Debt Free Journey Update – May 2019

It happened. Jake paid off his monster student loans! *Cue man tears*. We also hit a HUGE (like over $15K) debt payment this month which means we’ve paid off $54,612.59 to date. Holy crap, right?!

Remember last month when we told you about our Debt Free Fairy? Well, we decided to invite her early.

We paid over $15K towards debt this month. (Say whaaaat??!) Oh yeah. It sounds impossible so hang with us before we break this down.

First, let us tell you about what this month had in store for us.

This month, we had Taylor’s dad come and visit us for a week! We had such a good time. Our dad is super into nature and exercise so it’s easy to find free things to do while he’s here! (Hello, budget help!) So even though we took a day or two off work, it didn’t hurt us too badly financially. He also treated us to dinner one evening and brought his “Air Fryer” all the way to Vancouver to help us cook meals at home! Double win. Thanks dad! (Anyone else’s dad like gadgets, too?) Well, either way–we were so grateful for it! If you’ve tuned into our webinars, you know we’re big fans of meal prep and share tips like that to cut down budgets and spending.

We had a couple of unexpected expenses this month with our dog’s meds ($400) and some extra gifts for family (another $250). But as we’ve mentioned before, now that we know our finances so stinkin’ well, these hiccups don’t even phase us anymore.

We also had an unexpected guest of Taylor’s mom staying with us again for a surprise layover on her trip back from Europe. It was so great having our mama here again for a short while. It was her birthday when she was here, too so we factored in a few extra dollars on our budget to celebrate with her!

So…The debt free fairy.

This month we annihilated Jake’s student loans with the biggest debt payment to date at OVER $15K.
We threw $15,050.43 at our debt this month. Now if you’re wondering, “Where the heck did THAT come from!?” Let us fill you in.

Our goal every month is to hit a $4K debt payment. This month we were able to work some extra shifts, Jake got a $400 bonus from work, Taylor also got a $900 raise/month at the college with her promotion, and this all boosted our debt payment to $5915.93 — all on our own.

Then…BOOM.

If you tuned in last month, you’ll know we discovered an old life insurance policy from when Taylor was a kid that has a cash value of around $9.1K. OOOOh nelly. So, we initially decided to keep it while we still have debt, (cause, ya never know) and wait until that was the reminder of our debt balance before cashing it in. But we changed our minds. We decided to cash this in early for a couple of reasons.

1. We already have sufficient life insurance to cover us. It’s really unnecessary.
2. Jake’s student loans collect daily interest. Yeah. DAILY INTEREST. No thank you.
3. Our last (AND FINAL!!) debt isn’t due for 3 years so we planned on storing it in a high interest savings account until we need to write the check. If we waited and used this life insurance policy for that, it would end up costing us money because it would take us longer to pay Jake’s student loans and delay the interest advantage for us in the savings account by a couple of months. (In addition to the DAILY INTEREST CHARGES on his student loans. Robbery we tell ya.)

Anywho, this additional $9.1K led us somewhere un-freaking-believable:

A debt payment of: $15,050.43

And this means…We paid off ALL of Jake’s student loans and added a small chunk to our single remaining loan all in one swoop!! AHHHHH!!!

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Out of the 7 debts we started with, we only have one little guy left. Holy crap-o-la. We’re in the homestretch! So without further ado, here’s the nitty gritty numbers:

Our Debt Starting Balance: $65,865.64

Our Debt Starting Balance From April: $27,963.09

Our Debt Payment For May: $15,050.43

Drumroll…

Our Debt Ending Balance From May: $11,253.05

That means, to date, we’ve paid off… $54,612.59

We’re not crying, you’re crying.

That means we’ve paid off both our credit cards, ALL of Taylor’s student loans, ALL of Jake’s student loans, AND our personal loan. Done. Sayonara. See ya never. Good riddance. Now, we only have part of our home loan for our down payment left.

That’s it.

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When we started this journey, we thought it would take 26 months. A little over two years.

When they say it’s a debt snowball, they aren’t lying. The pace that happens as you get closer and closer to the finish line is unreal. We are SO tired of having this debt, we are more motivated than EVER to get rid of it forever.

That initial 26 months is now looking like 11 (or even 10?!).
(Read that twice.)

Yeah. Our jaws are on the floor, too. HOW UNREAL IS THAT? 11 Months. That means we will be debt free by the end of August. OF THIS YEAR.

GUYS.

*Cue more crying*

We can’t wait.

We can’t wait to start using that money to build wealth instead of pay people back. We can’t wait to travel and eat something other than beans and rice. We can’t wait to have a fully funded emergency fund and sleep well every night. We can’t wait to start throwing the money freed up every month to own our home early. We can’t wait to have NO MONTHLY PAYMENTS. Seriously, what is that?? We can’t wait to finally, forever, be free.

If you have followed along with us this whole way — THANK YOU. If you are on your own journey right here too, KEEP GOING. It’s not impossible. We know the weird looks you’re getting by living on a budget, we know the comments that get made about not “living your best life”. But hear us well; THIS WILL BE WORTH IT. Being debt free is actually living your best life. We know you can do it, you are so close to your next milestone and we’re right there with you rooting SO hard for you.

Okay, friend, that’s our 8 month update! Stay tuned for next month as we enter our home stretch.

If you want to see how we started and how we’re doing this, head here. We have our Debt Free Webinar Replay available here for short while, if you’d like us to walk you through the details of our plan, and our Budget Webinar Replay here if you wanna dive even further.

And as always, if you have any questions, just give us a holler! We’re more than happy to share what we’re doing so you can achieve this goal, too.

Can we ask a favour? Cheer us on? Just a little? Every comment, share, email, message, like–we notice. And it affects us. Like we mentioned, it really give us the extra push to keep going and stay accountable.

We can’t thank you enough! (We’re so glad you’re here!) See you next month!