I live, write, and garden in the PNW with my husband of 27 years, disabled daughter, college-aged son, and my 84-year-old mother. We have paid off $250,000.00 worth of debt (if you include the interest) in the last fifteen years and as of 6/12/2020 are 100% DEBT FREE!!!!On the 12th we passed our one year debt free mark. It has been an interesting year. The freedom that comes with not having the oppression that debt provides is remarkable. While not much else has changed here, attitudes have. Tension levels have. Loosening the reins is something allowable.
Are we as far ahead as I had hoped we would be? No. And Yes. Medical bills continue to be a thing we have to plan for. The unexpected always has a way of rearing its ugly head. Yet at the same time, we have paid them all as we went.
We have taken on 15% retirement savings for the last half year and succeeded and that is something major that I thought we'd really struggle to do, but it is no different than living with a large portion of income that went to debt each month, so I feel like we were training for this.
Did I save as much money into the EF as I wanted? No, but we are still quite a ways ahead. Part of that reason is that I decided I wanted to bulk purchase meat. Part of that reason was that we ate out far more than intended because we had the freedom to. And part of that reason was replacing a lot of items that we simply put off replacing while we were in debt.
We were able to fund all the sinking funds that I planned for without it being difficult. At no time did we have to put anything on a credit card because we hadn't saved up ahead of time. While we do still use our credit card, it is only for convenience and autopays and is paid off in full every payday.
We have increased our net worth substantially in the last year. At no other time in our married life can I say that. My goal for 2022 is to refocus on getting the EF up to six month's expenses, but we will have to see how it goes. The rest of this year's would be deposits will be going to saving up for DS's braces instead. I have $3500 and need to save an additional $2500 before we can move forward. That I am hoping to achieve by year's end.
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