I Cry at the Gym

It's true.

I get emotional when I workout.

It's my own fault.

I listen to Dave Ramsey podcasts and every time someone tells the story of their debt free journey and does their debt free scream I get all misty.  Especially when the stories hit close to home.

Kevin and I steered clear of debt until we financed our first car after we'd been married about 3 years.  Now the world would tell you that car debt is okay, but Dave teaches a different way.

We started with car loans, then a house, and home improvements put on 12-months-no-interest-same-as-cash credit lines (Which I always payed off, except for that one time I bought carpet and thought the 12 months ended in October but really ended in September and I had to pay over $700. in interest, even though I had the money to pay it off sitting in the bank.  I still remember the day the bill came and I realized my mistake.  I spent some time in the garage having a minor breakdown.  Needless to say I've not done a 12-months-no-interest-same-as-cash since.) 

  

So our first biggest mistake several years into our marriage was car debt.  We even leased a couple of cars (what were we thinking?!?!).  Our next biggest mistake came about 10 years into our marriage with business debt.  Due to some poor money management and bad business decisions we got into some horrible credit card debt.  For the first time in our life we had debt collectors hounding us and our extended family.  It was embarrassing.  It was terrible.  The debt was crushing us and we almost lost everything.  The house, the business, we did lose the Caravan, which the husband didn't really like anyway, but still, it stunk.

With the help of the Lord, lots of prayer, and family, we avoided bankruptcy.  With the help of Dave Ramsey, we've been able to climb out of the debt hole we dug ourselves into.  We attribute not losing everything to the fact that no matter how bad things were, we continued to have faith and we always paid our tithing.  Always.  

We no longer have any personal debt except for our house and it will be paid off in a few years.  We are working on our 6 month emergency fund and we continue to pay down business debt which is a fraction of what it was.  We do our best to teach our kids smart money skills so they don't make the same mistakes we did.  We try to remember our money is actually the Lord's money and he's given us stewardship over it.

And I would say to those who are feeling burdened by debt.  

You can climb out.  

Dave Ramsey was the key to helping us and he can help you.  

Check out his website HERE.