Our Journey to Becoming Debt Free

When Trevor and I first got engaged, our mountain of debt seemed endless. We had just bought a house, a new Jeep Wrangler, financed our furniture for our house, and we both had numerous student loans. With all of our payments each month, we found ourselves living paycheck to paycheck basically. On top of that, we were somehow supposed to save money to pay for a wedding too. It was overwhelming, to say the least.

This was the point in our lives when we decided to quit our jobs and pursue travel nursing in hopes to explore the country, and really start knocking out some debt as well. We couldn't take living paycheck to paycheck with the occasional incidents of our debit cards being declined anymore (it happened more than once).

When we finally got back on our feet financially in New Mexico, I stumbled upon Dave Ramsey on Pinterest. I saw a picture outlining his "Baby Steps" to become debt free, and I was intrigued.

I read how Dave Ramsey recommends putting your debts in order of smallest to largest and knocking them out one by one. He refers to this as the "snowball method". I immediately put our debts in order and we started knocking the small ones out right away. Suddenly as we started crossing things off our list, our mountain of debt went from an impossible feat to an obtainable task.

Somewhere a few months later, Trevor's brother Clint started telling him about Dave Ramsey's book "Total Money Makeover" and told Trevor that he should read it. In that book, Dave outlines his baby steps in more detail and says exactly what you should do step by step to become debt free and on the road to someday becoming a millionaire. Trevor and I then became even more motivated to knock these debts out of the park.

Our debt snowball in the beginning looked like this:

1. Wells Fargo credit card ($500)

2. Synchrony Bank credit card for furniture ($2000)

3. UPMC ($2200) - I owed them money for leaving my job early after they gave me tuition assistance

4. Sallie Mae ($16,000)

5. Dad ($16,000)

6. My student loans ($22,000)

7. Jeep ($31,000)

8. Trevor's student loans ($33,000)

Total debt (not including our mortgage): $122,700

Overwhelming, right? Unfortunately, this is the amount of debt a lot of people in America are dealing with right now, and we are taught that this is normal. Thankfully, we have since paid off most of our debt and this is what our snowball looks like currently:

1. Wells Fargo credit card ($500)

2. Synchrony Bank credit card for furniture ($2000)

3. UPMC ($2200) 

4. Sallie Mae ($16,000)

5. Dad ($16,000)

6. My student loans ($1,400)

7. Jeep ($21,000)

8. Trevor's student loans ($28,000)

Total debt (not including our mortgage): $50,400

We've paid off $72,300 so far, plus paid for our wedding and honeymoon in cash, and recently put a new roof on our home in cash as well! I'm on track to have my student loans GONE by the end of this  month, and then we will be on to our final two items of our debt snowball. We currently are on track to become debt free (besides our house) by May, 2019.

Now, while we are pretty strict with our spending, we are still planning on taking a vacation this summer to Europe, and possibly remodeling our bathroom. This isn't exactly Dave Ramsey approved, because he recommends paying off debt "gazelle intense" by only eating rice and beans for a few years and avoiding any vacations. Basically anything to get rid of the debt as soon as possible. My reasoning with vacation is that once we have kids, we won't be able to travel like this. We are only young once, so I want to take advantage of it now. Also, in order to fund our vacations and home improvements, we pick up overtime at work. It all evens out, and it doesn't affect our snowball progress. You really gotta do what's best for you.

Being debt free is not the normal in this country. Most Americans will die in debt. A lot of people look at me like i'm crazy when I say that Trevor and I want to be debt free before we have children. I actually had one of my coworkers yell at me, saying "Hilary, you will NEVER be debt free. There is always something that you will be paying for." 

The truth is, you CAN become debt free! It takes a lot of motivation and budgeting. You may have to live a few years pinching pennies, selling things, etc. But then once you pay everything off, you can finally live the life that you dreamed of. One where you aren't living paycheck to paycheck. And i'm so excited for that!