WE’RE GETTING OUT OF DEBT!
In the beginning of the year, I mentioned that one of my (actually Tobias’ and I) goals is to move toward getting out of debt. You can read all about the ‘why’ here, but I figured it would also be beneficial to share my journey with ya’ll. It would be great for us because it will hold us accountable, and it would be great for whoever it helps along the way.
I’m not sure if I’m ready to disclose the exact amount debt we are in just yet (thankfully under $100K, but unfortunately way over $20K. I know: that’s quite a range right there!), but I am willing share how we got our debt and fill in details as we journey along.
Here’s a breakdown of our debt in percentages:
About 80% is from student loans (with about 3/4 of that amount being my student loans)
About 15% is from medical bills (again, most of that is from me)
The other 5% is just from bad decisions (I signed up for a Tires Plus card when I was 19 to get a discount not knowing I was actually signing up for credit card; Toby has some things he owes on)
Thankfully we don’t have any credit card debt (other than that Tires Plus).
So how did we get on the bandwagon to want to take over our finances and tackle our debt? Our amazing friends invited us to take Dave Ramsey’s Financial Peace University with their church in April 2016 (thanks, Cervettis’!), and it was an eye opener. I had always had anxiety about our debt, but figured we’d just try to chip away at it for the rest of our lives. But once we took the course, Toby and I got so fired up! We got our emergency fund in place, started doing a monthly budget, began using the envelope method, and started tackling debt.
Then summer 2016 came, and got a bit relaxed on it. Then in November 2016, I found out I was pregnant, so we put the debt payment on pause and began to save up for the arrival of Eli.
So where are we now? Because I am a stay at home mom, and because we’ve had some big transitions and hard seasons come out way since finding out I was pregnant, we are back at building up our emergency fund (Dave Ramsey’s Baby Step #1). Once that’s in place, we can get back to knocking out our debt!
I am so excited for this journey! And even more excited now that I’ve put it out there for y’all to join in with us on this journey! To anyone who feels that there is no way to get out of debt, just know you CAN do it! It’s possible! And we can do it together if you’d like!
If anyone has gotten out of debt or is currently working to get out of debt, feel free to leave some tips and encouragement below. Let’s help each other out!