f$fty-two

Yes. f$fty-two. 52 weeks ago Robert and I attended a Financial Peace University course at our church.

According to The Wall Street Journal, 70% of Americans are living paycheck to paycheck. That means 7 out of 10 families on your street—your friends and neighbors—are only one paycheck away from disaster.  Financial Peace University (FPU) can bring you  peace, stability and hope.. The 13-week class, taught on video by Dave Ramsey, will show you how to manage money with confidence, establish an emergency fund, get out of debt, build wealth, and completely change family trees! More than 1.5 million families have already had their lives changed by attending FPU. I highly reccomend you checking out the website and finding a class near you!

52 weeks ago we added up every single penny that we had as debt. Every credit card, car payment, health bill etc. Every penny we “owed” to someone else. (Excluding our house payment). 52 weeks ago I was stunned to learn that we had $52k in debt! This included a vacation rental/time share gone bad 🙁 (our biggest debt), 2 car payments (Ford Edge & VW Jetta), various small credit card bills (JC Penney’s, Target, etc.), a random invisible bank loan we didn’t even realize we were paying the minimum on!!! and a few other random bills. 52 weeks ago I told my husband I was ready to get our finances in order! 17 years after he first asked me to learn 🙂

This time though, I was in! Fully invested and ready to commit 13 Sunday afternoons to learning about financial peace. Learning to “live like no one else today, so that we can live like no one else tomorrow!”

What followed over the next 52 weeks some would call magic – hocus pocus- however I call synchronicity – FOCUS FOCUS!

Last month we paid off our final debt! My Ford Edge (2 years early too!!!).

So here we are 52 weeks later ~and 52K lighter. We officially are debt free (except for our house payment, which we plan on attacking aggressively over the next 3 years). That means that every penny that was being paid to others, all of that interest, all of those finance charges, are now being paid to… US! We have tipped the scales. Our accounts are finally building. I’m sure I’m being too honest about this, but I decided maybe others can feel inspired to make some serious changes in their finances by our story. We do NOT want our kids to be one of the statistics of college kids in debt. We are walking the walk here and talking the talk. I am so proud of our dedication to our future. I love how when you put intention into your action, you find that the energy doubles, triples and explodes in response.

When I first thought about putting all of our debt on paper to see it in black and white I was scared silly! I felt like how can we pay all of this off? A lot of emotions came out that surprised me. Every time Robert wanted to talk about our plan and our finances I freaked out! At one point he asked me why I was yelling… was I? I guess my whole life I just figured I’d always have enough and so when I finally saw how much “enough” was needed, it scared me. I still find myself anxious at times when it comes to paying bills ~then remind myself that I don’t need to be. I love the word FREEDOM in the term Financial Freedom. As that is truly what I feel. FREE from financial worry. FREE from financial stress. It’s truly been a blessing to look at how far we have come in the simple~yet complicated~52 weeks. So this blog is to celebrate facing my fears. Celebrate team work. Celebrate small sacrifices for a big pay out. Celebrate partnership. Celebrate being DEBT FREE!

Our treat to our family was the most amazing 7 day cruise to the Eastern Caribbean. Which is what the next few blogs will touch upon… however this blog is to celebrate the number F$FTY TWO.