At the beginning of 2008, my wife and I were newly married, living in a house I “bought” with zero downpayment, carrying over $50,000 in combined school debt, paying on a car loan, and fresh off an international honeymoon we had purchased on a credit card. Our financial situation was a house of cards, ready to collapse from the slightest setback.

Fortunately, we had learned wise financial principles through a course we had taken in college, and we quickly put those into practice. In just a few years, we were debt free (with the exception of our mortgage), had built up a financial buffer against life’s curveballs, and were on our way to investing in our future.