It’s been said that the waiting is the hardest part {hum it with me now}.
This is especially true if you’re eagerly looking forward to a vacation or pregnant. But I don’t think I’ve ever experienced more pain in waiting than in this journey of paying off debt.
I’m very excited to share that our wait is just about over.
This past weekend, I crunched and calculated numbers in my every spare second. You see, we have a known amount of income/regular payments coming through in the next few weeks.
And barring major catastrophe or disaster {which could happen}, by the end of March we will owe Sallie Mae three figures. And when you’ve owed Sallie Mae upper five figures, less than four is pretty amazing.
And sometime mid to late April-ish {4 years and a handful days after we started this long wait filled journey}, we will be debt free.
Typing those words and even just seeing them on the screen makes me want to drum my fingers nervously. Waiting is so hard even in these last days.
But time really is the most essential variable in the debt free equation.
It’s very easy to see a huge payout like $123,476.07 and think that something like that happens overnight. Maybe we sold our vacation home and yacht? Or maybe Uncle Eli died and left a boatload of money to us? Or maybe we hit the jackpot?
All of the above are not true, by the way. I don’t even have an Uncle Eli.
In reality, it was 4 Christmases, 11 Birthdays {the Youngest Princess’ birthday will make it 12 in a couple of weeks}, 4 years of grade school for one of us, one of us went from being an infant to beginning to read {not to mention the whole walking/talking/pottying stuff}, two of us navigated the first half of our 3rd decade and years 9, 10, 11, and 12 of our marriage . . . you get the point.
We’ve also had one car die and refinanced our house {exciting stuff, I know but it is the stuff of life}. And one of us received and then had taken off a set of braces paid for with cash {she also got a pair of glasses}. And a root canal {that one I’d take back if I could, ow}. And a water heater that exploded and a number of other household expenses that are of course never anticipated occurred, too.
We are blessed with a great income {mainly because the King of Free works three jobby jobs}. But even with that income, we wouldn’t have been able to get where we’re at without time and the waiting.
And so here’s to you Sister Time. We love you, goodness gracious. And we’ve enjoyed every second of our journey to freedom. But we certainly wouldn’t mind you speeding along in the next month and a half. We’ve got the rest of our lives to live in freedom.
