Our Debt Free Journey

Last year, Taylor crossed a huge income goal. She made over $100K. Whoa. This boosted our household income to a level we were so excited about. We, like other’s we’re sure, thought, “We made it. Now we’re finally comfortable. We’ll pay off all our debt and travel the world!”

After sitting around for half a year, something didn’t add up.

How were we making well over six figures as a household income and not rich yet? How come our debt was still the same? Why weren’t we travelling?

Honesty right there for ya.

So in July 2018, we started tracking our expenses thinking that’s what a budget was—heads up, that’s not a budget *facepalm*. While it wasn’t a budget we really got to see what we were taking in and what we were spending. Hint–it was just about even. No wonder we weren’t getting anywhere.

After tracking expenses for two months we thought, okay…How come we aren’t rich yet? Well, as I’m sure your thinking, tracking expenses is not a budget. It’s just tracking what you have spent and not what you are planning on spending. That won’t change the bottom line…hello.

We also noticed we were attacking our income and debt individually. ‘His and hers’ finances. (Pure feminists at heart.) But…It was not getting us anywhere.

Then, we stumbled across a youtube video talking about debt and some guy named Dave Ramsey. The story was incredible. We decided to check out what this bald guy was talking about. We were sucked in. We drank the Kool-aid.

We read his blog, his book, listened to the daily podcast religiously, downloaded his app, and got to work.

Here’s a breakdown of his work that we love:

• Combine your finances. (If you’re married, you are legally bound anyway)
• 7 Baby steps (We’re on number 2)
• Zero based budget (Every Dollar App)
• Debt snowball (List debts smallest to largest and attack in that order).
• Rice and beans (Cut lifestyle where you can)
• Live like no one else to live like no one else (Sacrifice and focus are worth it!)

Right off the bat, we had to shift mindset: Debt isn’t normal.
It shouldn’t be there. To be truly wealthy, to live and give the way we dream of—debt has to go as fast as possible. Yes, that means no student loans, no car payments, no mortgage. Oh my!

Not what we’re taught and modelled in ‘normal’ western culture, is it?

We had to shift our Egos around finances and adjust the stories we told ourselves about “rich people” and “money”. We each had our own narratives in our minds that we never talked about together, or even said out loud for that matter. Like anything that goes unsaid, it spreads.

“Rich people are mean.” “The little man can’t get ahead.” “I’ll never pay off my student loans.” “I don’t know what I’m doing and don’t want to admit it.” “Taxes scare me.” “I can’t make any more money?”

We were operating from these false stories and making mistakes left and right. We had to learn about forgiveness for bad decisions in the past (Hello $20K credit card bill) and for the mistakes we still make.
(This is still a work in progress.)

So in this post we are going to bare it all for you. Our debt, our goal, and our progress.

We started with $65,865.64 in debt that was made up of credit cards, a personal loan, a home loan and a buttload of student loans. 

We make between $140 – $160K Gross Income a year (before taxes and deductions) which boils down to $7-$10K combined take-home income per month, after taxes and deductions.

To date we have paid off $16,933.37 in just under 4 months.
That means all our credit cards are paid off, one student loan is gone, and we are attacking the rest of our loans like crazy.

How we do it:

• We follow Dave Ramsey’s baby steps.
• Meetings every Sunday to check in with finances
• Using the Every Dollar app to stay on track and keep each other up to date for every single purchase, every single day
• We have a big financial meeting at the end of the month to square things up and to plan for next month

We see this as a fun long term “game” where every month we pay down debt and we win! For us, it’s a race to pay down the debt as fast as possible so we can start to build wealth for our big life goals. Retirement! Travel! Giving!

We had a plan of our lives 5, 10, 20 years from now and having financial freedom is the only way to get there for us. We refuse to sacrifice what we want most for what we want now.

Is that simple? YES. Is it easy? NO.

Our goal is to be debt free by Feb 2020. (Hopefully by Dec 2019!)
This means we need to pay $4k a month towards our debt. Steep but possible.

We have never felt so free and confident around finances in our lives. Not only has our financial health improved but so has our relationship.

You know we are all about improving your REALationship and we gotta tell ya, this is a great way to do it. Our communication is improved, our values aligned, and we actually feel like a team. This, surprisingly, has brought us closer than ever.

We know how scary it is to finally look at the numbers. To finally admit where you’re going sideways. And now we know how incredible it feels to have a plan that works. To actually be a team and striving together. The best part?

You can do this, too.

We have a LIVE Webinar diving into our Debt Free Journey coming soon.

If you’d like to be on the waitlist, head here and sign up! We can’t wait to go into ALL THE DETAILS in our hour together!

Any questions or encouragement for us? (We’d love to hear it!) Leave it below!
And if you’re in this journey, too–You’re not alone!