debt payoff

Allison Baggerly and her husband partnered together to pay off $111,000 of debt in 4 ½ years. They completed this difficult feat on two teacher’s salaries with two little kids at home.

We’ll have to completely overhaul our budget to accommodate the realities of my new paycheck

Today, we’re going to be talking about something that is, for some reason, extremely taboo. So, I made sure to get my Taboo Tea here! *sips* Because, we’re going to be talking about debt. And, for some reason, bills and money and debt is something that is just not talked about.

When we really got serious was when we had our first child, and we didn’t have enough money to fix our car that had broke down on the side of the road. And we had a thousand dollars worth of repairs, which—in the grand scheme of life—is not earth-shattering, but because we did not have it and we had an infant to cart around, we were really concerned. And so what does a person do when they can’t fix their car but they need a vehicle to get to work?

I just… I didn’t like how it felt. I knew we had all these student loans that we had carried with us from college, and so that was the real event that got us kicked into gear and started our debt-free journey.

Chris explains how he racked up so much consumer debt without even realising it. After paying for his wedding and simply not keeping track of his credit card, he ended up $26,000 in debt. It wasn’t until he took a good look at it that he decided to get rid of it: by moving in with his parents and keeping on a strict budget.

There’s a lot of connections between say, people who are in the extreme debt repayment space in the personal finance arena, and F.I.R.E. folks. It’s just that their energy and focus is just on a different end result. And I thought that I would talk a little bit about why I was reluctant to be called a ‘F.I.R.E. blogger’ but why I felt like it was important to be identified as a person who is ‘F.I.R.E.-focused.’

Tons of so-called personal finance “gurus” advocate never going into debt, but for most people that’s simply not an option (and that’s ok).

I’m a firm believer that just because you’re trying to get out of debt, doesn’t mean you can’t have fun. And

Now, it is no surprise that most rich people are reviewing their goals and making goals. Author Thomas Corley, Rich Habits, found that 62% of all rich people not just set goals but they review them every single day. When is the last time you reviewed your goals?

The first thing we had to do, once I added up all the debt, once I had my UGH-Sick-and-Tired Moment, we had to get real with our spending. So, I needed to see where exactly all this money had gone. We don’t live in the lap of luxury. Yeah, we have a flat screen television. The couch behind me? Bought that secondhand. Fancy car in the driveway? Nah, at the time we were driving an ’07 Honda Odyssey minivan. We really didn’t have anything to show for the almost-$60,000 in debt that we in fact had.

I prefer the hybrid method of the debt bonfire, because I want to utilize every available method and take advantage of the best aspects of each one. If you find yourself making exceptions to the debt snowball or debt avalanche method, maybe it’s time to admit that you should be creating your own plan too!

It’s so clear how these principles can affect an entire generation of African Americans. We consider the wealth gap to be a crisis, and we’ve seen firsthand how transparency around money has changed our marriage for the better, and improved our financial outlook. And raising a son in a debt-free household changes the way that we parent, it changes the choices that are available to us.

We are here to help you continue your debt journey… because it can be a long one!

You can become a control freak with your money. But at some point, you have to understand that you cannot control everything. Use your precious energy and time for things that you can actually control. Leave the other stuff for the universe to figure out.