Our Debt

In my previous post, I said that we started out Debt Free Dive on January 1st, 2011. I lied... sort of. We've been trying to get out of debt ever since we got married in December of 2008, but until January 1st of this year all we ended up doing was spinning our wheels.

Some History

My wife, bless her heart, was never really taught how to manager money. "I thought a credit credit was just a way of getting free money" she said. When she turned 18, she went off to YWAM in Kona, Hawaii for Disciple Training School to become a missionary. The combination of her generous heart and her desire for MAC Makeup resulted in a maxed-out Macy's Credit Card and medical bills she couldn't afford to pay.

My story was a little different. I was frugal as a kid, and saved all my money, and I got a full ride to the University of Michigan on a Track & Field scholarship so I didn't have that to worry about... but that all changed when I actually went to college. I had some bad influences in my life at that time, and I actually remember trying to convince my Dad that having lots of debt was OK because it was something I'd be dealing with my whole life anyway so why not have everything I wanted now instead of having to wait?! Wow, I was so arrogant and idiotic. By the time I got married to my lovely wife I had almost $10,000 in credit card debt and about $24,000 in student loans. I was only 24.

When It All Changed

One little tid bit I left out of our history was that I had to sell my paid-off car (which my Mom had provided to me as an incentive to get a college scholarship) in order to pay for our wedding. Even after that, I will had around $7,000 in credit card debt. I remember seeing the young kid who had bought my car drive away and just feeling like I had lost control somewhere along the way and something had to change.

From that point on, my wife and I tried really hard to make our lifestyle as debt-free as possible, but it was hard... really hard. Between lifestyle expectations and disagreements about where our money should be going, my wife and I struggled to find a methodology with which we could both live. I mean, who really wants to give up going on a mission trip when you can just put it on a credit card and worry about it later? Seems like something nobel to do, right? Of course, it wasn't a bunch of mission trips that put us into so much debt, but once you realize the tough decisions you'll have to make as part of a commitment to becoming Debt Free you start to question whether or not it's worth it.

Our Debt

At it's worst, this is what our debt looked like:

Ugly. Very ugly. However, once we made some lifestyle changes and a concerted effort to get out of debt, those numbers changed dramatically. This is where we're at today:

I'd say that looks a little better! The major thorn, I mean credit card, is completely paid off, another credit card is paid off, and a student loan and another credit card are very close to being paid off! We'll be tackling this in a hurry, and YOU get to be a witness! Can I get an AMEN?!