Hi friends! Today I have a debt-free interview with Laura from www.dwellandwander.com. She is originally from the Sunshine State of Florida but she and her husband and call North Carolina their “home base” for now. In 2017 after paying off about $40,000 they sold most of their things, put their prized possessions in storage and purchased a new-to-them 27 foot camper. Paying off their debt gave them the space and freedom to dream big. They’re now traveling the USA in their camper full time, working from the road and loving the journey they’re on. 

What kind of debt did you have? How much was it? And how long did it take to pay off?

We had a combination of student loans for my husband, a car loan and I would typically carry a credit card balance about $1,000, combined approximately $40,000. When we stopped self-justifying our debt and got serious about paying it off, we paid it off in about 6 months.

Why did you decided to pay off your debt? 

Soon after we married we took Dave Ramsey’s Financial Peace University class at our church. It was a great way to easily start the conversation about money in marriage. I’d recommend the class to any and everyone, married or single.

My husband carried a student loan and a car payment into our marriage and I carried a credit card balance of about $1,000 because I used it as a main form of payment thinking I’d get rich off of points. His interest rates were low and I knew eventually the debt would be paid off by the loan repayment schedule. Debt in our culture has become normalized, we’ve become immune to others literally owning portions of our lives trying to keep up with people we don’t even like.

During the class Dave discussed Proverbs 22:7, “The rich rule over the poor, and the borrower is slave to the lender.” It hit home for me, I didn’t want to be a slave to anyone, especially Bank of America or Sallie Mae. As a Christian I’m called to live in freedom, not enslaved to anything – including debt. We resolved to forget the loan repayment and pay everything off as soon as possible.

What strategies did you use to pay off your debt? 

We decided to live off of my salary solely which was the less of the two and save my husband’s salary completely. We spent out of one bank checking account and had his paycheck go completely to another bank account that we let continue to accumulate. Separating the accounts at the bank made it harder to transfer money online from savings to checking and eliminated the temptation to spend the funds. This helped us to very quickly pay off the debt.

We said “no” a lot during this time, we lived within our budget and got use to not always being able to eat our or shop whenever we felt like it. My husband Mike is also in sales, he worked tirelessly on closing a few huge deals that attributed to our quick repayment.

How has your family been impacted by your financial journey?

Paying off our debt was a heart change for me. We held onto the cash in the bank as it continued to grow and continued with the minimum payments. In fact, I’d be lying if I didn’t admit that I often considered if we should just continue the minimum payments and keep saving the cash.

Everyone has debt, I reasoned with myself. I realized it was my fear of the unknown holding us back from becoming truly financially free though, a freedom I believe we are all called to live in. I feared losing the quick access to cash and feared the unknown of the future, “what if we need it?” I kept saying.

I felt like God was saying to me though “if you believe in my goodness, you believe I will provide enough for you and Mike.” So we eventually used the cash to completely pay off the debts and that’s when our lives took a crazy turn.

What was the hardest part about getting out of debt?

It was such a discipline for us. We could have been living a lavish lifestyle, traveling more, living in a fancy high-rise in central downtown making a generous yearly combined income. However, we lived solely off my individual income while we were paying off debt which meant we had to make sacrifices on what we could have. We by no means struggled but it was such a discipline to live with less and not live impulsively.

What are your goals now that you’re debt-free?

Our long term goals include purchasing residential and commercial rental properties. I passed the North Carolina Real Estate exam last year and hope to manage the properties on my own eventually. We also have a goal of continuing to share our story, hoping to inspire others to truly become financially free. We hope to teach the Financial Peace University class eventually one day ourselves.

How has your life changed by being debt-free?

Becoming debt-free and learning how to budget gave us the space and ability to dream. And dream BIG!

I quit my corporate America job after paying off our debt and realizing that we could actually live fully on Michael’s income if we continued to budget wisely. I had a successful career in Supply Chain that had at one time been my dream, I realized though that Corporate America was no longer my dream and I wanted to try a few other careers. I had dreamed of quitting to try other things for so long but it was only once we paid off our debt and truly got a hold of our finances this was possible. 

We thought next on the list was to purchase a home. We put an offer on a house; however, during the due diligence found additional damage that was unforeseen when we made our offer. We decided to pull back on purchasing a home and began to feel unsettled. We were uneasy for some reason after we pulled our offer and didn’t know why. The “normal” sequence of American life is education, marriage, buy a house, have a baby. Buying a house was the normal next progression but it didn’t feel right.

We had honeymooned in New Zealand after getting married, we loved how everyone had such pride in New Zealand and it was so common to RV the whole country. After our trip we began dreaming of RV’ing America later in life.

After I quit my job though, we had confidence in our financial situation and Michael’s job is a work from home position we started wondering, why not travel now? We started making steps towards traveling the country. I started to sell our stuff, we purchased a larger SUV for towing (in cash), we toured at least 30 campers from RV shows to Craigslist, we finally found the one that felt like it could be home and purchased it (with cash). We didn’t know all the steps or all the things to do to RV the country but we just kept moving forward. Eventually our launch day of December 11, 2017 came and we were off. 

I didn’t know becoming debt-free and taking hold and ownership of our financial situation would change our lives so much. When I quit my job I didn’t know within the year we’d be full time travelers. But each decision was an intentional progression towards chasing our dreams and living this one life in absolute abundance.

Tell us about your blog! What’s it about and why did you start one?

My blog is www.dwellandwander.com

I had always dreamed of blogging but feared no one would want to read what I said, that I had nothing notable to say. It wasn’t until Kate from the Small Things Blog encouraged me by saying “people will want to read what you have to say for you being you. If you want to blog, you should blog.”

My blog is about chasing my dreams, exploring America, living intentionally and learning to find joy in the journey. I want to capture what living in a camper is like, inspire people to explore America and show that living on purpose will change your life. I want people to see that you CAN chase your dreams and not just wonder or wish for them but it takes hard work and making wise choices.