I am so close, I can taste it

[missmanny]

As you can see from my signature I have only two debts left to pay off before I am completely debt free, when I first started my journey 10 months ago I was just under $14000 in debt. Due to my Christmas Bonus and cutting all of my expenses back to the bone and adjusting my bad habits and selling most of my worldly possessions – it also helped that during this time I increased my income by about $25, 000 per year I have managed to pay down over $10, 000 in debt.

I am down to the last $3800 in debt to get rid of. Tomorrow when I get paid I will be able to put $800 towards that – leaving only $3000 remaining and later this week I am expecting my tax return in my account of $2229 after I apply that to my debt as well there will only be $800 left to pay that I will be able to knock out next pay packet in two weeks time.

Then I will be completely and utterly debt free – To be honest after spending so much time and effort getting to this point I can’t imagine how it will even feel once I get there and I am now getting myself to think seriously about how I will approach things once this debt is paid off. Otherwise I am scared that I will just continue to float through life and will end up in the same situation I was in 10 months ago.

I have already decided that the $800 a fortnight that I put towards my debt will go straight into savings – I plan to fully fund my emergency fund to 6 months of expenses which will take me about 3 months and then after that I will have to seriously think about what else I will save for. Probably a house and a wedding (I have refused to marry my partner of 4 years until I can enter the union with no debt to tie us down with and until I have proven to myself that I can be sensible with money – he is a saver and I am a spender – My parents fought about money and I refuse to have financial woes in our life together that could be helped if only I could control my spending) So now I am free to pursue our life together he can’t wait until I tell him that the last one is gone, it will be such a shock for him because I haven’t mentioned it for a couple of months and so he will not think that it could have been gone so soon!

I have to thank my frugal family here for being the driving force behind this transformation of my finances. I don’t post that often but I do come here almost every day for inspiration and ideas.

Thank you all!

[cissylu]

I`m so proud of you! you have done great all that har work paid off. congrat`s!

[JessieMom]

What a great accomplishment!

[FrugalMomof3]

I am proud of you! Keep up the GREAT work

[Russ]

Inspiring!

[Frugal Nurse]

OMG! I can taste it for you!!!
It's delicious ! isn't it?

Great job!
and thanks for the inspiration!
People need to know that it's possible to do.

[Greebo]

That is an awesome story and very inspiring!

To cite Dave Ramsey again - what he would recommend after the BEF becomes a FFEF is to do the next three steps at the same time:
1) 15% towards retirement investments (401k, roth ira)
2) Save for kids education (if kids are a factor)
3) Pay off house or save for house

Since a wedding is in the cards, however, you might want to snowball save for that before you move on to investing and house.

[Marie78]

You have done a great job, I am so excited for you .

[Jessesbride]

CONGRATS!!!!!!!!!!!!! I'm sooo excited for you! BOTH of you! I know that your hardwork has finally paid off & that you will continue to do well... just remember to plan, plan, plan! YIPPPEEEE~! That's got to be such a GREAT feeling!

Kim

[missmanny]

Thanks for your thoughts Greebo,

I am in australia so through out this whole time my retirement savings have been compuslorally being paid by my employer - I work for the government and contribute 5% of my wage (as required by the legislation I am employed under) and the employer kicks in the rest that takes it to 12.5% once the EF is fully funded in a few months I will increase my contribution by another 5% to take it well over the 15% figure. thats to the tax office, I can do this and take it from pre tax dollars so that I have a lower taxable income, also the federal government will kick in 50c for each dollar I contribute up to $1500 so that is like $1500 for free every year!

Here in australia we have compulsory Super annuation all employers are required to pay at least 9% of an employees gross income into a super fund (similar to your 401(k)'s ) I am lucky as I am a govt employee I get a bit more. Once you get to 60 you can get all of your money with out having to pay any tax on it, generally people get it paid in weekly installments like a wage although you can roll it over and use the money for what ever you like, you do have to pay tax on any interest it earns once you have it out of your super account.

I am 28 so hopefully by the time I am ready to retire this will have had a chance to grow a fair bit - at the moment I have about $40K but every year as I earn more it just grows and grows.

Being is australia though is also a bit less lucky in other ways, our interest rates are at about 9.5% for housing loans and in my city I would be hard pressed to buy a house for less the $400K - a unit or town house could be less (probably about $300K plus) although we will probably end up living further out of town in a dumpy place that we can renovate that will hopefully cost less the $300K

I will get there eventually though, I won't have a big wedding so it won't cost a lot, I am more interested in the marriage rather then the wedding. - the honey moon however will be a different story, we would love to travel and see some of the world before we settle down.

I'll tell you one thing, the sacrifices I have made and my new mindset has tought me that I will never get in over my head again!

[suebeehoney]

I noticed your debt paydown in your signature before - I was SO impressed, and still am! You are doing a great job.

Please keep us posted on your progress - we're all pulling for you!

[MomToTwoBoys]

missmammy, that's fantastic! DH and I are looking at knocking a little over $9k worth of debt out of the ballpark and I can say that your story's pretty much inspired me to go at all my debt in full force and not give up. Thank you.

[missmanny]

I'm glad is I can provide even a little bit of inspiration as others have done,

truth be told, my debt was all in relation to bad decisions and uncontrollable spending, for the most part all I had to do was make a decision not to charge any thing else and to realise that I could have things only once I could afford them, I wasn't entitled to things I had to earn them.

I have no kids or mortgages or thankfully and emergencies that crippled me while I was doing this.

So once I slapped myself it was pretty easy to whip myself into shape.

This village has helped me so much and I'm sure will continue to do so once it is all gone and I need pointers on what to do next.

I have thanked every one individually for their comments and crogratulation, but I want to thank every one again for their support.

[Bethany]

That's wonderful. I am so happy for you.

[lovestoread]

Congratulations!!!!!! You are so smart to do this before being married and having a family!!!!!!