Despite being married and having an infant son, Karissa and Karl, who earn a combined income of $105,000 annually, largely see their lives as separate from each other. Beyond shared hobbies such as off-roading, they do other things separately, including spend. As such, Karl, in particular, sees Kari's debts as being her own, and his as being his own. Kari has no idea how big their debt is, so while Karl wants Kari to get her debt under control and pay it off, Kari does nothing to support that as a goal, especially while she was on her ten month maternity leave which has just concluded. However, Karl is no financial saint himself, he spending about as much as Kari, but on bigger ticket items, while Kari's spending is constant but on smaller items. Their combined consumer debt sits at $80,000. Their money problems have led to the discussion of possibly ending their three year marriage, Kari who feels Karl does not respect her in part as he is not one who displays affection easily. Gail first shows them that their financial responsibilities are joint as they were incurred while married, and shows them the realities of their broken family in divorce. If they are to stay together, Gail has to get them to: see what their spending is doing to unbalance their lives; see to where their money has gone and what they need to do to earn more money to pay off their debt in a timely manner; and come to an understanding of what they need to do in their day-to-day lives to support each other emotionally, which includes effective communication.
—Huggo