It was Cindi's 52nd birthday on which we took possession of 241 Hamel Avenue. We were more than a bit nervous. Having been blessed by going through Financial Peace University (with our great teachers Gary Mueth, may he rest in peace, and Brent Buckner), we'd saved up enough for a decent downpayment, but yikes! A 15 year mortgage seemed like a ball and chain around us again. Ugh.
Cindi is the more devoted follower of Dave Ramsey than I am. She loves listening to his podcast and she heard one day a debt free scream from a couple that were rather in the same boat we're in and who managed to pay off their 15 year mortgage in just 7.5 years. She thought: We can do this.
I got a little more inspiration from the notorious Mr. Money Mustache and the account on his site of a Canadian couple who did a similar thing. In short, both Cindi and I got on board to knock this thing out and NOT spend the fortune in interest that 15 years would entail.
And so despite our son's wedding a month or so after we got the house, and our youngest daughter's wedding last year, we starting throwing money at the mortgage like crazy. And yesterday, on October the ninth, two days shy of 7.5 years, we made our LAST mortgage payment. We are once again after those 7.5 years, 100% debt free, save, as the holy apostle enjoins us of the unending debt we have to love one another. And now we own not a part of, but the whole of, our rather modest little home. And it feels GREAT.
HUGE thank you to Dave Ramsey and his Financial Peace University, to my good buddy Randy Asburry who nudged and prodded us to get on board with FPU years before, and to my loving wife who kept the vision before us and took care of all the details of actually getting it done (yea, in Ramsey speak, she's nerd; I'm free spirit; I'd be toast without her).
No comments:
Post a Comment