My husband and I have been saving 50 to 70% of our net income. I wrote about our story in a previous post. This radical approach on savings was not something we always saw eye to eye. I resisted. He kept giving me high-fives. Despite my resistance, we managed to achieve those high percentages. I was mad that his logic to spend less was always so convincing. I thought I was frugal. He took frugality to an extreme. Much of the frictions through the first half of our marriage revolved around this difference. Then my husband introduced me to the Rule of 72. He converted me to become a radical saver just like that!

When I Was in College

When I was 20-years-old I had most of life’s milestones planned. I was going to get married at age 25 (I was in a relationship), become a parent at 27, purchase a home at 35, pay off the mortgage at 65 and then retire. My future husband and I would be making combined $100,000 gross annual income. We would save $30,000 each year. I wasn’t thinking about savings in terms of percentage relative to my net income. I didn’t know the concepts of compound growth or inflation. I didn’t know how mortgages work or how payments were calculated. The daily stock market report was a foreign language to me. All in all, my knowledge of personal finance at the time was limited to being frugal, avoiding debt and socking money away into my savings account.

When I Met My Husband

When I met my husband, he was all about saving as much as possible. However, he only imposed this rule upon himself. He allowed me to make my own money decisions. Despite that, I noticed I was becoming more and more frugal. In hindsight, that change in behavior was not healthy for me. I became stingy spending money on my family and friends. I felt terrible. It didn’t take long before I started resenting my husband for his influence on me. Even though I struggled to understand my husband’s aggressive saving strategy, I continued to have faith in this man. He is a very intelligent and confident man. In the middle of my misery, I had the feeling that my husband was engineering a better life for us. I just needed to be patient. He kept updating me on our total net worth. I noticed the number going up each time. However, I was too bogged down with my own unhappiness that I couldn’t see the great work my husband was doing for us.

Three Years Into Our Marriage

Then, our income doubled once we moved to California and I started working. At that point, I thought my husband would loosen up a bit on spending. That wasn’t the case. He still wanted to save as much as possible. I started having real problems with him about this. I wasn’t opposed to saving for retirement, but not to the extent my husband was doing it. We had already built a good size nest egg relative to our ages. I just wanted us to maximize funding our retirement accounts (401(k)s and Roth IRAs) and spend the rest of our income on travel and entertainment. I wanted us to live a lifestyle like many of our friends. We are young. Our retirement years seemed so distant away.

Even though my husband reluctantly agreed, we still managed to save 60% of our net income in year 2013. His lack of desire to spend affected my spending. I didn’t want to travel without him. I hesitated booking luxurious lodging knowing well he wouldn’t have enjoyed the extra touches. I tried to behave like the frugal person he wanted me to be. He saw the disappointment in my eyes. He encouraged me to do what made me happy. I told myself he just said what he thought I wanted to hear. His heart would’ve said otherwise. And just like that I became angry at myself and frustrated with him. I didn’t understand why he was so future-oriented. He doubted social security benefits would still exist when we reach the traditional retirement age. He didn’t want to work until age 65. He didn’t like to spend. His words didn’t resonate with me other than the early retirement part. And we were already maxing the contribution limits to both our retirement accounts (those that we qualified for)!

[As I later learned, my husband continues to save so aggressively because he wants to put us in a financial position where he can be a stay-at-home dad. We have already reached this goal. This is financial freedom.]

From Resentment to Deep Gratitude

One day in January 2014 while out running, my husband asked if I knew about the Rule of 72. I didn’t. As my husband explained how the rule works, I became fascinated by the technique. By the end of our 4-miles run, the resentment I had toward my husband turned into deep gratitude. For the first time in a long time, I felt his real love for me. At one point in our marriage, we talked about our priorities and what made us the happiest. One of them was early retirement and another was frequent travel around the world. While my husband was working hard to give me the life I wanted, I was consumed by my immediate needs. My husband cares a lot about my happiness. I created many opportunities for him to become weak and just throw away his savings plan. Yes, we have both have suffered together over the years. However, that was short and temporary. The nest egg we have built is something we carry forward for the rest of our lives. From this perspective, the pains were worth it. Yes, my husband could have told me about the Rule of 72 early in our marriage. The thought never came across his mind until that day in January. He didn’t know I didn’t know about the rule. What’s the point beating ourselves up? Life is funny this way, isn’t it? Sometimes some things are so obvious in hindsight.  Nowadays, my husband and I are proud radical savers! In Part II of Rule of 72, I will discuss the beauty behind the math.

Readers, are you familiar with the Rule of 72? If so, how are you using this rule to help with your financial planning?

If you’re in a relationship, do you and your significant other always see eyes to eyes with your approach to savings?