Just like they yell on the Dave Ramsey show..."WE'RE DEBT FREE!!!!!!!!!!"
We were waiting for one more reimbursement check to come in. When it arrived, Husband emailed me at work and asked, "Do you want to be present when I push the button, or would you rather I just do it now?" I responded: "Do it now and email me the second it's done." Ten minutes later, I had an email with a screenshot and a ton of exclamation points. We were DEBT-FREE!
Truly, this felt like it would never come. My first debt blog post was in October of 2013. The list has changed as we have added some items to our debt (a bedroom renovation, a new air conditioner, and a new vehicle, to name a few). And it's ALL GONE.
Establish an emergency fund of $1000CHECKPay off Loan #1 - car. GOAL: Paid off by September 2013.CHECKPay off Loan #2 - credit card. GOAL: Paid off by Christmas 2013CHECKPay off Loan #3 - other car. GOAL: Paid off by end of school year, 2014 by end of summer, 2014 by February 2015CHECKPay off renovation - GOAL: Paid off by end of summer, 2015CHECKPay off Big Blue - GOAL: February 2016CHECKPay off LAST LOAN - Undergrad. GOAL: Paid off by August 2016 October 2016 January 2017CHECK CHECK CHECK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
As exciting as this is (very), this was rung 2 in a long ladder of climbing, if we want to stick with Dave Ramsey's plan. Here are the steps:
This means we don't just get to keep all we aren't spending on debt in our checking account for spending. It means we keep spending it...only THIS TIME, we are spending on our own savings account. It's going to be SO AWESOME!
We are doing one very un-Dave Ramsey-ish thing in celebration, however. When our 10th anniversary rolled around 3 years ago, we decided not to take the 10-year-anniversary trip we had been planning to take, and instead, save it for when we were out of debt. Welp, that's now! We are heading to Singapore and Indonesia this summer and we could not be more excited! Husband's aunt and uncle are missionaries in Singapore and they will be retiring this November, so this is really our last chance to go visit. We will spend a week with them, and then we will take a ferry across to Indonesia, where my cousin is a missionary. We will be the first family she's had in her twelve years there! We'll spend a week at Telunas, and then we will head back. Aside from the flights (which we actually got a pretty good deal on), this will be a pretty economical trip. We are staying with family so our lodging costs are covered. We will need to pay for food and some touristy-type things, but it really should be pretty affordable. And, at this point, 2/3rds of the trip is paid for, so just a little more saving, and we will have it. Then we will be gung-ho for baby step 3!
Establish an emergency fund of $1000Pay off all non-mortgage debt using the debt snowball method- Save 3-6 months' expenses
- Fund retirement
- Fund children's college funds
- Pay off your home early
- Build wealth and give
This means we don't just get to keep all we aren't spending on debt in our checking account for spending. It means we keep spending it...only THIS TIME, we are spending on our own savings account. It's going to be SO AWESOME!
We are doing one very un-Dave Ramsey-ish thing in celebration, however. When our 10th anniversary rolled around 3 years ago, we decided not to take the 10-year-anniversary trip we had been planning to take, and instead, save it for when we were out of debt. Welp, that's now! We are heading to Singapore and Indonesia this summer and we could not be more excited! Husband's aunt and uncle are missionaries in Singapore and they will be retiring this November, so this is really our last chance to go visit. We will spend a week with them, and then we will take a ferry across to Indonesia, where my cousin is a missionary. We will be the first family she's had in her twelve years there! We'll spend a week at Telunas, and then we will head back. Aside from the flights (which we actually got a pretty good deal on), this will be a pretty economical trip. We are staying with family so our lodging costs are covered. We will need to pay for food and some touristy-type things, but it really should be pretty affordable. And, at this point, 2/3rds of the trip is paid for, so just a little more saving, and we will have it. Then we will be gung-ho for baby step 3!
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