Share in Our Joy!

So, it’s been a little while since Stephanie and I have written for the blog. It’s not that we haven’t wanted to, it’s because it has been quite busy over here in the Adams’ house and we just haven’t had the time. But it’s a good busy!

It’s amazing to have the amount of support we have had over the past few weeks. We frequently get a text, email, facebook post, or a comment on this blog from someone saying how cool it is we are doing this. I will have someone tell me they are “inspired” by us and I’m shocked as I never thought I would do something inspirational.  It’s a weird thing, really, to inspire someone by doing something we should be doing anyway. It’s not like we are going to Thailand to stop sex trafficking or anything. All we are doing is trying to get rid of debt.

I have realized, though, why that can be so inspiring.

See, everything around us tells us to “buy now and pay later”. We are told to indulge in our desires now and then worry about the consequences later. We play off our mistakes as “not a big deal” and instead of trying to correct them, we live with them. It’s sad, really. In regards to money, we live beyond our means because we want to impress our friends. We want SO BADLY for people to pour approval on us that we go out and max out our credit cards and live with a mountain of debt.

Stephanie and I struggle with that. We would love to go out more often or buy things for our friends. We know that we won’t be able to buy everyone a “nice” present for Christmas this year. That sucks because we both love to give presents. Honestly, we probably enjoy giving presents because of how it make us feel and not as much bringing joy to the other person. I have realized more and more over the years that in order for change to happen, real change, I have to be completely honest with myself. I have to examine my motives and really ask myself why I am doing what I am doing. It’s a habit that I am glad I developed before this whole debt payoff thing started.

When you really understand your motives behind what you do, you realize just how rotten you are. I have heard a few people say that budgeting is putting restrictions on God and not allowing the Spirit to move in your finances. Well, I have NEVER heard of someone maxing out a credit card because they gave too much. Usually, they spend a ton on themselves and in order to cancel the guilt they feel from being so selfish, they give a lot away. I know, I’m being really cynical, but how many people do you know that are really unselfish and are also in a lot of bad debt? I’m going to say it’s not very many.

Isn’t it crazy how a young married couple, like Stephanie and myself, can inspire ANYBODY? We don’t know anything about marriage or life as a married couple. We haven’t been through many trials together. Yet, people are telling us that we are blessing to them. In my opinion, it’s because we are being a different than what the world is telling them. And all we are doing is paying our bills! That’s so crazy to me.

I may sound like an arrogant little punk, but that’s fine. I’m not trying to sound that way. But to me our “inspiration” speaks to something so much greater than just paying debt. It speaks to the fact that every human being wants to sacrifice and do something bigger than themselves. Stephanie and I have realized that to live the life God wants us to live, we have to be debt free. He can’t use us and bless those around us if we are always have to spend our free time trying to earn some extra cash to pay debt. I’m excited for when I can just have a regular job and pour my entire life into building His Kingdom.

Stephanie and I were not placed on this earth to spend our entire lives trying to pay off debt. We were placed on this earth to bring joy to our wonderful Father in Heaven. We are here to spread His Kingdom by both word and action. I hate that debt is restricting us. And I hate that it’s restricting you. How much longer are you going to stand by and allow it to take even an ounce of your joy away? I can’t tell you how much joy I had when we paid $1000 towards our debt. I am excited for the next $1000. I am excited to make that last payment. I get a little teary just thinking about that moment.  Don’t you want to experience that same joy?

And do you want to know where that joy comes from? It comes from knowing the sacrifice it took to pay that amount. Stephanie and I didn’t spend this last Saturday sleeping in and going for a walk in the park. We spent the day cleaning houses. Do you think we want to do that? Of course not. However, our hatred for our debt far exceeds our desire to sleep in. You have to hate your debt and get angry!

So, for those of you who feel like you are drowning, I am sorry. It’s not hopeless. First of all, you have a Father whose love for you is greater than anything you can imagine. His love will never change, it is perfectly constant. Secondly, there is a way out. Start a second or third job. Clean some houses. Make something people will want to buy. Do something! The fact that His love for you will never change will sustain you through the difficult times. I’m not saying He will make you rich because He probably won’t. That’s not why you are here. He will, however, encourage your spirit when you can’t see the finish line.

Please join Stephanie and I on this journey. We would love to have some people to share in our joy

-  Brian

Praising God

I just have to share with everyone how great this new journey of ours has been! I am learning so much through this process and I love it! Paying off debt has really taught me to trust God above all things, sacrifice, (like He did for us), and to simply just be happy with what I have. God is so amazing and has really opened my eyes to new things. Brian and I give Him all the glory and praise. We wouldn’t’ be able to do this with out Him.

The other night I was thinking about things I could sell to help pay off our debt besides cleaning houses every now and then (by the way, we have 2 houses this weekend!) and I decided to make and sell cards! You name it, I’ll make it! Birthday cards, anniversary cards, holiday cards, etc. :) Just let me know what theme you want! I thought this would be a great way to use my craft supplies that has just been sitting in my cabinet.. I would love to make one for you! I am charging $3 for each card. If you are interested, message me on Facebook, https://www.facebook.com/stephstuber?ref=tn_tnmn, or e-mail me at stephstuber@yahoo.com. Yes, I know I need to change my e-mail name still…

Here are just some that I have made enjoy!

