Today, we are debt free!!! $34,000 paid off in 2 years - almost to the day! It was tough, but well worth it. We sent every bit of extra money we had to do it and in the end paid it off at an average of $1,400 per month! The student loan was tough to knock off...about $21,000, but she's gone for good now. 2 years ago, Kim dragged me to something called Financial Peace University. I thought I was better than that, after all I was a Finance major in college (oooh, big whoop). I knew it all about money (yeah right). Obviously, I was WRONG...we were over $30,000 in debt! Now 2 years later, we have NO car lease payments, NO student loan payments, and NO credit card debt! Just an affordable house payment and some utilities. And for emergencies (which a credit card used to be "necessary" for) we have our starter emergency fund which we will grow to a full emergency fund (6 months worth of living expenses) by this time next year. I guess this Financial Peace thing worked out pretty well...THANKS KIM - I love you!
A couple of the most important things Kim and I learned were that you not only have to budget, but you have to do it together - we tell our money where to go before we wonder where it went (this also eliminates money fights!). We also learned that you CANNOT buy happiness, you can only buy stuff - and stuff will NEVER make you truly happy. We also stopped convincing ourselves that we "deserved" something or that something was a "necessity" just because we wanted it! Lastly, we learned not to care what everyone else is doing (i.e. not caring about keeping up with the Jones').
Lastly, through this I realized my true calling was to coach people on personal finance (the dangers of credit cards, of car payments, and of debt, how to invest for retirement, how to buy insurance, what insurances to not to buy, and why giving is so important, etc.) Because of this I have decided that once we have finished the complete funding of our emergency fund, we will save some cash so I can become a Certified Financial Counselor - Then I can actually get paid to teach this stuff that I love! It looks like I'm not so "stupid" financially after all!
THANK YOU to those who supported us and encouraged us on this journey!
A couple of the most important things Kim and I learned were that you not only have to budget, but you have to do it together - we tell our money where to go before we wonder where it went (this also eliminates money fights!). We also learned that you CANNOT buy happiness, you can only buy stuff - and stuff will NEVER make you truly happy. We also stopped convincing ourselves that we "deserved" something or that something was a "necessity" just because we wanted it! Lastly, we learned not to care what everyone else is doing (i.e. not caring about keeping up with the Jones').
Lastly, through this I realized my true calling was to coach people on personal finance (the dangers of credit cards, of car payments, and of debt, how to invest for retirement, how to buy insurance, what insurances to not to buy, and why giving is so important, etc.) Because of this I have decided that once we have finished the complete funding of our emergency fund, we will save some cash so I can become a Certified Financial Counselor - Then I can actually get paid to teach this stuff that I love! It looks like I'm not so "stupid" financially after all!
THANK YOU to those who supported us and encouraged us on this journey!
6 comments:
Congratulations Kim & Eric!! I'm so proud of you guys. And insanely jealous!!
Congrats to you guys! I guess it can be done, huh? We have no where near $34,000 so I KNOW we can do it too. You guys are truly an inspiration! Now teach one of those Dave Ramsey classes for goodness sake, would ya? :)
Congratulations you guys! How wonderful you must feel! Definitely not stupid!
Congratulations !!!!! Love Mom Kobylak
CONGRATULATIONS ON YOUR ACHIEVEMENT! It takes a lot of discipline and hard work!
Hope you found a way to celebrate "debt free". Keep us posted on when you are going to be on Dave Ramsey's show!
I really love that you want to inspire others with your newfound techniques! :) Good luck!
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