvious road signs along the way. Some portions of the book we wrote together. We literally sat on the couch next to each otherworking in Google Docstaking no small amount of pleasure correcting each others grammar and inserting inappropriate comments, only to have them deleted by the other.