Financial Freedom

Ok, so if I thought yesterday was a big day at the Phipps house, I was completely and utterly wrong.  Today’s events have been much, much more significant.   Are you ready for it??

Outside of our home loan, we are 100% DEBT FREE.

That is something to celebrate, people!!!  I’m going to get pretty personal with numbers here…and I feel no inhibition in doing so.  This has ALL happened at the hand of the Lord so to Him, we give every ounce of credit and glory!

When Wrex and I got married, we had a little over $100,000 in debt between the two of us.  Yes, you read that correctly.  $100,000.  YIKES.  (That honestly makes my stomach quiver now…)

How did we have that much, you ask?  Well….

• We both had vehicles that we were still paying on…
• He had bought a trailer house to live in during senior college, that promptly lost over half of it’s value once it turned 10 years old…
• We both had student loans…some of which were for out of state tuition, which isn’t cheap…
• We both had credit cards that had been used frivolously and whose balances were at their max…
• We had signed up for a buyer’s club of sorts that was designed to rob young adults of membership money under the guise of savings lots of said money as they made big purchasing decisions…basically, an incredibly unwise decision…
• We were simply living beyond our means…and had been for a few years…

I distinctly remember our breaking point…and it was ugly.  It came on the heels of a bad weekend anyways and it only got worse.  Long story short, Saturday night we ran to McDonald’s to get a quick supper, only to have our card declined.  Yeah.  It was that bad.  We couldn’t even afford to eat off of the dollar menu.  We.  Were.  Broke.  And?  Wrex still had to get to work Monday morning with a diesel truck that was sitting on E.

The Lord provided even in the midst of all of that reckless living.  I had won employee of the month at my job for the past two months and had been rewarded with “Downtown Dollars” – money that could be spent at any downtown business.  Thankfully, there was a Safeway grocery store downtown and we purchased gift cards with my “Downtown Dollars” and took those to a different Safeway that had fuel.  It wasn’t a very fun weekend.

It was, however, the turning point in our financial situation.  Wrexy had lots of windshield time between driving to work and driving the tractor, so he had been listening to Dave Ramsey quite faithfully.   (He’d been listening to Dr. Laura, too, but that’s another gag-inducing story).  He had come home several times telling me about the “debt snowball” and he thought we could do it, or should at least try.  I was quite hesitant because our situation just seemed plain hopeless to me.  I hadn’t even been tithing regularly because “we couldn’t afford it.”  (I remember conveniently leaving the checkbook at home on multiple occasions because the thought of handing over even more of our paycheck was terrifying).

After a lot of Scripture reading and a lot of pushing from Wrexy, we decided to do it.  What did we have to lose at this point??  I remember sitting in the pickup and listening with him one day.  On Fridays, people get to call in and tell about how they got debt free and they get to scream, “We’re debt freeeeeeeeeeee!”  I bawled at all of them because it seemed like such a wonderful goal…but one that was so far away…

To get started, we sold his old gooseneck trailer for $800 and paid off one of our smaller credit cards and then the snowball started.  We reigned in our spending and eating out and started tithing regularly…and it felt GOOD.

We moved soon after we started this process and the people he was working for provided our housing and utilities as part of his pay.  With this new situation, we opted for living off of my paycheck and paying off debt with his.

The Lord was soooooo faithful during this process!  Some things were cake to pay off and others felt like we were working for years…and we were.  We were dealing with the consequences of years of irresponsible living.  It hurt to think of all of the things that the money we were paying out towards debt could’ve been used for…

We took a break from our debt snowball when I was pregnant with Sawyer.  We only had Wrex’s largest student loan left and we went back to paying minimum payments for a number of reasons.  We had private health insurance and at the time, since we had gained enough financial freedom for me to quit my job and start the journey as a stay at home mom.   The state of Colorado didn’t require private insurers to cover maternity claims, so ours did not.  We knew a $10,000 – $20,000 hospital bill would soon be staring us in the face in a few short months.  (The Lord TOTALLY provided but that’s another story for another day.  Are you seeing a theme here??)

Soon after, Wrex left his job in an obedient leap of faith and we were soon jobless and homeless so the minimum payments continued.  Then, we found a job, found a house, made lots of improvements, had another baby and never really finished….until today.

The Phipps’ are DEBT FREE.  And?  You better bet your bottom dollar we’re calling big Dave on Friday! 

I’m not sure I can fully express the freedom that comes from owing no one.  The Bible talks consistently about the borrower being slave to the lender and it is so true.  When you are strapped for cash and saddled in debt, you can’t do the things that the Lord calls His people to do!  We love to give, and give abundantly, but when the money’s not there because you owe so many people, you can’t do that.  You can’t stash away for emergencies…you can’t bless people on a whim…you can’t afford a car breakdown or birthday gift or a broken leg…you just can’t.

But when all of those unnecessary expenses are gone and you budget and live within your means, you’re able to save for the future and you’re able to give in abundance and you’re not blindsided by unexpected expenses.  Your whole lifestyle changes!  Your thoughts shift from your bank account and “how in the world am I gonna pay for that??” to “what is the Lord asking me to do with this excess now?”  Financial issues are one of the top five reasons for divorce but when there is financial security, there is FREEDOM.  You don’t have to think about money all of the time…you can think about each other.

The benefits to being debt free far outweigh the sacrifices you have to make to get there.  Of course there were times when we just wanted to throw in the towel and call it good enough and just go buy a new car or go on vacation…but we knew we didn’t want to go back to living like we were that fateful Saturday at McDonalds.

The Lord’s heart for His people is FREEDOM…and that includes financial freedom.  He took our measly efforts and our $800 trailer check and helped us blow the door wide open on our debt.

I’m so thankful for my husband’s obedience, yet again.  Getting out of debt has changed our family forever – we don’t even own a single credit card – and we are MORE THAN FINE WITHOUT THEM.

I say all of this one, to brag on the Lord.  It is only by His hand and His provision and His prompting that we are here and two, to encourage you!  If you have a mountain of debt and it feels insurmountable, may I just say that IT IS NOT.  We have unburied ourselves from over $100,000 in a little over seven years (thanks to that two year sabbatical).  It can be done. 

If you have questions or want to know more or want help with a budget or a plan, call me, message me, track me down – we are more than willing to help!  Financially free IS the only way to live…

Next goal?  Ten year house payoff – ow ow!

Now show us some debt-free love, would ya!?  WOOOOOOOO HOOOOOOOOOO!