Who Else Wants to be Debt Free?

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Imagine that you are swimming in debt, want to start a family and be a stay at home mom but realize there is no way possible that you could quit a job you hate because you make 2/3rd of the income in the household.

What do you do?

Cry. Feel horrible that you made bad decisions and put yourself in this position. Feel stuck, with no where to turn. Go to the job everyday thinking there has to be more than this.

Well at least that’s what I did.

Time for Action

What else could I do? I could start learning about my options. I read David Bach, Suze Orman, and Dave Ramsey. I learned everything I could about finances, and went through our expenses and tried to find out how we could pay our bills on 1/3rd of the our income. It was simple math and I couldn’t get it to work out in my favor.

The turning point came when I read Dave Ramsey’s Total Money Makeover. The chapter that really struck me was about having a car payment. It pretty much said, “You don’t need to have a car payment.”

What? I’m not sure I ever knew that. I had owned different 4 cars by the age of 21. Each one had a car payment attached and each time I bought a new one the monthly payment became higher and higher. Every time a car got above 60,000 miles I would look to trade it in.

When I read the Total Money Makeover, my husband and I had just bought a brand new Honda Civic for $19,000. It was going to be the family car for our future family. I was attached to this car and the idea of having my beautiful family in it.

After reading that chapter I KNEW I had to sell my two month old car. I didn’t want to know that. Part of me wanted to ignore it. But I realized that if I could part with this car that I LOVED, I could then make other hard decisions to reach my goal.

Was it easy to do once I made the decision? NO.
Was it one of the best decisions I’ve ever made? YES.

Where is your turning point?

Have you already had your turning point? If so you would know it. If not, what can get you there? If you have dabbled with being debt free, what can you do to reach that turning point?

Some people say that it took them 5 years to finally decide to move forward. But a decision only takes a moment. It may have taken them 5 years to become ready to decide, but that decision was made in an instant.

What can you do to find your turning point and make that decision now?