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Home > Debt Free: Paid off $115k

Debt Free: Paid off $115k

June 15th, 2012 at 04:48 am

Well folks we did it...we will make our final debt payment tomorrow. We started our debt free plan in January 2011 and had just under $115 THOUSAND in debt not including the house. We got on the Dave Ramsey plan and went to work with getting our emergency fund in place and starting our snowball. We managed to make good progress pretty quickly by paying off $20k in 3 months. Then I made a decision to sell my car (which I still miss but don't want the payment) and that further propelled us. We stayed on a really strict budget which is very hard to do with a family of 5. Lots of grumblings and eye rolls, lots of "why can't we??!!" and every other remark you can imagine from young kids. I even felt like I was dragging my husband along at several times having to remind him of our goals. And I even found myself wanting to give up at times but I immediately realized that the alternative sucks worse than what we were going through. I am really done with consumer debt, no more. I have had enough of that to last me a lifetime and I am so glad to have that monkey off my back. I am in the technology industry and it seems like jobs are easily lost these days. While I don't want to be unemployed, I don't quite fear it like I used to. Before it meant disaster bc we had tons of debt and barely any savings. Now it means cutting back and some discomfort sure, but not as scary as before. I won't be sued or harassed by anyone bc there are no bills to pay other than for my basic needs.

We sold our house last month and made a pretty decent profit given the market. That money will go towards making our final debt payments in the morning. We are leasing right now and will be saving up for our emergency fund and a down payment on our next house. We plan to relocate out of this immediate area so we made the decision to sell now, get out of debt, save and maybe even have enough to pay for HALF of our next home....that would be awesome but not something I'm hanging my hat on at this point. We will see what we can do once we get about $30k in place for our EF.

So for now I am basking in our newfound freedom....but it will be back to the drawing board soon with getting a plan in place to save for our EF. I don't plan to be quite the task master and will probably loosen the purse strings a bit but I do want to create a plan so I can estimate how long it will take us vs when we hope to move and buy again, etc. I don't really look forward to this next leg of the journey but I know it has to be done. Question for you guys, WHERE do you put an emergency fund? I've heard it needs to where you can access it but probably not TOO easy to access so you won't be filching money from it, etc. any suggestions? Money markets or some ore type of savings vehicle?

Thanks for the support! I haven't posted much but I do read these blogs regularly and have gained a ton of inspiration and ideas, etc.

8 Responses to “Debt Free: Paid off $115k”

  1. Beawealthywarrior Says:
    1339733879

    Wow, what a great job u have done!! Are you going to call in and do a debt free scream?? Congrats and stay focused for BS3.

  2. ceejay74 Says:
    1339764888

    Wow, that is AWEsome! I've got (well, had) even more debt than that if you count student loans, and I've decided to take a slower route, but I sure admire this way. It would've taken me more than 1.5 years and not sure I could've put up with my family's (or my own) whining if I'd cut everything! Hope to join you on debt-free except for mortgage in 2015!

  3. creditcardfree Says:
    1339770552

    Congratulations on being debt free!!

    I have most of our emergency fund in an online money market account. It is easy to transfer money in and takes a couple days to transfer back out. And there are limits on the number of transactions you can make in a month.

  4. LuckyRobin Says:
    1339772208

    I keep $1000 of my emergency fund in a local credit union that is not my main credit union. The rest of my emergency fund I keep in an ordinary savings accout in the online bank ING. I figure the first few days of a true emergency (like staying in a hotel after a house fire) could be handled by that $1000 and then if the emergency continues it is only 3 business days to have the rest of it transferred to my main CU.

    Congratulations on getting out of debt.

  5. Petunia 100 Says:
    1339774012

    That's awesome, congratulations! Smile
    I like to keep about 1k in the brick and mortar bank where I have my checking account ($500 cushion in checking, $500 in savings). The rest of my cash I keep in online banks. You earn a better rate and you have to wait 2 days for the funds to be available.

  6. Looking Forward Says:
    1339797065

    AWESOME! Big Grin

  7. Campfrugal Says:
    1339848875

    Great job. I am so looking forward to be one day being debt free, again.

  8. Jerry Says:
    1339883619

    Wow, that is some amazing progress and devotion to the cause, and look what it leads to!! Congratulations! I am sure that it was all worthwhile, and that you will now have the insurance of moving onward and upward toward all of your other financial goals... thanks for the excellent example.
    Jerry

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