Thursday, November 6, 2008

Big News!

About a year ago our family got serious about getting in good financial shape. We began reading The Total Money Makeover by Dave Ramsey and decided to get on his plan for financial freedom. He has a series of 7 steps to financial freedom, you can check it out here.

Well, last week we completed step 2, we're debt free! We owe nothing to no one! No credit card payment, no car payment, nothing! How freeing! We are now on to step 3, which is to have an emergency fund of 3-6 months of expenses. We're going for the 6 months of expenses.

Our boys are going though Generation Change right now with a group of teens from the church. Our hope is that they are never in debt!

Huge props go out to Amy and the kids! We all had to be very intentional to make this happen! Also, a shout out to Chuck, Amy's friend and coworker who introduced us to Dave Ramsey and showed us it could be done. Thanks, Chuck!

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

If you don't mind me asking, how long did it take you to become debt-free and by dept-free do you mean no credit card bills or no house payment or car payments either?

Becoming debt-free has been on my heart lately. It's to the point that I feel like I shouldn't buy Christmans presents for my family this year. Instead, any extra should go to paying on my debt. My husband and I have about $10,000of debt we would like to pay off. We also have 2 children so finances are tight already.

I was just wondering what kind of time frame I might be looking at to getting out of that much debt.

Thanks.

James Spaugh said...

Laney,

We are debt free in that we don't have any car payment or credit cards. We are in a rental house situation right now.

It took us exactly one year to get debt free. The biggest thing for us was to track where our money was going, developing a budget, and sticking to it. We found the budget to be freeing.

I understand the wanting to get out of debt. It sounds that you are ready to do it. Just realize that your husband and family might not be so thrilled about the change of life at first. Your husband needs to be on board.

Check out www.daveramsey.com or watch him on Fox Business at 8 pm each night. If you want his book, Total Money Makeover, email me at jamesspaugh@mchsi.com and I will mail an extra copy I have to you - free.