It’s my bi-weekly check in on the process of paying off our debt. Hope you don’t get too bored. snooooorrrrrreeee.
Hey everybody. So glad you stopped by today. Freedom Friday is when I bi-weekly let you in on how we’re doing with our pursuit of paying off debt. It’s also when many of you have e-mailed me with your story (with either “Freedom in Progress” or “Freedom Achieved” in the subject line) so I can share your story to encourage others, too.
Um, I’m beginning to feel like a broken record. Yep, we’ve been paying off debt since April of 2008. We’ve paid off a car, a large credit card, lots of medical debt (a couple of times over), two school loans, furniture, a small credit card – all to the tune of well over $60K. We’ve also paid for ear tubes for the Youngest Princess, braces for the Eldest Princess, and a root canal for me – all with cash. It’s an exciting achievement. We’re well over the halfway mark. We owe less than we’ve paid down thus far. And yet . . . *sigh* . . . it feels like it’s taking FOR-reaking-EVER people. And perhaps since our last debt is the largest (hello Law School, you own us) I think it will probably be easy to get discouraged over the next year or two. Even though the numbers now move down to the tune of about $1000 a month (that snowball is pretty large these days), it’s not fast enough for me.
We’ve been spending time dreaming of what it will like be in the future when we have that much extra money every month. An extra thousand bones a month? Can you imagine?! We can finally get retirement funds exactly where we want them. The Princesses will not have be homeschooled for college. We might get to on a real vacation (not one where we sleep at a friend’s house or visit grandparents). Buying a car with cash?! Giving money away every time we see a need. But right now it feels like a dream that we can’t quite reach, a hope we can’t quite touch.
Maybe I’m not as intense as I once was about pinching the pennies? Have I slacked off? Should I run the spreadsheet again? Is there somewhere else where we can save money more effectively and put it toward debt? Is there something we can sell? Questions, questions, questions.
And then I bring myself back to the realization that we’re already two years ahead of where we thought we would be at this point when we began our debt slaying journey. And God has provided income where we never expected it. Who’s to say He might do that again?
Still, it’s hard not to feel like a broken record around these parts. Yep, we’re still paying down debt. Yep, we’ve still got a long way to go. We’re staying the course but sure could use a big win.
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