Something has happened to Mary Hunt since her 1999 publication on Debt-Free Living. Or perhaps it’s happened to her editor. Or perhaps a ghost writer has slipped into her life.
Regardless, the same passion and good sense is now expressed with a pleasant and flowing presentation that makes her medicine all the more bearable to the debt-laden patient.
Simply put, this lady can write!
Mary Hunt’s book about finances in marriage sparkles. She has taken conventional wisdom about marriage, gender differences, and biblical teaching about a generous Creator and woven it together with her trademark 10-10-80 approach to managing money (give 10%, save 10%, spend 80%). Revell has helped out by packaging a supremely attractive book (the colors, the spacing, the flawless editing …) at a decent price.
A major first section sports the title ‘Get Your Relationship Ready for Financial Harmony’. Hunt’s own story reveals that she knows how taxing financial stress and indebtedness often are on a marriage, so she’s chosen to invest significant pages reminding her readers of some basic gender patterns and communication skills. You’ll get a little bit of ‘Men are from Mars, Women from Venus …’ language in this section, but always winsomely packaged and with an awareness of how individuals vary.
Then it’s on to ‘How to Debt-Proof Your Marriage’, ten short chapters that present material Hunt has developed and presented elsewhere since the 1992 launch of her ‘Cheapskate’ business.
A third section (‘Unique Solutions for Common Dilemmas’) is almost an extended set of appendices, each valuable for reference or inspiration.
As a reader of a fair amount of material on debt and its effects on individuals and families, I have gravitated to Mary Hunt’s work as the steady best. Debt-Proof Your Marriage is her high watermark thus far.
Canter Bridge 
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