Financially, this is an exciting time in Mark’s and my life
together. And in our marriage, really. Have you ever heard of Dave Ramsey’s Financial Peace University?
If not, you should check it out.
If you have heard of it, you probably fall into one of three
categories:
A) You haven’t gone through it yet, but it sounds really
exciting. You’re not sure how or when you’ll go through it, but you know you
want to. You may or may not have debt and problems with money to work through,
but you’re excited to learn more about
how to manage your money.
B) You haven’t gone through it, and you know you never will.
It sounds like a load of cockatoo poo. You probably have some problems with
money or problems with self-discipline that you’re not ready to work through.
C) You’ve gone through it, and you know it’s the cat’s meow. Your life is changed for the better
because you had a heart-to-heart with yourself and your spouse about money and
feel free for the first time in your life. Your relationship with your money
might not be perfect, but you’re paying off your debt and know you’re on the
right track.
These categories are probably be too simplified. Obviously I haven’t taken into account every
possible situation and circumstance. But on the whole, from my experiences of
talking to people about money and Dave Ramsey, these are the three reactions I
hear.
As I said, it’s an exciting time for Mark and me in terms of
our money.
WARNING: I am about to talk about personal finances. I am
aware that this subject is taboo in the U.S. and may make some of you
uncomfortable.
We have a lot of debt. As debt goes, it’s ‘good debt.’ But
Dave Ramsey would be quick to tell me that there’s no such thing as good debt;
it’s all bad. Debt is bad. Debt means
somehow, at some time, you’ve spent beyond your means and you’re now paying for
it, literally. Debt means that you’re throwing a large chunk of your money away
every year on icky interest.
All of our debt right now is school loans. We haven’t bought
a house yet (specifically because we know that as soon as we buy a house, the
amount of money we spend on our house each month will skyrocket), so we don’t
have house debt yet.
Here are the numbers, so specific that they will make the
average American uncomfortable and feel like they’re trespassing into our
personal lives:
$60,000 – roughly,
the amount of money in school loans that Mark and I graduated from college
with, combined.
$20,000 –
roughly, the amount of one of Mark’s loans that we just finished paying off.
Yaaaay! Honestly, I still don’t feel like the numbers add up right. Together
we’ve been making less than $40,000 per year since graduation three years ago.
I think God must have been making secret payments into this school loan when
our backs were turned to get this baby paid off so fast.
$39,000 –
roughly, the amount that remains to be paid off. This is still a lot of money.
Remember yesterday, when I was talking about yeast? About
trusting God to be who he says he is and do what he says he will do? Well, this
is one area where my ability to trust is tested. Yes, God has helped us pay off
one large school loan in a short period of time, but then I start to roll
things like wanting to buy a house, wanting to start an adoption process, and a
bunch of other things around in my head, and the debt seems insurmountable
again. But God truly is faithful. He
has given and will give us what we need just when we need it!
I love this post, for a few reasons. I'm proud of you two for getting so much debt paid off in a short period of time. We're working hard at it too!
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