Debt Sucks! Life Doesnt!

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LORD willing they will be paid in full in 5 years or less. We use a modified Dave Ramsey Plan. We all drive vehicles that most people laugh at, we live way below our ability because we want to get out of debt with out selling off assets. The end result will be worth it. I encourage everyone, but especially those under the age of 35 to get out of debt and start a retirement fund. You can do it and you will enjoy the fruit of your efforts.

Funny that this article came up today. I have dreamed about this for the 12 years I was in school and the 3 years I have been out. There were some sacrifices but now I can sleep easy and do anything I want. I have been fortunate to live with mommy and daddy for the past eight years due to a cancer diagnosis and of course kind of getting comfortable here in the process. I go through the same thing where people say why are you always broke when you make a good dollar! Tackle your debt highest rate, or lowest amount, and roll that payment into the next debt u r tackling.

Student Loans paid off Credit card debt down to 1k from 8k. Paid of negative equity on house we sold 25k Savings built up to 10k k building up nicely. New patio cash New floors cash. With that debt, we saved to buy a home and realizing the total of our debt at 22 I was terrified of money. At 25, we made our final mortgage payment after living on one salary for 3 years and living frugally.

Sucks badly, but so worth it! We have 5k left on 58k. Taken about 16 months and a lot of sacrifice. No going out to eat, no new car, bare minimum kind of things. What a great feeling though when this is all done to have money to save up and buy great things for cash, to help our kids with college, to help our community.

All because we took the time to budget, plan, and live intentionally. I am here to tell you that always remember your why, and it becomes so worth it! Keep up the great work! Thank you so much for this article! This was just the encouragement I needed.

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Thank you for writing this. I finally feel like someone understands us. We got into a crapload of consumer debt. We decided to buck up and pay it off instead of filing for bky. Huge congrats to you guys for paying off your debt too, and for sharing how tough the journey really is. When we started our budget, i got mad when i couldnt buy ice for 10 cents bc it wasnt in the budget! Then i realized that i was doing good when i figured out it was stupid to pay for ice, i mean its ice!! So, got married last semester of college for both of us.

I came into the marriage with over 45K student loan debt. My husband was ahead with no debt, had applied for scholarships and never had credit card debt or car payments.

I thought i was doing fine bc i didnt have cc debt or a car payment either, but i never had savings and i had the srudent loans, so silly me! We were able to live at his gmas house close to the university for 1 year so we could finish school. Got intentional so we could put a little something down on a house, and pay student loans, but out of school didnt have much income. Then husband changed jobs and first two years at new job only made 25K, so we were on 58K together, i didnt make much at my job but had good benefits.

Now 9 years into marriage i am able to stay at home with our first child, we have enough of an emergency fund for 1 year.

He is still only making 50K. So its not about how much we make, but the choices we make with our resources. We were able to pay all childbirth expenses in cash. We are debt free except the house, but have paid 43K in principle on it. If we want to do things we are able to without much hassle.

Of course we put things into the budget so we stay on track. When she added up everything into categories, like groceries, eating out, gas bill, electricity, etc, she realized she was paying more than the mortgage payment while still paying her own bills too! She was mad bc most came from food. She started a grocery budget to stick to. She cut that off and stuck to a budget for 6 months so she could get it under control!

Sometimes you arent aware of that 5 here or 2. And there is always an emergency! I have a passion for finances too. I always have friends that want me to help them, and I do—but they still do what they want in the end and never improve their situation because of those small purchases gas station drinks, out to lunch, new bathing suit while shopping for groceries etc.

You have to sacrifice and say no to things. We rarely eat out, I carry food in my purse in case the kids get hungry. It sucked living in a section 8 apartment while paying things off, but we did things right and my wife is able to stay home now that we have kids vs our friends that are forced to work just to pay the bills. I drove a car with a salvage title and no air conditioning for 3 years…. But I knew there was an eventual end. I gave up a lot and it was so worth it. I pack a lunch every time I leave the house for Appts. Heck I pack a suitcase of food for family trips. At the end of this month my husband and I will be debt free!!!

