I would like to start with sharing a couple of HUGE monthly debts that we have had over the last few years.
In 2004, we bought a brand new SUV. We paid nothing down and had a $798 a month payment, for 6 years. We tried to justify the payment by saying we always had old vehicles that would break down and we were having spend a lot of money to get them fixed and blah, blah blah! In my thought process now, there is never a good reason to buy a brand new car, unless it's been through hail damage and you can get it for a heck of a deal---and pay cash for it!
In October of 2009, we made the decision to move back south from the very cold north. At that time we owned a home up north and moved before we had sold it. The economy was still slow, but we thought that after the first of the year, in 2010, things would pick up and our home would sell and everything would be fine.
We were so wrong, our home did not sell and everything was not fine. We had a $1650 mortgage to pay up north and rent to pay down south. Months past, and still nothing! Finally, after being on the market for a year and a half it sold--Praise God!
Matter of fact, the day we closed on our home was the same day that we sent our last payment off on our SUV. We were doing happy dances in our home--even our children were excited!
We like Dave Ramsey's "Snowball effect", so the freed up monies will go toward our other debt. We will also be starting an emergency fund.
This post is linked to:
Life as Mom
