After the bells come the bills

After the wedding bells stop ringing bills starts flowing. Many newlyweds find themselves drowning in debt, unpaid bills and loans. This puts unnecessary pressure on a relationship and it makes most people tense and touchy. Jacob Mfizi is a 46-year-old business man and father of three who said he lavishly spent all his money on his wedding day. As if that wasn’t dicey enough, he acquired two huge bank loans, borrowed from friends and family.“My wedding day was a success, but the following morning the landlady came to collect her rent money. Somewhere along the wedding preparations I totally forgot that I was in a rented house! I was given two weeks to pay the rent, I failed and I was practically thrown-out!” he recalls. Although wedding debts put extra pressure on newlyweds, they offer the opportunity for couples to exercise their ability to talk about money. Several couples plunge into wedding debts to impress but this doesn’t always have to be the case—it can be avoided. “Most people nowadays are showy, they do everything to impress!” said Micheal Karengera, the pastor of True Vine Church in Nyakabanda. “Just to ‘keep class’, they drain all their financial sources on their wedding day. Some go an extra mile and sell their assets like pieces of land just to make a classy wedding, all in the name of showing-off,” Karengera said. However, there’s a brighter side to wedding debts: Being in debt as newlyweds teaches you how to live on a budget. Living within your means helps you stay out of debt, get through the leaner times more easily and help your marriage. If you are planning to tie the knot soon but you are not financially muscular, you can still have a decent wedding and still manage to smile the following day—Debt free! martin.bishop18@yahoo.com