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Cents + Purpose originally began as a debt-free blog. You see we have been on a scary, amazing, and blessed journey the past few months and by the grace of God, we are almost debt-free!
I felt compelled to take the gifts we had been given and pay it forward to help other families just like us and I decided writing a blog about our journey was the way to do it.
My husband and I have been married for almost 14 years now and we have been broke from day one.
We were lucky if we had $50 between the two of us when we opened our first joint bank account.
We got engaged quickly and spent our whole engagement saving for the wedding!
We both had decent jobs and lived above my in-laws 3 car garage, which my husband had turned into a cute little apartment (and they let us live there for next to nothing).
Soon we bought our first house and boy what I wouldn’t do to still have that teeny tiny cute little mortgage!
We had our first child while living in this home and the thought of putting her in daycare broke our hearts.
While I was on maternity leave we decided I would not return back to my job.
Shortly after we decided to sell our house and move to a nicer neighborhood. In hindsight, I think this was really our first big financial mistake since it doubled our mortgage!
We liked that house, hated the neighborhood, had another baby, I went back to work full-time, and we quickly decided to move.
Again?! And guess what?
Yup, the mortgage almost doubled again! But, ya know…hindsight and all that stuff…
We were making around $100,000 and had no money. Ever.
What we did have was a pretty big mortgage, student loans, two car payments, and maybe some small credit card balances.
We would pay them off every so often with tax returns, etc.
But never any actual money.
https://youtu.be/f*ckc6KmnxpQ
Then we had the brilliant idea that I would leave my job to be home with the kids. I mean, do you see a pattern here?
Honestly, it was the best decision and a LOT of thinking went into it, it was not a decision made lightly and I believe that decision saved our marriage so I don’t regret it…BUT it put, even more strain on an already stressful situation.
We were house poor (and we didn’t live in a mansion).
We were car poor (and we didn’t drive luxury cars).
I’m skipping a lot here but most of you already know this story all too well.
Enter: Dave Ramsey (cue royal fanfare)
He saved our family.
He saved our marriage.
He is my financial mentor and BFF.
He is one of my favorite people.
I love everything he stands for and I’m so grateful for his ministry!
Because of him, we have made leaps and bounds toward financial freedom (we still have a ways to go)….because of him we finally have hope for our future.
Don’t know who this magical man is?
I could go on for days so instead, I’ll suggest you just google him.
And if any of this post struck a chord with you please do yourself a huge favor and grab one of his books!
I promise you that if you read with an open mind and {more importantly} an open heart it will put you on a path to change the entire trajectory of your life.
Promise.
Happy to have you along with us on our debt-free journey! Let me know below if you are also on a similar journey?
Kristin Stones is the owner of Cents + Purpose, an online community dedicated to sharing practical personal finance content. Her mission is to equip women with the necessary tools and knowledge to take back control of their money and live a more purposeful life. She creates actionable content to help her audience achieve financial wellness using her simple approach to managing money - all learned through her personal experience of paying off almost $55,000 of debt in under two years.
