Live: Finances

We've been hangin' with Dave this year ... Dave Ramsey that is. Have you heard of him? Well if not check out his website and see what he's all about. I heard Dave's name thrown around for the past year but never really sat down and listened to his program. It's all about getting out of debt and living a debt free life. He preaches a lot about religious aspects of living without debt which I don't buy in to but his advice is solid so I just overlook that part. 

About six months ago we got real serious about paying off our debt. It was mostly credit cards and some car loans and yes of course mortgages (yes plural, remember we are landlords) but it was still more than we could handle and we were drowning. We couldn't plan family vacations because our "budget" just wouldn't allow for it. Let's face it there wasn't much of a budget, we tried to sit down and plan it out but it just never worked. We sat down with our financial planner at Edward Jones and he said pay off our credit card debt and car loans and then we could talk about planning for the future. It seemed like everything was against us. Our debt was holding us back and we didn't want that anymore! I picked up Dave's book from the library, Total Money Makeover and read it cover to virtual cover and continued to read excerpts to my husband every other page. We decided to start following the Baby Steps as Dave calls them.

Awesome free printable from Jenny Collier

We've completed Step 1 (multiple times actually thanks to rental house repairs we had to make in November). We are working our way through Step 2 which is to pay off our debt (this does not include our mortgages) and I'm so excited to say that today I will be making my final payment on my credit card. Goodbye interest charges, goodbye monthly payment! We still have one car loan and one credit card to go but I feel like I can start to see the light at the end of the tunnel. 

I love listening to to the podcasts from Dave's radio show, IHeart.com has them all for free. They are full of good advice and inspiring stories. 

Here's to another step of completing my 2014 word: live
As Dave always says, "You have to live like no one else now so later you can live like no one else." Basically if you live on rice and beans like nobody else to get over your debt now, you can later live your life debt free like nobody else.