As of yesterday we've paid off everything but the house, woohooo!!!! Paid off $55,472.94 in 18 months and now the only thing we owe anyone is our little mortgage. Phew!!
How'd we do it? We followed the advice of Dave Ramsey (gotta give his plan kudos... you do the plan and it WORKS!). We lived on less than we brought in and everything else went to debt. We cut the lifestyle. We sold some stuff. We said 'no' more. We ate at home more. We made due more. It's no secret how you get out of debt, this is all old news, you just got to make a decision to do it. And do it.
Our next goal is to save up 3 months of expenses, hoping to have it completed by May. We've upped the retirement, got life insurance in place, we're working on a will, will be starting a freedom account next month, and will start paying extra to principal hopefully starting May. Our daughter is starting college this fall and we don't have anything saved (good reason to start this stuff early, sure wish I had known then what I know now), so we're cash flowing her tuition, will just start a sinking fund for the expense.
And since I can't stop playing with the numbers, we're hoping to have the house paid off late '09. We'll be 37 and 38 years old.
Sorry to any of those who's already read this, hehe, but I'm just too excited and had to spread around the good news: it DOES work!! We aren't rich, we didn't hit the lotto, Ed McMahon didn't visit our home, we do not have finance degrees. We DID this stuff. You do this stuff it works, you don't do this stuff it doesn't work. If we can do it, us who've fallen many times and kept getting back up, if we can do it, YOU can do it!! :cheergrl:
How'd we do it? We followed the advice of Dave Ramsey (gotta give his plan kudos... you do the plan and it WORKS!). We lived on less than we brought in and everything else went to debt. We cut the lifestyle. We sold some stuff. We said 'no' more. We ate at home more. We made due more. It's no secret how you get out of debt, this is all old news, you just got to make a decision to do it. And do it.
Our next goal is to save up 3 months of expenses, hoping to have it completed by May. We've upped the retirement, got life insurance in place, we're working on a will, will be starting a freedom account next month, and will start paying extra to principal hopefully starting May. Our daughter is starting college this fall and we don't have anything saved (good reason to start this stuff early, sure wish I had known then what I know now), so we're cash flowing her tuition, will just start a sinking fund for the expense.
And since I can't stop playing with the numbers, we're hoping to have the house paid off late '09. We'll be 37 and 38 years old.
Sorry to any of those who's already read this, hehe, but I'm just too excited and had to spread around the good news: it DOES work!! We aren't rich, we didn't hit the lotto, Ed McMahon didn't visit our home, we do not have finance degrees. We DID this stuff. You do this stuff it works, you don't do this stuff it doesn't work. If we can do it, us who've fallen many times and kept getting back up, if we can do it, YOU can do it!! :cheergrl:
