Everyone’s debt free journey starts somewhere. Ours started with recognition. We moved to MI in 2013 for Kerry to begin studying at the seminary and obtain his Master’s in Divinity degree. I got my job offer on the car ride to our new life here in Michigan. We knew that we would be living on one income while he was in school full time. Though the salary wasn’t what we expected coming out here, cost of living is so extremely low that we knew we would get by. At the time, we were only paying two loans – his and my undergrad loans. Because cost of living was so low, we “budgeted” our monthly expenses and spent the rest of the money we took home. That was our norm and we were fine with that.
I am very self-aware and recognized that:
1. I like nice things because I grew up having nice things (this can be detrimental to those who expect to have the same lifestyle their parents provided them without putting in the time and work their parents did to get to that point).
2. I liked having credit cards with high limits and valued a high credit score as if it was a gold medal that you wore proudly on your chest.
3. When I wanted something I got it – even if I couldn’t afford it at the time.
4. Every year I ended up paying off my credit cards and racking up new debt for the same type of things – the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results, and I was in a cycle of insanity.
We continued living this way – Kerry with his credit cards and me with mine. As he got closer to finishing school I was determined to give him the vacation of a lifetime because he worked so hard throughout his time in school. From the time he left Grenada when he was 5 he had never been back and I knew I wanted to get him back there- even if for a short while. So I found an 11 night, 12 day cruise to the Caribbean that took us to Aruba, Bonaire, Grenada, St. Lucia, Antigua and Barbados. I planned something for each island:
Aruba – UTV rides through the desert area
Bonaire – golf cart ride around the southern part of the island
Grenada – meeting his family and spending the day with them
St. Lucia – private tour of the island
Antigua – kayaking
Barbados – a cave tour, i.e. spelunking
On the ship – 2 spa days and 3 dinners that you pay for at the restaurants on board.
I grew up being rewarded for hard work. You work hard, you excel, you get something nice. Kerry is one of 9 and because of that he didn’t travel very much growing up. I wanted to show him that his hard work paid off and give him the vacation of a lifetime for his hard work in school. As I planned out the trip I watched the price of everything growing exponentially but kept telling myself you have a job so you can pay off the credit card over 6-7 months. So I booked everything that I wanted us to experience with that in mind.
Before this trip we went to Las Vegas for our friends wedding (using points earned from work travel to get free hotel stays) and we went to Florida earlier than our cruise departure to stay with friends (saving money I said).
During all of this a little voice nudged me saying Kamille you do know you will have to pay all of this off right? Is that what you want, to have all this credit card debt over your head? While we were on the cruise having a grand time it nagged at me. It nagged at me so much that I hit the “I’m sick and tired and I’ve had it” button – One of Dave Ramsey’s quotes. I knew after that cruise, this would NEVER happen again. We would never go on vacation that we didn’t pay for in cash and I wanted us out of debt for good.
I didn’t say anything to Kerry during the cruise because I wanted him to enjoy the vacation but when our flight arrived in Chicago and we had the 2 hour ride home the enormity of the cost of the vacation hit me. I prayed and asked for guidance to get out of this. I wanted to but didn’t know how.
We pulled into our small village, yes, you read that right, we lived in a village at the time, and there was a sign in front of a church that said Financial Peace University. I knew that my prayer was answered. The next day I said to Kerry that I want to go to Financial Peace University. That was January 16, 2016. We started Financial Peace University on February 1st.
Where are you on your journey to Debt Freedom? Are you thinking about it? Are you on it? Are you waiting for “the right time?” What’s holding you back?
