All consumer debt gone

[lillyb]

Congratulate us, the only thing we owe anyone for is our little mortgage. Woohoo!!!

Took us a year and half but we did it. It was no fun, let me tell you, but it was so worth it. Over 55k in consumer debt eliminated. For a year of that time our income was about in the 60k range, it's gone up to 80k towards the end.

WE'RE FREE!!!!!!!

Like others have mentioned, I've taken ideas from many different books. I've read quite a few of them and have used the ideas and principals in The Richest Man in Bablyon, The Total Money Makeover, The Automatic Millionaire, The Millionaire Next Door, The Wealthy Barber, Debt-Proof Living, and Sound Miind Investing. Some of the ideas are the same, and the ones I hear over and over are good enough to be repeated, well then they're good enough for me to do. Good advice doesn't change. (live on less than you make, pay yourself first, get out and avoid debt, automate, etc.)

Right now we're adding to our emergency fund. We've already upped retirement to 10% and hope to bring it up higher within the year. We're going to be able to pay cash for our child's college, which starts this year. I've set up autodrafts for sinking funds so we won't get caught in debt again. And finally we'll start hitting the extra principal on the mortgage before the year is out, we're hoping to have the house paid in 3 years. Imagine the investing power then, yeah!!!

Anyways, just a walking-talking-breathing-real-life person here who's walked the walk, we did this stuff, we sacrificed and got rid of the stupid payments and all we owe now is our little fixed rate mortgage. You CAN do this!! It does work!!

(meant to inspire and motivate, all the best!)

[jIM_Ohio]

congrats... you may want to review retirement planning before paying down mortgage or significantly investing in children's education.

Being debt free is a HUGE positive step. congrats again.

[baking23]

Excellent job! you deserve to be congratulated!

[PauletteGoddard]

Congratulations, LillyB!



How relieved and overjoyed you must be feeling right now!

[anonymous_saver]

Are you also contributing up to the max in your Roth IRA's? This is of primary importantce. Also, this is in addition to your 401(k) contributions.

If you want to post your take home pay and monthly expenses, we may be able to help you decide where your "extra" money should go.

Do you have a emergency fund, how much?

How old are you?

[disneysteve]

That's great. Congrats!

[thekid]

Congratulations! Your hard work and discipline are really paying off. Welcome to the wealth building side of the equation! You should be very proud of what you have accomplished.

[DayByDay]

Congratulations!

[Broken Arrow]

Congrats! I can't wait until I am as well. With any luck, it won't be long now....

[scfr]

Way to go!

[Bookie]

That's a real accomplishment and an inspiration to others. Congratulations are certainly in order.

[lieweheksie]

Well done- you should be proud of yourselves

[creditcardfree]

Congratulation lillyb!! You did great!!! Keep up the good work. So worth it, huh?

[Ima saver]

Wow , that is a lot to pay off in a short time!! Good for you!!

[fairy74]

woo hoo! Great job!

[Quynne]

That is AWESOME! I can't wait to post the same thing! YOu have made my day! I know I can defeat this monster.

[LivingAlmostLarge]

So in 18 months you paid almost $3k/month, you barely lived. What did you do? Sella car, downsize a house, or just live somewhere really cheap? What made it happen so fast?

[jodi]

Great job!

[lillyb]

Originally Posted by LivingAlmostLarge

So in 18 months you paid almost $3k/month, you barely lived. What did you do? Sella car, downsize a house, or just live somewhere really cheap? What made it happen so fast?

We did sell a few things which got rid of 14,000, the rest of it was all us. I guess you could say we didn't 'pay that amount down', but it is a choice to give up a toy or switch to a lesser, older vehicle, a choice that got us free sooner. A choice to give those up and get rid of the payments.

You know the drill, live on less than you make, etc. There was a few small bonuses in there, straight to debt it went. Sold a few household items, straight to debt it went. I read every book I could get my hands on about saving money, it was my life's mission there for a while. Bought thrift store clothing, and not much of that. It helps that we live in a really low COL area, we got by cheap, also helped by refi'ing the mortgage to a lower fixed interest rate getting away from the ARM we did have (the house was at 9.5% when we refi'd, yikes!). Cut bells and whistles on phone and cable, cooked at home along with buying in bulk and cooking from scratch, things you read every day. But we did it for 18 long months. Daughter has a job so paid for her own expenses. The hubby cut down firewood on his off days to save on heating costs. Christmas was almost completely homemade. Vacation was a weekend at a cheap state park. Stayed home more so the gas budget was pretty low. Everything adds up.

We got lucky with Murphy leaving us alone for most of it. And then the income went up to two incomes the last 4 months which really helped kick the last debt down really fast.

I still can't believe we actually did it!! Come on over... the waters nice!

[disneysteve]

Originally Posted by lillyb

You know the drill, live on less than you make, etc... Cut bells and whistles on phone and cable, cooked at home along with buying in bulk and cooking from scratch, things you read every day. But we did it for 18 long months. Daughter has a job so paid for her own expenses. The hubby cut down firewood on his off days to save on heating costs. Christmas was almost completely homemade. Vacation was a weekend at a cheap state park. Stayed home more so the gas budget was pretty low. Everything adds up.

This is what I really love about your post. We all make these suggestions all the time and I think some people scoff at them (does anybody say scoff anymore?) but we keep suggesting these things because they work and you've given one more case to prove it. Thanks and good luck.