People think we are the weirdest people ever that we worked that hard to pay our debt down and fix up our house and now sold it and are moving in with my parents but we cannot wait for the end of the month to get here! We went from being horrible with money to accomplishing great things. It was hard, but we did it together. We are changing our family tree! Good for you guys! Debt free is the way to be! We originally had K. Ithe s always been hard seeing people talk about paying off 20K which is still an accomplishment!

When we had literally 7x that. We are down to 90K. Still have about the same to go. While our friends were buying houses and traveling, my husband and I chose to pay off our debt. Because of it, we are almost done saving our emergency fund! It feels like you are running as fast as you can… and going backwards, but it is worth it!

10 Ways to Make Debt Suck Less | Consolidated Credit

This article is a great read and hopefully a great motivator for those attacking their debt! I absolutely get this! I have a very money savvy sister and once I finished grad school she looked at my financial situation and challenged me. So somehow I got convinced to buy this fixer upper house for the same cost as my rent. Literally cut 25 years of my payments. I also learned some amazing life skills in there-how to tile, paint walls and doors and cabinets, plumbing, electrical, etc. And I feel ya. We paid off our house June We are dual income, but live off one and use the second to pay things off.

Debt Sucks

My husbands a fireman and I own my own business seeing custom slipcovers and pillows. When it was all new and exciting and I was paying off our house, everyone was excited and happy for us. Some people like talking about it with me, because it educates and motivates them, however most others Get weird about it.

The best feeling ever. A huge weight was lifted once the student loans were gone. Now we are tackling the mortgage. So glad we found Dave Ramsey and other like minded people to help along this journey. I graduated as a non-traditional student, at 40, with k in student loans.

The Emotional Burden of Debt

In the next 9 months, I got divorced, lost my job, was unemployed for 7 months, moved in with my folks, and STILL made every effort to pay those bills. I set a 12 year plan, and have stuck to it. My loans are as much as my mortgage, and it has been rough, but in just over 4 years i will have those paid, and have never been in default. We would love to buy a home but housing prices are ridiculous right now we live in northern Nevada. Should we just wait and save for the next two years or so or buy now with lower interest rates but high prices. One thing I learned over 15 years ago as a mortgage processor analyzing DTI ratios-everyone had debt and even the lottery winners were broke.

Its amazing what is important to people. I had paid off my student loans and car before we got married by living with my parents. When we got married, we worked hard to pay off our house in less than a year. We are now 28 years old and completely debt free. One of the best feelings! So this way we owe less. So I began taking the aggressive route and changing everything. You are exactly right. I had to teach my wife these things after we got married. And the people who went for the instant gratification and spend on credit cards, make minimum student loan payments are in the same or worse situation 4 years later.

After having business go bankrupt among other stupid money choices — we have paid off 89k in just under 3 years. Thanks for the reminder that the end is worth the struggle! I made a goal in to pay off 50k a year. Most of the money I make I never see, it goes straight to k or loans. I have made serious sacrifices and lived in very strange situations to reach my goal. I started with k and am now at 18k. My aged and worn car is starting to break down, so I am hoping I will still be able to pay them off this year! Either way, I am closer than I was three years ago.

When I first started paying them off, the astronomical number was too daunting. I became motivated by keeping track of the interest I accrued each day. It was a smaller number and less depressing relatively. I am at the finish line and feel like I am losing motivation, I am hoping for a second wind soon! I loved the article. Thank you for so eloquently putting into words how my husband and I have felt the last few years.

Thanks for the motivation and realization that as lonely as this journey feels, there are many like minded millennials out there! Almost 3 years ago, I married an amazing man, but with the new marriage came some debt. During our dating and engagement time, my husband made some radical changes in his spending habits and began to tackle the mountain of debt. And, we paid cash for a wedding. It is so, so worth the hard work, so thanks for the encouragement! All on a moderate income with a layoff and periods of unemployment in between. First of all thank you.

