Once that started happening like clockwork, I was able to relax and stopped being a naggy you-know-what. Our marriage wasn’t in danger, but this has definitely smoothed the edges.

Keep us posted as to your progress.
.-= neal@wealthpilgrim´s last blog ..How To Repair A Cheap Man – Save Your Money and Marriage =-.

Thank you, Kate.

Just to be clear, it was not 3 years total. It was three years from the time I came up with this plan.

Also, we were in unusual circumstances. We were both earning an income and we had no children at the time (we now have two boys). And it was a townhouse, not a detached house. So we had options not available to most people.

Still, it was a revelation to both of us to learn that that was an option for us. And it turned out that we really were able to achieve the freedom of living without a mortgage by being willing to be a little bit “cheap.”

A few years later, we needed to move to a detached house to have room for the boys. By that time the value of the townhouse had gone up enough that we were able to move to the detached house without having to pay anything and indeed to take about $40,000 out in cash (we were moving to a less expensive area)! Saving begets saving, freedom begets freedom.

Rob
.-= Rob Bennett´s last blog ..“Fixed Income Should Equal Age, BUT Adjusted Up or Down Depending on Valuations” =-.

Rob- amazing you paid off your mortgage in 3 years! Congrats.

Do you know if he is still this way?

The issue really only comes up when the couple disagree on what cheap means. You and your wife are on the same page…hence…no problem.

Nicely done Rob.

Being cheap just to be cheap really does strike me as miserly, which is smallness, narrowness. But I question whether those who say that they just like being cheap are not in truth motivated by some good reason (of which they are not aware). It may be that they fear financial destitution and automatically favor cheapness to avoid that. That’s a healthy reason (although it certainly is possible to get carried away with it, especially if you are not aware that that is the driver of your behavior).

I persuaded my wife to be cheap. Not through words. I did it by telling her that we could pay off the mortgage in three years. She said I was nuts (despite the numbers that I showed her — numbers often are not as persuasive as we would think they would be). She went along with the plan to humor me, and, when we really paid off the mortgage she became a believer. That experience helped her see how being cheap could lead to amazing life changes.

It’s about freedom. Every single person alive wants to be more free. Very few want to be more cheap. If we just substituted the word “freedom” every time we now advocate “cheapness,” we would win a lot more converts. And “freedom” is the more accurate word for what is achieved with “cheapness” when it is being practiced properly.

Rob
.-= Rob Bennett´s last blog ..“Fixed Income Should Equal Age, BUT Adjusted Up or Down Depending on Valuations” =-.