Happy Friday!
This week has felt really slow for some reason. It’s probably because I’m working at the office again and getting back into the swing of things. I worked remotely for five weeks while Chris recovered from his kidney transplant surgery. Since he was cleared to drive last week, he is taking himself to the doctor now and I have gone back to work. One adjustment is that I’ve had to trust Chris will ask all of my questions at the doctor even though I’m not physically there with him. I’m happy to report that he passed Week 1 and got all of the information I’ve been requesting. Good husband!
Some positive news from this week is that Chris’ labwork continues to be stable. That is a huge relief! The doctor also told him he can start doing light work outs and he should be able to go back to work in 2 or 3 weeks if things continue to go well. Yay! Life is slowly returning to “normal” or our new normal as I like to call it.
Another very exciting thing that happened this week is…
WE PAID OFF MY CAR!
And we paid it off early I should add. We are so excited!
I bought my car brand new a few years ago. I had my heart set on a Jeep Grand Cherokee and that is exactly what I got, complete with a few upgrades such as a sunroof, leather seats, and seat warmers.
These are pictures I took when I bought my car. I love my car as much today as the day I bought it. And I have a feeling I’ll love it even more now that we don’t have a payment on it! Woo hoo!
Chris and I were gifted Dave Ramsey’s Financial Peace University at the beginning of the year and that’s what started us on this journey and led to paying off my car early. We felt like we were doing good with our finances but there’s always room for improvement, so we dived right into the classes. They totally changed how we look at our money. There was more room for improvement than we thought.
We immediately got to work on the baby steps. If you’ve read any of Dave Ramsey’s books or taken FPU then you know what I’m talking about. If you haven’t, the baby steps are the 7 steps that will lead you out debt and stress and onto financial freedom.
Step 1 is to have a beginner emergency fund. We already had some money in savings, so that became our emergency fund and we got started on step 2 which is paying off debt. Chris and I had what I would consider to be somewhat “normal” debt. We each had a credit card, we financed our furniture and fridge when we bought our house, and we had car payments and student loans. What we didn’t realize is how much those payments totaled up to each month until we sat down and added everything up. Right away we realized why paying off debt is step 2.
Since January Chris and I have done a budget every month where we plan out where all of our money is going. Every month we put any money we can spare towards debt. And guess what? It’s working! The first month we did our budget we had enough money to pay off our fridge. There went one monthly payment. Since then we have paid off all of our debt except for car payments and student loans. Each time we pay something off it is such a great feeling! Now we are onto paying off the “big ticket” items, which is why it’s so exciting that we paid off my car this week!
This process has already given us so much financial freedom, much more than we expected that’s for sure. Chris and I have two trips booked for next year, one of which is a splurge trip, and we are able to pay for both of them in cash. We were so excited when we sat down and crunched numbers and realized that all of our hard work is paying off. We can take nice vacations and not worry about how to pay for them. We don’t have to decide whether to go on a trip or stay home because money is too tight. It is such a nice feeling and we are so proud of ourselves!
I say all of this because it truly is an amazing feeling to not worry about finances. Even though money is a “taboo” topic and not many people talk about it, a few of my friends and I talk openly about money and I realized how many people are on some sort of financial journey. It’s not just me and Chris, it’s people everywhere. And it’s always nice to have that extra support. One of my friends and I talk about our budgets every month and we celebrate with each other when one of us pays something off. We brainstorm how to save money and share tips with each other. It’s great! So I guess I’m hoping that’s what this blog post will be for someone. A way of celebrating how far we’ve all come on our journeys and how it really is possible to get to a place of financial freedom.
I LOVE this topic! We got ???? out of debt about 7 years ago and have stayed out. It’s such a huge blessing and I love to see others taking steps toward that freedom. Dave Ramsey was very helpful for us on our journey and we still apply a lot of those principles. You guys rock on!!
I love this topic too! It is so awesome connecting with like-minded people on this journey!
Amanda I follow Dave Ramsey as well. He’s awesome. I wish you the best on living like no one else, so later you can live like no one else.
Thank you! I can’t wait until we can live like no one else because of our hard work right now living like no one else!