My husband and I got married in 2006. At the time, I had around $22,000 in student loans and around $15,000 in a vehicle payment. We had heard of Dave Ramsey and my husband had even read Total Money Makeover. I read part of it and just knew there was no way I could ever commit. Before the birth of our daughter in late 2008 we had purchased another vehicle on credit because we “had to have” a safe, low gas mileage car. It wasn’t until she was born that I knew something had to change. We made too much money to be living paycheck to paycheck with very little in savings. I also realized after holding my precious baby for the first time that I wanted the option to stay home with her. We started out with about $55,000 in debt and thanks to downsizing vehicles and extra payments on the student loans, we should hit our debt free mark early this year! Thank you Dave for teaching our family that it’s awesome to be weird, and that normal is broke. I’m tired of keeping up with the Joneses. I’m so excited for that day when we can send our daughter to college and she won’t have to worry about student loan debt like I did!
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