Our Journey to Becoming Debt Free
I married a financially wise man. Tim didn’t bring any consumer debt into our marriage. The only debt he had was our house. We have been married for 10 years. During which time, we have managed to purchase two new used vehicles and pay for them within 2.5 years or less. I didn’t always appreciate the wisdom God has given my husband in this area. As a result, we had frequent money fights.
When we first married, I was a full-time high school Spanish teacher and Tim was (and still is) a full-time Senior IT Analyst. Our combined income was a good six figures. Our bills were paid. We went out whenever and wherever we chose. Life was good or so it seemed! The problem was I chose to ignore my, then $35,000 student loan debt. Whenever Tim tried to talk to me about it, I got very defensive. One day he had this crazy idea to pay it off, while we still had two full-time salaries. We agreed, whenever we decided to start having children, I would quit my job to become a stay-at-home mom, until our children were in school.
I vividly remember him saying, “Renee, I make enough money for both of us. We could easily live off my salary. We could pay your loans off within a year or two, using your salary.” You would think I would have been all for that, right? Wrong!!! I was very immature. I pitched a fit because I didn’t want to give up my shopping sprees and eating out. I felt I deserved certain luxuries because I worked hard. I wanted my disposable income and I wasn’t about to give it up to pay off my student loan debt. I wanted to pretend they did not exist. I didn’t even want people to mention student loans in my presence. Somehow, ignoring them made me feel better. I was suffering from a poor person’s mentality.
Once Tim saw how adamant I was about not paying them off, he relinquished and never approached me with that idea again. However, he did continue to bring it up. So life went on. We had our first child in April of 2009, our second in December of 2010 and our last in April of 2014. I quit my job, as planned, put my loans in deferment and became a stay-at-home mom. I even started a small teacher consultant business. Life seemed perfect but it wasn’t. The problem again was my student loan debt. While we were having babies the interest was accruing on them. I owed approximately $50,000. Financially, things were taking a turn for worse. Although, he always remained loving towards me, I felt so bad for not listening to Tim. There were days I just beat myself up mentally.
I started listening to Dave Ramsey’s radio show a few years ago. As I listened, I realized there were people in the same boat we were in that made less money. However, they had chosen to pay off their debt. I also realized many of the strategies Dave Ramsey teaches were strategies my husband and I were already implementing. We simply were not intense about paying off my student loans. I began to listen to Dave’s show day in and day out, until one day I began to have faith we could actually pay them off. It took me 9 years to believe we could pay off my student loans! Tim and I started listening to the show together. Finally, we decided to start following Dave’s financial plan. Let me tell you; it is 100% effective.
We started our journey to becoming debt free in September of 2016. Currently, we owe approximately $25,000 on my student loans. We have managed to wipe out almost $25,000 of debt in a year and five months. We’ve been on a strict budget, which is hard, but we are getting great results. Our goal is to be consumer debt free by the end of this year. God is giving us the strength to live like no one else now so later we can live and give like no one else. We know all things are possible with God.
Until my next post…….
“In all your ways acknowledge him and He will direct your path.” Proverbs 3:6
