Getting married at the young age of 19, straight out of the house doesn’t give you enough time to accumulate debt. But, it happens.

I didn’t have the best fiscal responsibility in my upbringing. Mom and Dad were loving and spoiled me rotten, but when it came to finances, I pretty much got whatever I wanted. I was one of the only kids to get a brand new car upon graduation. Yes, I was sort of spoiled. Although, I did have to pay for my own insurance in high school. Even though I groaned the entire time, I plan to do this with my kids because it did help me with budgeting.

I was responsible.

Paul and I were married just a few months before I turned 20. We had been dating for several years, so marriage was the next logical step. Of course, we were in love so that obviously mattered (=:. When we first married, we purchased a mobile home so the payments were not expensive (making this purchase wasn’t the best financial move either). As a matter of fact, our car payment was more. Looking back, both were extremely BAD financial moves for us to get into (Dave Ramsey would totally agree).

Because we dated so long, we knew starting a family was the next step for us. And, getting pregnant happened pretty quick. As in 4-months post-wedding quick. We announced our pregnancy that Thanksgiving. We were excited beyond belief!

So, with love and marriage marriage, we already had two financial mistakes that weren’t too horrible. Little did we know how much one of those decisions would end up costing us down the road.

It can only get better, right? Well…

Photo Credit ^[1]