Our Debt-Free Journey

When we got married years ago, we were two college kids that decided to start life together...without a job between us. 

This was years before TurboTax was the online filing giant that it is now; then, everyone either filed their taxes by paper or went to a tax-preparing service. The first year of our marriage, my mother helped to file our taxes. I remember her handing me the completed forms with a look of sheer terror and sadness in her eyes as she asked, "How do you eat?" 

We made $7,000 that year. Pre-tax. 

We didn't have much debt at the time, but we did have some undergrad tuition loans and a couple thousand on a single credit card. Fast-forward (several) years to current day and we are still battling some debt. Most of it is school debt: both of us still have undergrad debt and graduate debt. It was drilled into us from childhood by society that if you didn't go immediately to get a college degree, you would fail at life. No one warned us that you weren't guaranteed a job the moment you graduated. In fact, the American Dream told us the opposite: countless jobs are waiting for you--just get that degree! #lies

I don't know exactly how fast this debt will be gone to the day, but I believe it can be gone in 3 years or less. That sounds like a huge goal, but one I'm all for right now. I have a dream of living on enough acreage to have my own huge garden, a small orchard, and grow our own Christmas trees. I want a home with a room for each child to call their own, a finished basement, and a wrap-around porch complete with ceiling fans on the porch roof. I want an enormous living room where we can host family Christmases for years to come, and a kitchen with a walk-in pantry. I want my husband to have his own room for music: playing, creating, and even recording if he gets the wild hair to do so. 

If you are a Dave Ramsey fan, we are in Baby Step #2, currently working to kill $15k of consumer debt (that includes a car payment,) and several thousand of student loan debt. I'm not revealing that number right now because it depresses me, lol. Just Google current undergrad and graduate tuition rates, add them together, and multiply by two. You're probably close.