Relationships, Speak Now or Forever Hold Your Peace

If you are in any kind of relationship, this book is a must have. It answers the questions, why didn’t your family, friends, and relatives warn you about what it takes to make a relationship work? The book covers issues regarding dating, marriage, children, disagreements, children, buying your first home, and much more.

A percentage of the profits on each book will be donated to the American Diabetes Association.

Below is a short excerpt from the book.

Buying a house probably deserves its own chapter, but since it usually comes before having a baby, I felt it belongs here. This is the biggest investment you will probably ever make, with the possible exception of your divorce, should that ever occur.
If you are ready to buy a house, you have probably put the obligatory 20% away for a down payment. For argument’s sake, let’s say you managed to somehow put away $50,000, which is an incredible feat, and will be enough to buy a house valued at about $250,000. For that price, depending on where you live, you should be able to find a nice first home to start a family. If things go well, in five or ten years your house will go up in value and you can move to a bigger home, but that is in the future.
Now you need to find a home in your price range that is near both your jobs, near good schools, and is in a young, kid-friendly neighborhood. Finding this home should not be very difficult, but you both need to like it, and that could take a little more effort.
Since neither of you have ever owned a house before, you hire a realtor in the area where you wish to move. She has lots of homes to show you which fills up your evenings and weekends for a while.

Congratulations, you are a homeowner! It is time to move all your things into your new home, but it turns out the home is much bigger than your apartment was, so now you have to buy more furniture, pictures and whatever turns a house into a home. You did, however, put all your money into the down payment and moving costs, so now that you have finally paid off the debt from your wedding, you can start over using your charge cards to furnish your new home.
The two of you have had a wonderful time furnishing your new home and are proud of what a great job you both have done. You saved on costs wherever you were able and kept the new credit card debt to about ten thousand dollars. The costs were worth it because your house looks perfect. As time goes on you realize looks can be deceiving. You are starting to discover certain problems you were not aware of during your inspection. Mostly minor items, like not all the sockets in the house work, some of the faucets leak, the dryer takes two hours per load to dry, the A/C makes funny noises, and other things that are part of being a homeowner. Not to worry, you still have room on your Visa card to get all these things fixed. I know you are starting to feel nervous about your financial situation with the new mortgage and the credit cards, but you really don’t need to worry about it yet. The real expenses don’t begin until the next chapter, when you have a baby.
Here is the bottom line: there is good and bad in the first few years of marriage, but nothing can prepare you for what is about to happen next. You have survived PMS, relatives, money issues, communication issues, and buying a house, but after making it through all this, you are about to get what you have always wanted, what you have been preparing for your whole life, what will make your marriage stronger than it ever was; it is time to have a baby.