Today's a big day! After 30 months and lots of intentional spending and saving, we are officially debt free! To celebrate, the ol' husband (who is taking a quasi vacation day today! Woot woot!) asked if he could write the Quick Takes...how could I say no?
1 Very surreal feeling being here. It’s like having our kids. You know the day is coming for so long and
all of a sudden it’s here. It’ll take
some time to fully wrap my head around this reality. We’ve fought for so long to get here.
1 In terms of work, we worked extremely hard to
get here. Definitely in the top 4 things
that I’ve had to give everything I had to accomplish. Up there with Marriage, Parenting, and
Engineering School.
1 Life definitely threw us lemons. The first month we started in this journey,
we owed $4,000 in taxes. So we had to
save up to pay it by April. Then, we had
to get a new humidifier. Then in April,
the basement flooded. Then July new
brakes. Also, there was a new air
conditioner. Also, a new water
heater. Also medical bills for 2 new
babies. However, we worked through it.
1 Any success we had I attribute it to my wife,
Mary. She had to sign up to be part of
all this and she worked the plan like a champ.
There were many bumps along the road but she was the key to our success. Especially towards the end and continuing to
work while pregnant with #3. (aww..this is Mary, how sweet was that!)
There was many times that I struggled along the
way. Many times I didn’t want to worry
about budgeting anymore, weekly grocery shopping, or continuing to throw thousands
of dollars at banks. But I kept my eyes
on the prize and I remembered what my reason for doing all this was. To be able to bring my wife home and be free
from payments (except the house) once we did that. Prayer got me through the really tough times.
What keeps me going now into the future is thinking
about legacy. I want to be the last one
to have to borrow money for any reason and my children will get to grow up not
knowing what debt is and how it can affect your life.
1 There’s no reason that everyone can’t be out of
debt. You just have to have a vision,
make a choice, create a plan, and execute it.
Of course there’s more to it, but it’s not an impossible feat. If we did it, anyone can do it. It’s not about the math. It’s about behavior and learning how to
control yourself and say “no” more often.
I believe that it could change the world.
For more Quick Takes, visit Conversion Diary!
Yippee! Happy Snoopy Dancing in the rain happening here in MA!!!!
ReplyDeleteCONGRATULATIONS!!!
What a great accomplishment and a wonderful testimony for your children and all of us out here in blog-land.
Thank you for sharing this moment and allowing us to celebrate with you.
Blessings
Karen
What a great accomplishment to you both! We are so very close ourselves - just the car and the house. Nothing like getting a car stolen to set you back. ;) I love the part about learning to say no - that's really what it is about for many of us, isn't it? do the hard work, plan things out, say no to things you want until you've saved the money to have it. For a credit card generation, that's hard to learn! Enjoy the celebration!!
ReplyDeleteThis is so awesome, completely in awe of what you guys have done in less than 3 years.
ReplyDeleteAaron, you and my husband would be the best of friends. You could sit together and create Excel sheet with budget items while sitting in a comfy chair reading financial reports :)
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