Holy cow, this post has been almost 4 years in the making! If you've been following me on my blog here, you know Trevor and I have been working our asses off to pay off our debt the last 4 years. I'm happy to say that we have officially paid off our last consumer debt, and we are debt free! No credit cards, no student loan payments, no car payment.
I originally wrote about our debt free journey back in 2018. I thought I would tell the entire story again since we still had $50,000 left when I wrote that post.
Our journey started back in 2016. We had just bought a house and got engaged and life was good. Or so we thought. We were both working full time as registered nurses. We started to think about our future wedding and setting a date. Once we started researching venues, photographers, and all of that jazz, we wondered: How are we going to afford all of this?! We made good money, but we had so much debt it was consuming us. The final straw for me was when I went to the beach with Trevor's family and we stopped at a local coffee shop. I tried to buy a $3 coffee and my debit card was declined. Trevor's brother Clint had to buy my coffee for me. I was so embarrassed and after that Trevor and I immediately decided that we had to make a change.
Trevor and I sat down and totaled all of our debt. We knew we had a lot of it, but it wasn't until we added it all up that we really felt the weight of it all: $122,700.
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. Trevor's Sallie Mae student loans ($16,000)
5. Dad- he helped pay for my college ($16,000)
6. My government student loans ($22,000)
7. Jeep ($31,000)
8. Trevor's government student loans ($33,000)
Total debt (not including our mortgage): $122,700
After New Mexico, we moved to Washington DC for our next contract. By this time, our income had tripled. We were staying with Trevor's brother Clint at his apartment when I saw Dave Ramsey's book "The Total Money Makeover" stuffed in the side of Clint's futon. One night when I couldn't sleep I started reading the book. Trevor read it too.. and from there we started following Dave's principals on paying off the debt. (I wrote all about the debt snowball in my previous debt post)
We stayed in DC for 6 months. In that time, we were able to save up enough money to cash flow our wedding and honeymoon and also pay off a couple of our debts. It felt amazing to finally be in charge of our money and not feel suffocated. With each debt we paid off, that was one more payment a month that we freed.
After our wedding and honeymoon, we moved up to Boston, Massachusetts. In that period of time (~3 months) we were able to pay off another debt (we were down the list to Trevor's Sallie Mae loans at this point, which is the one we just paid off). This is also when we were getting homesick and Trevor had severely hurt his back. We moved home so Trevor could explore potentially having surgery. We both took permanent jobs at our home hospital, and our income dropped by a substantial amount. This is when we really had to start budgeting. We started making a detailed written budget at the beginning of the month and made a plan for every single dollar we were making. We were able to continue paying off our debt by doing this, even if it wasn't quite as fast as before when our income was higher. By moving back, Trevor and I also accepted two $10,000 sign on bonuses from UPMC. This helped pay the money I owed my dad and a chunk of my government loans.
Summer 2018 I found out that I was pregnant! At this time, we paused our debt snowball and piled up as much money as we could for my maternity leave and also for hospital bills and just in case something happened where Hudson or I had to stay longer in the hospital than planned. Once everything was fine with both of us, we took the money we had saved and applied it to more debt. We also sold the Jeep at this time, sadly. But by selling the Jeep we were able to pay for a Chevy Cruze in cash and also put a little bit of extra money towards our last debt, Trevor's government student loans.
Around this time Trevor got a new job and a pay increase. We were able to continue to make big payments towards our last debt, especially since we could use the money we used to pay towards our other debts towards this big one! Our Jeep payment alone was $460 a month that we were able to throw at the student loans. We also took our stimulus checks from the government (thanks COVID) and put them right into debt and also our tax return. Those two things alone were a huge boost because we weren't expecting such substantial money to come our way.
Finally.. in June we were able to make the final payment on Trevor's student loans. It felt so good and incredible, and FREEING! In the beginning we had so much debt we couldn't breathe. Now, WE are in charge of our money, not banks and other lenders, and we now have the flexibility to do what we want! This means that I'm not working as many hours. I've cut down to 1-2 days a week, and I go back and forth on if I even want to continue doing that at all. But the beauty of being debt free is that you have choices and you aren't stuck at a job you hate just because you have all of these bills to pay. Not saying that I hate my job because I actually really enjoy it, but I enjoy being at home with Hudson more.
It took us 46 months (almost 4 years) to complete our baby step #2. I'll just be blunt and tell you that our income range was $85,000-$150,000. The $150k was for a brief time during our travel days. The first two years of our debt payoff we didn't take seriously. The last 2 years we did. We also paid for our wedding and honeymoon in cash, a new roof, new windows, Trevor's back surgery, the birth of Hudson, and finally a new well pump while paying off debt.
Anyone can do this! We aren't the exception. Dave Ramsey's plan is so incredibly simple, but it freaking works. Millions of people have followed it. The next step that we are working on is to save 3-6 months of expenses in an emergency fund, and then we will be putting 15% into our retirement funds, saving for Hudson's college, and throwing all of the extra money we can at our house payment so we can get our house paid off as soon as possible.
I am applying to be on Dave Ramsey's podcast to do our debt free scream live in studio in Nashville, Tennessee and I'm praying we get picked! We have worked so hard the last 4 years to clean up our student loan debt mess and we would love to meet the guy who encouraged us to do it.
WE'RE DEBT FREE!!!!!
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