Cheetah!
This month, my wife and I celebrated a long awaited milestone. With our tax return, we paid off the mini-van we bought before the second little girl was born. For the first time in our adult lives, we are debt free. We are financing a house next month, but, for a few weeks, we are completely unbound.
When I graduated from law school, I owed over $100,000 in student loans. When we got married, we were carrying about $12,000 in credit card debt between us. Straight out of school, of course, we bought two brand-new VW’s, because I was a lawyer and lawyers are supposed to get new cars when they graduate. We then traded one of those in on the mini-van.
We started a rigorous program of budgeting and discipline, guided by the very useful Dave Ramsey and Financial Peace ministries. God has blessed us richly with resources and opportunities. I praise my wife for her budgetary prowess and for teaching me much about the beauty of conservative spending, creative and free entertainment and for being a non-material girl.
Almost five years to the month after we began in earnest, we just finished retiring about $187,000 in principle, not counting payments on two houses in the meantime. That accounts for all the student loans, three cars, four credit cards and a loan from the parents.
Years ago, when we were in the throes of debt service, we fantasized about this moment. We imagined a grand trip to Europe on one month’s debt service. We imagined a gala party for family and friends. We imagined a furniture spending-spree to replace the college couches and hand-me-down stuff on which we still live. Instead, we hugged and kissed, prayed grateful prayers and sat down with our babies for a supper of left-overs, thrilled to be free.
The greatest effect of this rich and extravagant blessing is being able to take a pay cut to practice law for poor people, to bill no more time and to revel in Spring Break, Christmas Break and, lo and behold as I live and breathe, Summer Break.
Rejoice with us friends. Hallelujah.
When I graduated from law school, I owed over $100,000 in student loans. When we got married, we were carrying about $12,000 in credit card debt between us. Straight out of school, of course, we bought two brand-new VW’s, because I was a lawyer and lawyers are supposed to get new cars when they graduate. We then traded one of those in on the mini-van.
We started a rigorous program of budgeting and discipline, guided by the very useful Dave Ramsey and Financial Peace ministries. God has blessed us richly with resources and opportunities. I praise my wife for her budgetary prowess and for teaching me much about the beauty of conservative spending, creative and free entertainment and for being a non-material girl.
Almost five years to the month after we began in earnest, we just finished retiring about $187,000 in principle, not counting payments on two houses in the meantime. That accounts for all the student loans, three cars, four credit cards and a loan from the parents.
Years ago, when we were in the throes of debt service, we fantasized about this moment. We imagined a grand trip to Europe on one month’s debt service. We imagined a gala party for family and friends. We imagined a furniture spending-spree to replace the college couches and hand-me-down stuff on which we still live. Instead, we hugged and kissed, prayed grateful prayers and sat down with our babies for a supper of left-overs, thrilled to be free.
The greatest effect of this rich and extravagant blessing is being able to take a pay cut to practice law for poor people, to bill no more time and to revel in Spring Break, Christmas Break and, lo and behold as I live and breathe, Summer Break.
Rejoice with us friends. Hallelujah.
posted by JRB at 9:29 PM
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