The Beginning of Becoming Debt Free!

About 6 weeks ago, Ryan and I decided to tackle our debt.  The short story behind this decision was a conversation with some friends a few months earlier and their desire to get out of debt.  They recommended the book The Total Money Makeover by Dave Ramsey.  I had heard of Dave Ramsey before and put the idea of reading the book on the back burner.  Fast forward about 6 weeks later and Ryan and I were discussing money problems again.  And that's basically when we decided it was time to take control of our finances instead of letting our finances control us.

I never thought we had a debt problem.  We've never had credit card debt, ever.  We only have our student loans, 1 car payment, and the home equity line of credit.  I assumed most of the debt we carried was "acceptable" debt.  However, my perspective was turned upside down after reading the book. 

Ryan and I sat down mid-February and had a great and peaceful conversation regarding our finances.  We refocused our budget and found some opportunities to put money into our "debt snowball." It was really exciting to see that with some focus, or "gazelle intensity" as Ramsey calls it, we will debt free (except our house) much sooner than we ever thought possible.

Our goals are as follows:
CarMax - pay off by March 2015
Sallie Mae - pay off by June 2015
Line of Credit - pay off by April 2016
Citibank - pay off by October 2016
Aspire Resources - pay off by November 2018

Why are we doing this?  Basically we got sick and tired of being sick and tired (about finances).  I was often stressed and frustrated that we were living paycheck to paycheck.  We shouldn't have been strapped the way we were.  I hated discussing finances with Ryan because it was always a tense conversation and we never seemed to make any progress.  Another reason is because the Bible is explicit in that God does not like debt.  We are trying to get out of debt so that we are not enslaved to our debtors, but rather, we can give more freely to the advance of the Kindgom. 

In the years to come, there will be much sacrifice to attain our goal of becoming debt free.  However, we are willing to make these sacrifices in the short term so that we can live the way we want in the future.  As Ramsey says, "If you live like no one else, later you can live like no one else."

We've  closed our credit card accounts and cut up the credit cards.  It's real now!

Bye Bye Credit Cards!!!