(Rob clicking the mouse to make his final student loan payment!)
I still feel a bit funny sharing part of our finances with the blogger world. But, we are so excited about our commitment to live a debt-free life that we feel we ought to share our excitement with our readers to potentially encourage or inspire some of you that it can be done. And better yet, it should be done. There's such a freedom in not feeling bogged down because of our obligation to pay a debt to someone else.
We started our quest to become debt free on April 16th, 2009. We started off with $20,819.79 in debt which included a medical bill, an ambulance bill, Rob's student loans and my student loans.
Five months later we've been able to pay off all but my student loans and our debt total is now $14,072.15! The most exciting part is that now we're taking the monthly payments that we were paying on the ambulance bill and Rob's student loans and we've rolled that into what we're going to start paying on my loans. That, combined with any extra money that comes in (including the potential sale of our condo), and we're realistically looking at being completely debt-free outside of our mortgage far sooner than we had ever imagined could be possible!
I cannot even begin to explain the freedom we're beginning to feel. In case you're wondering, we're following the Dave Ramsey Plan, which is delightfully simple, yet profound. This should be evidenced by the fact that we've been able to pay down as much debt as we have in a few short months on an average salary. It's a beautiful thing! So now, we continue to trek on and put any penny we can scrape up into getting my loans payed off. Then we're going to do a happy dance! Okay, that's not part of Dave's baby steps, but you better bet I'm going to squeal with delight and start doing the happy dance!
2 comments:
Congratulations! It's a great feeling isn't it!? We've been following Dave Ramsey's plan for a while now, but we started with a LOT more debt then you! We have paid off about $25,000 in the last 2 years following his teaching for our finances. We will finish paying off one of Thad's student loans in January, and another medical bill in February. It is so freeing to see those bills go away!
It's an awesome feeling to know you're getting closer to $0 owed. Sharon and I have been working on paying off our car and student loans since we got married. The closer we get to 0 the richer we feel. Hang in there! It takes time, but God wants us all debt free, and by relying on Him, He'll make it happen!
Jack
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