I started calculating the interest rates on the cards and it was going to be high. Im a numbers person and couldnt believe Id gotten myself in this mess. I new I had to do something so last year in March of I buckled down and started paying off debt. Its not pleasant but im half way there.

I sometimes feel like im running out of steam but i know that being debt free will be worth it. Thanks for this post! Luckily my husband and I have been encouraged by our parents during this sucky journey of paying off loans.

We also just paid off my car last week, which feels great! Since then I have generated precisely zero debt…not so much as a car payment, living a very comfortable nomadic lifestyle all over the country, traveling the world, and obtaining a graduate degree for free along the way while accumulating a net worth to be proud of. I am finally buying my first house in a tourist area and taking a job working 2 days a week so I can spend the rest of my time going outside to play.

When I discuss this issue with people, they nod agreeably, they seem to understand the benefits of living debt-free, but they never change. When our relationship ended, she actually thanked me for teaching her how to live a fiscally-responsible life. She then married an acquaintance of mine and I found out that they declared bankruptcy a few years ago. The final reason this disturbs me is because of the hypocrisy of it all. You must have goals and grit, but it is so totally possible. Now I am saving a down payment so that I can afford to live on my teacher salary without spending an entire paycheck on rent.

In May of I started making Payments on my 36, dollars of student loans. Now I have 11, left. I make less than 25, a year. Mine is the similar! The first thing I ask myself is if I can do without it, how would it make life better for me, and what else could I spend the money on? Paid off all debt before Technically, we could retire now at 43, but keep thinking we need just a little more… Believe it or not the prospect of not working is a little scary to me. I guess my career is my identity. Engineer in a Director level role. I had k in student loans when I graduated from DPT school and have been working my ass off ever since.

Hardly any of my classmates have been even trying to pay their loans they would rather go with the IBR and live like they want now. Thank you for this article!!! Try doing it with 5 kids, barely making more than minimum wage, and no family support. But we are getting there. We will debt free in January, including our mortgage on our second tiny home home. To those suggesting its wiser to invest rather than pay off your loans, that would be true if you could guarantee that the investment return would be greater than the interest rate of your loans.

There is no such guarantee. Only fools and companies or people with financial backing should take that gamble. I bought two reliable cars with cash, one daily driver that I plan to pass onto my daughter someday and one fun car I plan to keep for life. I reduced my wants and learned to be happy with what I had and not always looking for what to buy next. I saved up and bought a practice that is now fully paid off.

Many Of Us Carry It

The pain was worth the gain. When it happens, my wife promised a bottle of champagne for my to drink straight from the bottle. Now to eat cold cuts and ramen noodles and pay off some debt. Those news articles you hear about millennials postponing marriage, kids, and buying homes? We are literally putting our lives on pause because of debt. Sometimes debt seems worth it. I took out loans so I could go to college and receive an education.

People who take out home loans are paying to have a place to call their own, maybe raise a family. Paying for a medical bill with credit is sometimes the only way to get the care you need. These situations come up for everyone. Debt should not be a permanent state of living, though. If a situation arose where you needed credit, you must make it a priority to pay it all back and get out of debt ASAP. Cut back where you can , set a debt payoff date, and use credit as sparingly as possible.

It is so sad that there are so many people who actually believe that having debt is normal. Its the greatest financial myth of all times, and when we choose to live with debt, we are choosing to live below our privilege. Love the post and love the blog. I firmly believe in living a debt-free life. Our smart niece is currently in college and is working two jobs. Where can you find jobs? Some of my friends worked as front desk staff, in the gym, and as tutors.

One of the best gigs? You see, I got degrees in extremely practical, useful things. But when I was working in that field, I always wanted to be a writer. Could you imagine how different and less wonderful my life would be if I never kept up my interests, even though they never brought me any money at the beginning? That said, if you have student loan debt like I do, unless you suddenly win the lottery or inherit a bunch of money from a weird uncle, you do have to be practical.

My student loan debt sucks. Higher education is not something everyone can pursue, so be grateful for what you learned and your opportunity to be there. Above all, be you. You have one life to live.

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