For those of you who don't know, my husband, Jon and I, have spent the last 3 years following the Dave Ramsey plan and paying off debt. IF you don't know this about me, then we must have not every spoken before, because this is a huge part of our lives.
Right now I am putting together stories and tips and an entire memoir of our journey over the past three years in paying of our 56k in debt. Re-living these moments and trying to put as much on paper as I can, to help anyone who is interested in reading, has been an emotional experience.
I remember the very beginning when I wanted to cry daily over the amount of bills that we had to pay each month. We had 10 debts alone and with living costs we were writing 15 check or so a month to pay all of them! Oh did I say "pay" all of them? I meant "stay current" so our credit wouldn't get dragged through the mud. We weren't getting ahead on anything and it got to a point where I couldn't even sit down to pay the bills without having a near nervous breakdown. Jon started doing it and I couldn't even discuss it with him because of how stressed and anxious it made me. I didn't even know what was getting paid or if it was getting paid!
Fast forward 3 years later and as we signed and sent our taxes out this year I have this weight lifted off of my shoulders. As soon as we get this money back from the government, we will write the final check to my student loan and be DEBT FREE (except our house, which we are selling)!!! Just thinking about this has me near tears. We have spent three years learning how to communicate about our money. Three years teaching our children how to manage money without borrowing. Three years of celebrations and set backs. Three years of checking off a huge list down to this one last debt to my college loan. Three years of feeling like things were happening fast just to hit a point where things got to a stand still. Three years of learning new ways to do everything and completely changing in our minds how we spend money. Three years of changes that will empower our children so they won't suffer the same debts and struggles that we did. Three years of feeling like "Yes we can do this!" and three years of feeling like "We are never going to get through this!." I cannot believe we are here. I cannot believe it!
Because we have paid off these debts and been diligent in doing so, making all kinds of sacrifices we couldn't imagine being able to make, so many great things have been awarded us. The best part is that WE are the reason we are able to do these things. For example, the debt may have been paid off a bit faster but I went PRN at work which means that we took about a 10k a year pay cut in our family. Never would have been able to do that, if we hadn't nixed all that debt in the first 2 years. We have only vehicles that are paid for and we paid for them all with cash, and we own three of them right now. We were able to purchase a camper, in cash. We were able to pay tuition to send Henry to Kindergarten. We were able to take vacations as a family that were minor but paid for in cash and have given us amazing memories. We are now able to put our home on the market and move to an area with better schools instead of being "stuck" here due to all of the money we owe.
This is why I am emotional. I want to cry tears of joy at how hard we have worked to change our future and our children's futures. I do NOT miss the debt. I do NOT want to cry because that step is over, but without the debt and the rock bottom, we never would have had this experience. We will NOT be those people who fall back into debt, because we have changed our old habits completely and changed our way of thinking. We appreciate necessity versus wants and we abide by them. We established new rules and new ways of communicating that we continue to heed, despite now being debt free. We are stronger than we have ever been. One of the most important lessons had to be that we have learned how to delay gratification while still getting everything we want and need.
Thanks to Dave Ramsey. Thanks to his show and his books. We spent 3 years being "weirdos" so we could get to this point where we can really start living and we couldn't have done it without The Total Money Makeover. We give him all the credit. Thank you to God for helping us get through some really tough times and helping us learn to communicate with each other to figure them out. This feeling is amazing. This crying amazing feeling is one I wish for anyone and everyone who feels trapped by debt. Get rid of it, be free of it and start living. Make your money work for you and realize it is not how much money you have. It is the time and your use of it, the quality of it, the time with your family that is most important.
I am in tears writing and sharing this. Amazing.
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