We're Debt Free!

We have been following Dave Ramsey for the last three or so years and wish we would have found him twenty years ago.  I have listened to many couples either call into Dave’s radio show or visit him in person to share their debt free screams.  I have to admit that I get a lump in my throat and become a little misty eyed when I hear people share their accomplishments. 

Many people share the mental change they have made identifying “needs” versus “wants”, naming every dollar by creating budgets, holding budget meetings and becoming gazelle intense to accomplish their goal of not being a slave to a lender. 

Well I have to admit that Tracy has always been the saver and I have always been the spender in our family.  My spending temptation has always been cars and Tracy and I counted 20 of them in the last 32 years that I just had to have.  My thought was that if I could afford the minimum payment, I could afford the car….wrong!

I know that many of you reading this post are debt free as well and that is what attracts me to the RV lifestyle in particular. Not having a lot of stuff and only having those things which a person absolutely needs is a great way to live, especially to those of us who desire to yell that we are debt free.

Dave Ramsey walks followers through a series of seven “Baby Steps” which enable people to acquire their emergency fund, pay off debt using the Debt Snowball, save 3 to 6 months of expenses, invest 15% for retirement, fund their children’s education, pay off their house and live and give like no one else.

We started this process over three years ago and through God's blessings, I am happy to report that we too are debt free.  I would like to say that it was easy or that we found a shortcut to Dave’s process, but I can’t.  What I can say is that although we have sacrificed significantly over the last three years, Dave’s Baby Steps really work, I just wish that we had found them twenty years earlier. 

When Tracy and I went into our local credit union to pay off our home mortgage 16 years early, the teller said that no one had ever done that in his four years of employment and he wasn’t sure what to do.  We were glad that with a few phone calls that he figured it out and we were off to lunch to celebrate the accomplishment of our goal!

So although we won’t be joining those who shout “we are debt free” standing just outside Dave’s radio studio in Brentwood Tennessee, we will  be celebrating our new freedom by working on Baby Step Seven so that we can live and give like no one else in 2015 and beyond!