Reply #5: You won the argument, sounds like.

[txlibdem]

My wife and I had a similar discussion in '05 when shopping for the house we are in now. I wanted a smaller house on 8 acres that needed a bit of work -- but we could have paid cash for it. My wife wanted a "complete turn key" and pretty this and that, in a subdivision. We argued for about a week but she wouldn't budge. She wanted to buy a house that was $80,000 MORE than the one we ended up getting at one point. I'm pretty sure that was her way of anti-bartering, and sometimes you have to pick your battles so I handed all the house decisions over to her. So the two of us are in a too big house and one illness or serious repair bill away from losing this house.

Fast forward to today, I'm unable to work due to a disability, she is working two jobs, 6 days a week, 12 hrs a day just to make ends meet. She recently told me that this whole mess is MY fault. Now that is either an amazing job of rewriting history. She racked up over $10,000 in credit cards and we had to refinance 2 years ago. We're never going to pay this house off; I feel it in my bones, the bank is going to own it and all our equity will go "poof" within 5 years. She's already drained out the "mad money" account and now the "safety net" account is gone as well. I think her credit card habit is going to cost us dearly.

Just take our crappy example as a congratulations on making the proper choice back then.