When I ask Clinton why he ever married me and he answers, "For your money," we laugh.My sister and I had a company for a while. I dumped in my savings and put some stuff on credit. She dumped in her savings and put a whole lot on credit. I already had student loans, and finished my degree with more. The company failed. I agreed to help her pay a certain amount when I could.
When we got married we had two cars and two car payments.
We managed to get Clinton through almost all of his Bachelor's without student loans, up until Lizzy was born during his last year. We're grateful for Stafford loans; we have them in both our names.
When we came to Washington D.C., we had no real savings. We put the U-haul and the gasoline on credit. We also put a bit of our living expenses on credit. We found the cheapest apartment we could at the time; but my salary alone couldn't cover everything, and his internship provided a pretty insignificant stipend.
It took nearly a year for Clinton to find work. Just when we figured we'd gotten deep enough into debt and were planning a retreat back to Utah to live with family and dig out, Clinton got two different job offers. We could stay, we could start digging.
I transferred our considerable credit card balance to a 0% introductory offer and we started socking away all we could against the day that 0% would switch to a more aggressive rate. In January, it looked like houses were affordable, and lo, we had cash we could divert to a down payment. We started house hunting. Then our newly elected President backed an $8,000 first-time-homebuyer stimulus. This had to be it.
This week we went back to plan A. Our credit card balance, as of midnight when it posts, will be $0.00. My debt with my sister is payed off and we are now square, as far as that failed business goes, anyway. We own our 92 Honda, and he runs pretty well for 212,000 miles. We still have student loans, but that is all we owe.
Really, though, I'm feeling more humble than triumphant. We've been praying for help, and help has come. God has blessed us. The victory is His.
9 comments:
Congrats! Gotta feel good to get out from under that. Hope y'all are doing well!
I love reading what you write; you're so talented. And, I'm supremely happy for you.
Congratulations! I'm glad you touched on the taboo subject. It was actually relieving to know that we're not the only ones who struggle from time to time (or all the time that is). And way to acknowledge the Lord's hand. There was a time when I questioned my testimony a bit, and the thing that brought me full circle was a miracle that happened related to tithing. In the four times we've moved since we got married, I always think that there is not room enough to store all of our blessings, and I'm grateful. Truly grateful.
The Lord moves in mysterious ways. It's so close to home right now, I can feel it. And the day will come when those student loans are gone too. God bless you and yours!
He does.
Way to go!!! Whoopie and Congrats! I'm sure it feels great! (We are still secretly hoping you are ready to move this way so we can be even closer neighbors!)
Wow. You rock!!!!
Good Job! It takes a lot of little decisions to make something big like that happen!
Just think... Soon you can call Dave Ramsey's show and scream, "WEEEEEEE'RE DEBT FREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!" I honestly tear up when I listen to people scream triumphantly. We'll be there soon... hopefully by Christmas. Congrats sweets!
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