The Start That Stuck

Less than 40 days until my life is irreversibly altered forever. Noah was on the stinky, stuffy ark longer! Less than 40 days until an almost 3 year goal is met. Blood, sweat, and tears have been poured into an unbelievable feat, and in just over one month we will have achieved the unachievable (at least in the eyes of most of North America). 39 all too short days until a paradigm has been effectively shifted. What is all this fuss about about, you ask? At the end of February 2010, my husband and I will be DEBT FREE! That's right. No car payments, no more student loans, no credit cards (they've all been cut to pieces in a rather effective plasectomy), no consumer debt whatsoever. Visa eat your heart out!

This all began as one of my many beginnings and my husband Stuart and I had no idea this would be such a life altering process. Back in March of 2007, we were gifted tickets to a 5 hour talk on personal finance. Bleagh! Who would want to sit through that? Stuart's Aunt and Uncle asked us to join them, and since they had already bought the tickets, we decided not to turn them down. Instead of the drudgery we expected, we saw the most motivating, entertaining, and informative live event that either of us had ever attended: Dave Ramsey's Total Money Makeover Live. We watched and learned a new way of living.

After the event, Stuart and I went home and took a look at our finances for the first time. We were 23 years old, less than 6 months from getting married, working hourly retail jobs, and we were $73,000 in debt! We were appalled. We had never run the numbers, and we couldn't believe it. $10,000 on a credit card (because who doesn't have a credit card), $5,000 & $9,000 on two cars (because who doesn't have a car payment), $40,000+ in student loans (because who pays cash for school anymore), an over $4,000 in loans to family. And the sad thing was that this was the normal way our generation lives.

Item	Total Payoff
Haley's Private Loan	4366.00
Haley's Car	5000.00
Stuart's Car	9410.00
Credit Card	10000.00
Stuart's Student Loans	22365.57
Haley's Student Loans	17984.95
Debt to Mom	4200.00
TOTAL	73326.52

We said, "NO MORE!!!"

Within a week, we had cut up and canceled our credit card. The next week we pared down our budget as much as we could: no cable, no eating out, no movies, no unlimited phone plans. Within a month we sold our cars, and walked off the sales lot with two beaters with no payments. We said goodbye to almost $750 a month in car payments! We were on our way.

Over the next 3 years we focused all our energy on paying off debt. We worked extra jobs, we sold every expensive thing we owned, we had garage sales, we almost never went out for fun (it was a very boring 3 years). But it was worth every bit of it. We learned how to communicate with each other, how to live on a budget, how to plan ahead, and how to live with our families telling us we were crazy (even though they were still full of love and support)!

Looking back I don't think either one of us truly believed we could do it (at least I didn't), but we tried it and it stuck. Now we even volunteer our time at our church to bring this message of freedom to other families struggling with the need and desire to be free of debt. The mere thought of debt freedom brings tears to my eyes every time I try and wrap my head around it. I choke up knowing that my children will never know what it's like to have debt or to be a slave to payments. We will be debt free and we will be weird!

I dedicate this post to Stuart's Aunt & Uncle who unknowingly changed our family tree. Without their invite we would still be normal. Thank you also to my parents and Stuart's parents for being patient with us (most of the time) as we worked the process. Finally, thank you to Fr. Ram and the people of St. George Church for giving us the opportunity to pass along our story and all that we have learned on this journey. It is truly amazing to try something new and have it be such a blessing. Here to finally finishing a new beginning!