I'm Debt Free *****es!
- Thread starter BurlyShirley
- Start date
ha...funny you mention it. we've been on it for about a year now. went from $13k in debt to less than $1k now. should be able to yell "freeeeeedom!!!!" next month 
it works. it's just good 'ole common sense, the stuff our grandparents lived by before the credit industry took over.
only payment i'll have is a mortgage and i plan on having that done in about 10 years.
...and apparently, all of this financial security stuff (read: living on cash only and putting a good chunk of income in savings/investments) is quite the aphrodesiac :love: 
edit: we live by the "envelope system". our friends find it amusing to go to the store with us and see my wife pull out the envelope marked "grocery money" from her purse. then if we go out to eat afterward she pulls out the "dining out" envelope. once the money is gone from each envelope we don't buy anything from that category until the next payday. quite simple actually. i have envelopes everywhere! gas money, haircut money, personal money, clothing.....work related....car repair.....
it's kind of fun.
it works. it's just good 'ole common sense, the stuff our grandparents lived by before the credit industry took over.
only payment i'll have is a mortgage and i plan on having that done in about 10 years.
...and apparently, all of this financial security stuff (read: living on cash only and putting a good chunk of income in savings/investments) is quite the aphrodesiac :love:
edit: we live by the "envelope system". our friends find it amusing to go to the store with us and see my wife pull out the envelope marked "grocery money" from her purse. then if we go out to eat afterward she pulls out the "dining out" envelope. once the money is gone from each envelope we don't buy anything from that category until the next payday. quite simple actually. i have envelopes everywhere! gas money, haircut money, personal money, clothing.....work related....car repair.....
it's kind of fun.
...oh yeah, debt free until I get married that iskizzi77 said:yeah, thanks!
there about about 6 people on my patrol team doing the ramsey thing. it's really cool to see people bucking the credit trend and going back to common sense budgeting. i only wish our government could do the same :mumble:
for real.manimal said:
I paid off everything I owed last year. I have no bills cept insurance and rent. Kind of a good feeling.
That is, as kizzi mentioned, until I start going to a private university next year. Going to cost a ****ing mint, and Im borrowing money to do it.
There is no other way tho.
no real wedding. prolly vegas. looking for a black midget elvis to do the ceremony.LordOpie said:
Well, Gary Coleman will do just about anything.
Debt free except for a mortgage and car payments. Can't really get around a morgage at this stage of the game and with a 1.9% car loan it doesn't make sense to pay it off.
Did the debt free thing in order to take 4 months off of working/city life and just travel and have fun. The only bills now are food, car insurance, and cell phones. 
When I work again, the next "debt" to pay off is what I owe my folks for helping with college and such. Otherwise, time to start saving/budgeting, the car won't last more than another couple of years, and I want someting a touch spiffier.
When I work again, the next "debt" to pay off is what I owe my folks for helping with college and such. Otherwise, time to start saving/budgeting, the car won't last more than another couple of years, and I want someting a touch spiffier.
Ya, but once your other debts are paid down, those large student loans suddenly look a lot more manageable - albeit a two or three year financial commitment to paying them off. Just take the money you were putting towards your other debts and apply all of it (okay maybe a percentage to yourself as a reward for hard work) to your loans.the Inbred said:
That's how I had to pay my debt down, was by not increasing my personal spending at all even as my debts were paid off. Instead, when one was paid off, the money I was spending on that each month was immediately applied to the next until everything was gone. Stressed me out something horrible for a long time, as I wasn't following any program and I hate money or balancing my checkbook. My sweetie was a huge helper in getting me past the hard stuff by patiently sitting with me and letting me rant and rave, and joining me in the cheerathons as everything was paid down. Felt so good in the end I took a 4 month vacation! woohoo!
I haven't used credit in nearly 3 years. I have student loans that will hit soon, but I plan to pay those down as fast as possible.
I still don't have much for savings or investments, but I am changing that real soon with the new job.
I still don't have much for savings or investments, but I am changing that real soon with the new job.
Yeah I have read it and recommend it to my clients. Unfortunately you really have to be commited to pull this off. (thats not typical in our microwave mentality nowadays).BurlyShirley said:
Manimal, If you dont mind me asking how long did it take for you and ms. manimal to get the process started? You know until you were doing the envelope thing without thinking about it.
A geoduck dressed as Elvis?kizzi77 said:hmmm
I was think midgetier. And elvisier!!
Crap. It's not necessary to "spend the rest of your life in debt". In fact, it's stupid.hooples3 said:
I wish I was totally debt free but besides mortgage, car and a student loan I'm only sitting about 1500 bucks in the hole... now if I could just shave off some of these monthly utility bills I would be set.
We have about $5k in outstanding debt right now, but it'll be paid off within the next 2 months. Part of my yearly bonus will pay off my wife's student loan (3k), and then when we get our tax return, part of that will pay off the rest, which is credit card debt (2k). We're not paying that off first simply because it's 0% interest.
dept cn be good.....
