Like many American 18 year olds, I went to college. That 4 year anxiety party was funded mostly by student loans. After 4 years, I was incredibly lucky to graduate with a degree (I didn’t try very hard) and hit the working world. I entered the workforce and immediately went $15k further into debt to buy a car with no money down. Many more money mistakes later we arrive at present day, and alot has changed. Lets call this the beginning.

The good: I am married, have my first child on the way, parent two dogs, own a decent condo in New England, and make 3x what I was pulling down in my first gig from 8 short years ago.

The bad: My wife and I are $373,000 in debt, counting the house (I owe ~$95k at the time of writing).

SO… Obviously I want a great life for my child, that is my WHY. He’s why I’ve decided to get out of debt faster than just moseying along making minimum payments.

My father taught me how to budget and handle money but that just wasnt cutting it. I was living extravagantly on my newly minted “wealth” which was really just a fat paycheck that I increased my stupid lifestyle to rise up and meet. Enter, Dave Ramsey.

Now I’ve known about this “Dave guy” for about 15 years now. I first heard his name at a fellowship night and thought nothing of it. A few people were working hard to get out of debt but hey I was a kid, why did I need to listen I was socking away my parental-mandated $100/paycheck every week from being a lifeguard, I was living the life! I finally read Dave’s baby steps a few weeks ago and just purchased his book Total Money Makeover. I am hooked.

Baby Steps:

1.) Save $1000 emergency fund.

  • This was easy! I already had $15k saved so $1000 of that wen to the emergency fund. Well actually it didnt even move from my Ally high interest savings.

2.) Pay off all debts except the house.

  • Well that momentum was fun while it lasted! Here I am just aggressively paying down debts for the next three years!

And that brings us completely current! My wife and I are aggressively paying off 3 of our student loans before the baby comes and then in 2020, we are going to pay off our cars and the remainder of our small student loans. Then about mid year 2020, we start in on our BEHEMOTH $201,000 FedLoan Student Loan.

Current Debts:

  • HESAA Loan $8787 DONE on 06/19/2019!
  • Upstart Loan $16180
  • Discover Loan $11250
  • Navient Loan $18610
  • Car Loan $30000
  • FedLoan $201000
  • Mortgage $95500

Our family has a goal of being debt free (except the house) before 12/31/2023.

Keep coming back to follow our family’s progress to Debt Freedom and eventually Financial Freedom!