I'm very happy to report that I have paid off my School Loans!! I have been thinking about doing this for awhile, I wanted to wait until Evan got a job to actually take the step. I had to take a chunk out of my personal savings (not a typical savings account) to make sure our needs were taken care of while Evan was home trying to find a job. It's wonderful that he got a job so fast. I decided that whatever was left over of the saving I took out would go toward paying off my School Loans.
I was reading the Dave Ramsey book, Total Money Makeover and it helped give me the extra added push I needed to see the true value in being debt free ASAP. So with that resolve I just took the step and wiped out what was remaining from my school loans.
My next and final step is to pay for my van. We have 3 years of payments left. After applying my monthly School Loan amount to our monthly car payment we will be able to pay off my van in a smidgen over 2 years. Not good enough for me, I'm pretty sure if I also apply every Shelf Reliance check I get from now on toward my car payment too I should be able to have it paid off in a year and a half...that is if my Shelf Reliance checks stay the same and don't increase. But I know they will just get better; I look forward to impressing myself and having it paid off even sooner than that!
Dave Ramsey talks about being aggressive and really attacking your debt. I'm really committed to that. I'm ready to put every extra cent I get toward being debt free. The vision I have of our future with no debt and thinking about all the free money we will have to put more aggressively toward our savings, and investing, and buying a home is very exciting! It's incredibly motivating, and incredibly close!!
Now, you may have noticed I keep talking about only the money I make. That is because I have been the freak about OUR money and have deprived our family of many fun events, even though they are seemingly small, in the name of SAVING! Since having Evan gone I really have learned the value of appreciating the time we have together and building moments and memories. We have gone out to dinner more, and driven out to parks, and had BBQ's by the river etc. In the past I would forgo even a trip to the park because of the gas it would use, and Gas = Money. I was really tight!!!
I'm not going to be as much of a stickler with our families money anymore, I know that does not go along with Dave Ramsey's way of thinking but I feel it does go along with Suze Orman's thinking, "People First, Then Money, Then Things"
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