My Journey to Freedom Debt

Marshall shares her story under the sponsorship LIFE Movement of debt, which aims to help people pay their debt . There is $ 2,000 of debt LIFE Scholarship recipient. LIFE encourages people taking personal financial responsibility and debt reduction is an important step to achieve this goal. -Editors

My journey of debt is not a personal trip but an adventure with my beautiful wife, Sarah, and our three beautiful children as Tatum, Caleb and Emma. I am 37 years old and married for 15 years. I went to different levels of debt since I was 17. I brought into our marriage and debt continued to aggravate the problem by accumulating additional debt. My debt problems have become our problems of debt, and we continued to live beyond our means.

This has been our history for the past 20 years. I moved my first debt, owing $ 3,000 on a 1987 Pontiac Firebird, the accumulation of more than $ 65,000 of debt in credit cards, auto loans, student loans and the family debts. In the past, we have made several efforts to get out of debt, but we have lacked focus and intensity. We also lacked discipline and never attempted to reconcile what we won with what we had. This includes our days a week to a month to life in the year. Every day a little worse than the last.

There was no hope. I felt a huge responsibility for jeopardizing the future of my family and mortgaging away tomorrow for a taste of satisfaction today. I could never see a day when we can retire, travel, pay cash for a vehicle, the owner made our house or finance in college. There was not a day we would know predictable financial freedom.

One of "Those" Days

I had a particularly memorable moment ago about 18 months. I remember having "one of those days" when things seemed to accumulate against me. I sat down to collect my thoughts and how we were going to get through another situation where money is abandoned before the end of the month. As I thought, my inner dialogue said, "Hey Marshal Look around Right now, you make more money than you have ever done and you still have the same old problems you had when you! were a kid in college broke! "I remember feeling somewhat stupid as I thought about the situation. I do not act on it right away and we continued to struggle along for about six weeks.

Shortly after, I met with some friends. They were discussing something that I had never considered. To put it simply, they borrow money. I did not think it was possible. After all, we have never been able to save money and I knew that our bills looked like. They suggested a book for me to read. As I read, I was floored. I did not know this way of life was possible. I tend to be skeptical, and I wanted more I pursued more books, six in all. Some of the books were based on faith and others not, but they all told the same story. It was the same thing my story and I'm ready to be debt free.

Get my wife on board

I might have been ready, but Sarah was not as convinced. She was understandably nervous, after all the debt is all we've ever known. It took a lot of discussions to decide that cut our credit cards was a good idea. We have cut and promised that the credit has no place in our future. This was a first for us, about our future in absolute terms. Suddenly our future was not a "date" dream; there was a specific date. In two years, we would be able to do "this" and in five years we could save enough to "it." We began to calculate when we would be debt free. It was so exciting and I remember crying with emotion.

We presented our plan and we started. We saved $ 1000 for emergencies. It took less than two weeks to put this money aside. It was the first time we ever designated the money for an emergency, and I suddenly understood why we do not need more credit cards. It is amazing how such a small amount of money could have a dramatic impact.

working our plan

It took about two months to pay the balance credit card first. It was a liberating experience, and I immediately closed the account. We continued on this path, the repayment of our car, another credit card and line of credit. The numbers almost do not stack. We were so focused and devote every extra penny for the repayment of debt. That's where we are today.

Yesterday, the final payment was made on our last credit card account is being closed. We still have about $ 25,000 in student loans and smaller family debts to repay. We are laser focused on our plan and safely on a path for those paid in December 2013. We can miss this, but it will not be much, and 2014 will be our year debt free.

I have not really allowed myself to dream about our debt free day again. I do not know when we get there, I'm ready for this challenge. I can not wait for the day we begin to save for retirement, the financing of an emergency fund of several months, saving for the college education of our children, and to start paying our mortgage. I do not know what happens beyond that, but I am very happy to know!

Lessons Learned

I would be remiss if I did not take the time to mention some other points. First, the most important lesson I learned on this trip is to say "no." This was an extremely powerful tool in our battle and debt spilled over to other parts of my life. I lost over forty pounds in not telling me.

He taught me to have more patience with Sarah and our children, which has strengthened our relationship. And it allowed me to enjoy my work more than ever! It allowed me to enjoy other people and generally have a brighter appearance to life. Our children have noticed the changes and it has a positive impact on the way they perceive finance. It is amazing how good decision making is contagious! Finally, I believe in all that God has placed people and events in my life which has influenced my decision and took me to this path. This short story does not cover all the details of our experience, but there are so many things that can not be explained as a coincidence. I can not tell this story without saying thank you to God.

I think my story does not seem very different from hundreds of other stories of freedom of debt. I agree with that. We won freedom beyond imagination and hope that our story can become a testimony for others to explore their own debt situation of and experience of the liberation of debt freedom.