Hi everyone! Today I have a debt-free interview with Josh from brokenomoreblog.com. Josh and his wife, Mariah, have been married a little over three years. They started their debt-free journey 29 months ago due to us being stressed all the time about money. Since then, they have made so much progress in their financial lives! Enjoy their story.
What kind of debt did you have? How much was it? And how long did it take to pay off?
We had around $70k in debt. Most of that ($40k) was student loans. We also had medical debt, credit card debt and a car loan of about $9k. It took us 29 months to pay everything off.
Why did you decided to pay off your debt?
We just got tired of “not having any money” and wondering where all our money was going. When we first got married we were making over 100k as a household. It wasn’t until my wife decided she wanted to quit her job and start her own business that we got serious. We also cut our income in half at that point. So it was tough but we made a lot of progress.
What strategies did you use to pay off your debt? What was the craziest thing you did to get out of debt?
We used the snowball method made popular by Dave Ramsey. It helped us set smaller goals and kept us from getting super frustrated along the way. The craziest thing we did was taking on multiple jobs. My wife worked 4 part time jobs over the course of our debt repayment. I worked as much OT as I could and we threw it all at the debt.
How has your family been impacted by your financial journey?
We feel like we can finally breathe again. When we first started paying off debt, we were paying $800 a month in normal monthly payments to our student loans. Getting rid of those payments has taken away so much stress from our lives. We are now focusing on long term goals and having more freedom to give and invest our finances.
What was the hardest part about getting out of debt?
I think the hardest part was having to say “no” to certain things such as purchases or events with friends. Luckily for us we have a great support system that understood what we were doing and supported us along the way. The other hard part was sticking to a budget and working a TON of hours. It’s exciting at first, but it gets old FAST. Definitely takes discipline to keep pushing forward and working hard.
What are your goals now that you’re debt-free?
We want to save up for 3-6 months of expenses and then start saving up for a down payment on our next house. I would also love for us to keep working hard and retire early!
How has your life changed by being debt-free?
Since it is so new to us, it hasn’t really changed much yet. I think once we get our 3-6 months expenses saved up we will relax a lot. I feel sure we will take a few more weekend trips and I will definitely play a lot more golf!