Do you remember this post from October? I briefly introduced you to The Total Money Makeover and I haven’t talked about it since. Well I’m here to tell you…
“WE’RE DEBT FREE!”
Wow! That felt good. Dave Ramsey always has people calling into his radio show sharing success stories and he has them yell “We’re Debt Free!”. We talk, eat, sleep, breathe and live The Total Money Makeover. Dave’s ideas may be simple and logical, but he has such a great simple plan of attack! We just wish we would have started when we were first married…
*Baby Step 1: $1000 to start an Emergency Fund – Done.
*Baby Step 2: Pay off debts – Done. The only debt we had was our cars {besides our mortgages}. So we sold them in November. That’s right, we decided we didn’t NEED 2 cars and we didn’t NEED our new car. So we got rid of them. It was so hard to get rid of our camry {we bought that car brand spankin’ new and loved it}. But we did it! We bought a used car – a 2003 toyota corolla, which we paid off in 6 months. We paid off approx. $18,000 of debt in 8 months!!! It feels oh so good. You should try it!
*Baby Step 3: Build your Emergency Fund (3-6 months of expenses) – Currently working on. Hoping to have this done in 6 months or less.
*Baby Step 4: Invest 15% of income into retirement funds
*Baby Step 5: Build college fund for children
*Baby Step 6: Pay off home mortgage
*Baby Step 7: Build wealth and give!
Yes, we’re only on Baby Step 3 but it usually takes people a couple years to get there. We did it in 8 months!!
So…what do we suggest?
1. Don’t use credit cards. If you do, pay them off every month. We’ve always lived by this motto!
2. Make a budget and stick to it. Dave Ramsey has great budgeting forms here that we use monthly.
3. Don’t go into debt for anything {except for MAYBE a house}. It’s our new goal. Pay cash/check for EVERYTHING including big ticket items, cars, etc. Debt isn’t worth it! If you want something, save up for it!
4. Don’t spend money you don’t need to. Make sacrifices. Be creative!
Check out Dave Ramsey’s site www.daveramsey.com or read his book The Total Money Makeover or listen to his radio show!
{Note: No, this is not a paid endorsement. I just love this and strongly believe that everyone should jump on board. So go try it. NOW. It’s seriously SO FUN!!!!! that’s not a joke}
5 comments:
And because of you guys . . . "we're debt free" too! I would have never known about The Total Money Makeover if you didn't post about it in October. And yes, it actually is fun to see how much money you can save. It's almost like an addiction, but it's a good addiction. PS - Good job on being debt free.
Wow! That is so impressive! Great job! Even though I don't think we'll be debt free on Rick's med school loans in a while, we could definitely use some of these tips in other areas. Thanks for passing this on, I'm going to have to check that book out! And your tips are great too-I need to start on some of those myself also!
I wish we could sell our house then we would be debt free too!
Could you tell me how you changed your title fonts?
OH my gosh!!! I love Dave Ramsey!!! We just took the class and are going strong on our debt snowball!!! It is an amazing financial plan!
Congratulations! That is a big achievement! You both must feel so good. Keep up the good work.
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