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Dave & Brenda Kuster

Tackling Money Issues with Faith

We were best friends before we were lovers,” says Dave Kuster of life with Brenda. Lively communication has sustained their 20-year marriage. “We’re always able to talk about anything and everything,” says Brenda. Well, but there’s that one thing.

“We’ve got to talk about the ‘B’ word,” they say.

Budget looms large. They procrastinate reality. Dave describes money issues in gloomy terms: “carrying weight” and “the shadow of things.” They long for freedom from weight and shadow.

So when Financial Peace University came to St. Paul, Brenda eagerly signed up. “You what?” said Dave. “It’s for 13 weeks?”

For this deeply church-committed family, a course on money management would cap Sundays packed with choir rehearsals, teaching second-graders, volunteering in confirmation, getting teenagers to Sunday Night Live. Dave was anything but eager.

Dave and Brenda joined some 70 people that first night in February. “Okay, we’re not alone,” sighed Brenda. Dave laughed when person after person said, “I’m here because she/he signed us up. It’s a good idea but I don’t want to be here.”

But like a diet, Dave says, money management is something you have to start and then stick with it.

The dynamic speaker for this video-based series, Dave Ramsey describes the challenges of partnering in this life adventure. “The nerd and the free spirit” are Ramsey’s labels for personality clashes in handling money. Dave and Brenda laugh honestly about the traits they bring to their union:

Brenda: “Well, I think it will all work out in the end — or — I’m sweating every detail to the point of losing perspective.”

Dave: “I’m more laid back and easily distracted. Brenda thinks I should be more worried.”

Brenda: “I vacillate between panic and calm. A lot of women have a security gland. Money represents security for us. If that gland spasms in me, that tests Dave’s patience and flexibility.”

Sound familiar?

These are not extravagant people. They manage a household that includes three teenagers and Dave’s dad. They drive a 1997 van that has chocked up 140,000 miles. Brenda works full-time as a cardiovascular technician. After suffering a job loss in the wake of 9/11, Dave now works as an educational aide and elementary tutor — freeing him to be the more available parent.

The Kusters are confident that a money management course belongs in the church. After all, money was a big topic for Jesus. And communication about money gets right to the heart of the human predicament, values, and priorities.

“For us, our motivation is to get our own house in order so that we can go out and help others,” says Dave, letting his faith take the lead. Dave appreciates the FPU approach to tackling financial stress. You give charitably first, then you make a budget for the remainder. “That puts our values in perspective. It’s the way to make our money do what we want it to do.”

Brenda chimes in: “For me, I’ve been feeling a need to give more to the church. But in the past, if it’s not the water bill or the mortgage, giving can be the first thing to go. I want to be a better steward with the gifts God has given me. I don’t want to be wasteful. I want to give back from a secure base.”

It’s not easy. Managing money takes discipline. The Kusters aren’t quite there yet. But they have the hope of their Easter faith and new tools for tackling the “B” word.

On a recent Sunday in worship, Brenda scrawled the words of a sermon in the margin of her bulletin: “We don’t like to show our weakness. But when we admit our powerlessness, the faith begins. At your weakest moment, there you’ll find strength.”

They’ve taken the first step. They’ve acknowledged their weakness. Faith for a strong future is growing.

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"Calling isn't about a different life, but living life differently because of God's presence in our lives." ~Jack Fortin