I have dept (mortgage) but (monthly) its less than a apartment half the size of my house, and I am constantly building equity
another time dept is good, use someone elses money to make money
I have dept (mortgage) but (monthly) its less than a apartment half the size of my house, and I am constantly building equity
another time dept is good, use someone elses money to make money
...but debt involves risk. If you broke both your legs and couldnt work forever, you'd be in trouble. If you were free of debt, yet still applied the same amount of money to sound investing, you'd be subject to some risk, but no the kind where you lose your house.douglas said:
Now we just need to define "sound investing".
I wont get into that, because Im no expert, but specifically what I meant was not investing with your livelyhood. If you lose money on an investment, thats one thing, but losing your home is another. Its what you put at risk.johnbryanpeters said:
here's how it all started.beestiboy said:
i had a friend at work who is a financial advisory by trade and cop by choice. he heard dave ramsey on the AM radio station one day and thought it sounded cool. he listened to it for 5 days (3-5pm m-f) and was able to get enough info to start. another friend had the cd's and let us borrow them. he tells you how to do everything and keeps it simple. it is true that you MUST BE COMMITTED. you have to HATE DEBT with passion and realize that THE BORROWER IS SLAVE TO THE LENDER no matter what it is, even a car loan with 1.9% interest.
so anyway, once we committed to it we had to save $1k to put in savings to use in place of the contemporary "emergency credit card". that amount covers anything we've run into this past year and makes those little disasters a financial inconvenience instead of a catastrophe.
the most important thing...and the answer to your question, is living by a budget. it took us one long night to do our first "debit equals credit" budget where every penny that we had was given a name and put somewhere. we used to just pay bills and do whatever with what was left. now, with the envelopes, all of that money goes somewhere because if you don't tell it where to go, it'll disappear.
so i guess it took us about 1 two week pay period to get used to it and then, of course, things come up that you forgot to include and so we adjust it the next month. we make sure to pay our tithe (charitable giving if the whole judeo-christian thing isn't for you) and ourselves through savings first. then we break it down into all of the other obligations paying debt last, after our basic needs our met.
it was really difficult to sit down and do a complete budget the first time but we have it down to an art now. it makes life so much less stressful.
i'll gladly help anyone out with some tips if you're interested in getting started. just send me a pm.
BurlyShirley said:
um, I'd just sell the house...and put $100,000 in my pocket
not sure about you, but I'll take $100k over lint
I think the house is a pretty sound investment if you buy sensibly. Renting is a net loss.douglas said:
the modern belief that you need credit to build credit is a myth. there are many lenders that will look at past rent payments to qualify for a mortgage. with that said, a mortgage is about the only unavoidable debt one can have and it's better than paying rent if you can afford to put money down when you buy the house, however, why would you want to pay it for 30 years giving the bank about $80k of your money on top of a $100k loan? we're going with a 20 year mortgage and plan on having it paid off in 10 just because it cuts the interest payments by more than half.douglas said:
it's just a mentality that our society has adopted that it's ok to buy things we can't really afford as long as we can make payments. so what went wrong with our grandparents mentality of saving your money to buy something you want? (not referring to your comment douglas, just bringing up another point)
Sorry, but I still fail to see how the debt is good just because it is managable. Would you mortgage your house to invest the money in something else?douglas said:
The debt's not good, but things are set up so it's hard to do otherwise. I would like to see someone offer a sound economic plan to minimize lifetime debt service cost. Theoretical for me because our mortgage is long paid.BurlyShirley said:
What's your plan, if any, to grow the capital needed to buy a home?
sounds like this dudes system forces people into a budget plus gives a few ways to save $ / avoid paying tons of interest....makes sense but i do the things mentioned so far already (or in a varied way)
no doubt 20 year or bimonthly is a better way to go....I went w/a 30 but I pay extra every month, so my 30 will be paid off 5-10 years early
I use my credit card, and pay it off monthly, every month.........and its the GM card so when I bought my truck I had a $3500 GM card cash back credit, free money rules!
no doubt 20 year or bimonthly is a better way to go....I went w/a 30 but I pay extra every month, so my 30 will be paid off 5-10 years early
I use my credit card, and pay it off monthly, every month.........and its the GM card so when I bought my truck I had a $3500 GM card cash back credit, free money rules!
Yeah, that's the key. Whether you use this evelope system, or have an elaborate spreadsheet on your computer or whatever, most of use working slobs need to have a budget in order to get and stay ahead.manimal said:
Before meeting Kizzi77, it wasjohnbryanpeters said:
1. Rent Cheap and save money to buy land.
2. Buy land, keep renting (or buy sh***y trailer) slowly build home
3. Move in, no mortgage.
and ask yrself that if you live in a metro area of the country.johnbryanpeters said:
This is similar to what we do. We have an airline miles card that we use for everything. Whenever we use it, we write it out of our bank account spreadsheet. Since its written out of our account, when the monthy bill comes, we always have the money in our account to pay it off in full. We travel a lot between Denver and St. Louis, and with our system we get about 2-3 free airline tickets per year.douglas said:
yes.BurlyShirley said:
In the long run you will be (financially) much better off buying a house/having dept then you would if you just had an aprtment.
besides itemizing and getting more $ on my tax return, dont forget every 2 years I can sell my house, make up to $50,000 and pay zero tax on that profit
I realize that. Its obviously better to own a home, but Im saying that a paid off home is always better than a home you owe money on because it is no longer at risk.douglas said: