I’m in the midst of a huge life transformation.
I’m learning how to be a single mom. We’re finally “grown-ups.” Joseph finally has a career, not just a job. I’m now able to be a full-time stay-at-home mom. And all that debt from law school? It’s now time to pay that back.
One of the reasons why we chose the military path (there were numerous reasons) was because they have a very nice debt-repayment program. It doesn’t cover all our debts, but a good majority of our student loans are going to be taken care of. But there’s still some credit card debt from this past year when Joseph did not work. You know, all the hiccups we had, like his career being stalled because he didn’t pass the bar the first time, things like that.
So we have debt. And now we’re shedding it as fast as we can. We decided we’re not okay with debt sticking around for 5, 10, 20 years. No, like a parasite, we want it gone–asap.
Four years ago, before Joseph began law school we were in a great place financially. We had no debts–at all. Not even $200 on a credit card. We had sold our first home & made a (unexpected) good chunk of money, lived with my parents for a year (oh the money you can save if your not paying rent/mortgage!), & Joseph had a great job during this time. So we were able to put that money into a house, the house that we lived in during law school.
Paying for a law school wasn’t actually the biggest source of our debt for student loans. Joseph was accepted to several prestigious law schools (Georgetown being one of them), but we decided with BYU in the end.
A big factor in that decision is that it is 1/4 the cost of the other schools we were looking at. $10K a year in tuition for law school is almost unheard of. But we had 3, then 4 kids & all the living expenses associated with that. Even though I worked, we took out the max amount we could get in financial aid.
I’ve been a fan of Dave Ramsey for quite some time, but for the past 4 years, we’ve not been a position to follow his program. If you’re not familiar with Dave, his approach is quite similar (not identical, but similar) to the views of my faith, which is, debt=bad.
I am so ready for this stage of life. I know debt is a shackle, & that there is so much truth in: “the borrower is servant to the lender” (Proverbs 22:7).
Getting out of debt is not easy.
Like losing weight it requires planning, sacrifice, & discipline.
I know a lot of people don’t feel comfortable talking about money. I think that talking about finances openly is crucial to a healthy financial life.
So, I want to share with you now & then, some tid-bits from our journey towards a debt-free life. I hope that’s okay with you.
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Have you ever gotten out of debt? Any suggestions, insights?
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