-Steph

Goodbye $1000

It feels good. Stephanie and I went to the bank and deposited all the money from our debt jar. It was awesome, actually, to have an additional $1000 in our bank account. For a SPLIT second I thought, "Man, that's awesome. Maybe I should just keep it in there." But then I looked at the debt amount and felt sick. So I clicked the "Pay Now" button and there we go. It's $1000 I will never see again.

That's the depressing part. We had $1000 and now we don't. We used a good amount of our wedding money and didn't buy a few things we wanted in order to save that money. I mowed my parent's grass a few times and Stephanie did some babysitting. I liked having that money sitting in the jar. However, I like not having debt more.

I can't believe we paid $1000, what a blessing! Stephanie and I said a short prayer after we made the payment. It was really all God's doing in allowing us to make the payment that quickly. If it was up to us we would have taken that cash and gone on a cool trip or bought some dumb trinket. We are so utterly thankful that God is so very good to us. It's not just that He provided this money, but that He blessed us with all the support of so many people.

Honestly, it sucks seeing the debt amount and the interest that has been added up. I hate it. I hate debt. I hate how much bondage it gives. I also hate how so many people have bought into the "good debt" mentality. Good debt? That's like saying there is good bondage or slavery. Debt is not from God. Like I have said before, if we would just learn to save and be frugal, we would be able to avoid every kind of debt except maybe the house loan. Even then, people purchase houses without really knowing or thinking about what they are getting into (more on this later).

With all of that said, if you are in debt, what are you waiting for? Today is the day to begin paying down that garbage and move on with your life! Why waste another dollar on paying the minimum when, if you really tried, you could have it all paid and out of your life. Will Stephanie and I be able to pay off the other $40,800 in 16 months like we are shooting for? Probably not. But what if we do it in 3 years? That means we paid it off 22 years early! That's amazing. We will be able to use that money for so many other good things. Stop playing around with your debt and get going on it!

I know, giving up Starbucks and eating peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for lunch would be a very difficult thing to do. It's not supposed to be easy, though. It's the hard parts of life that change a person, not the times when everything is perfect. Put yourself in the hard times and cause yourself to change. If you are a husband, show your wife how much you love her and are committed to your family by stepping up and leading her in this. I'm so thankful I'm doing this now. I can't imagine saying, "Dang, I wish I didn't sacrifice and pay off that debt so quickly". It won't happen. However, I KNOW that I would regret putting it off and not stepping up to the challenge.

For all you ladies out there, be an encouragement to your husband if you are in debt. Ask him to step up and begin paying this off. I can't tell you what a blessing it is to have Stephanie by my side through all of this. Watching her sacrifice her wants and desires for the good of our family is one of the biggest blessings in my life. Be that blessing to your husband!

If you are single and in a lot of debt.Well, get to it! Bringing a bunch of debt into a marriage is really crappy and can cause a lot of strain on your relationship. Sacrifice now so that you can give your wife or husband all the wonderful things you want to.

Now Stephanie and I are gonna go open a credit card account to celebrate!!

Just kidding :)

- Brian

What We Want vs. What We Need

It is difficult to write anything for this blog right now. There are a multitude of different things going on that make paying down debt sort of not matter. My sister and her husband found out the baby they were going to adopt will not work out. It is a heartbreaking thing to watch from afar. I won’t get into all the details with you on this blog, but I do encourage you to go to their blog and see how God is working in their lives.

Paying debt and living on a budget is an unbelievably difficult thing. We tried to only spend $100 on groceries this month. We were committed to it and avoided buying a lot of the things we thought we needed at the grocery store. It sucked and we thought we were going to be able to end the month under that $100 goal. However, we did not.

We ended up spending $158 so far this month.

It’s not that we bought a bunch of junk food and lived on steaks and fancy food either! Honestly, it’s because we didn’t have a plan. We would walk into the grocery store without a list of what we needed or much of an idea of what was sitting in our pantry and fridge. It’s discouraging to fall short of a goal that seems so attainable. However, we have committed to not going back to the store until everything, and I mean everything, we currently have is gone. We realized that we were going to the store because we thought we needed to, when we didn’t. We had perfectly good food sitting in our pantry that we were avoiding because we didn’t “feel” like eating it.

Failing to reach our grocery goal really bothered me. I began thinking about “need” and what that really meant. It’s a word that I say all the time without really thinking about it. Watching my sister and her husband go through this difficult time has encouraged me to reevaluate how I view my life. I began to really think about what I needed versus what I wanted.

God has a way of driving lessons home for me. In the midst of me thinking about what I really need (and Stephanie for that matter), we sang a song in church this morning that had the 23^rd Psalm as the lyrics. The part that struck me was, “The Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not want”. I thought about that for a very long time and am still thinking about it. If I truly believe in Christ and what He did for me, I shall not be left wanting anything else. That’s a convicting thing to realize. I’m not saying I won’t want to eat or have nice things if I’m seeking after Christ. What I do think, though, is that if I am running towards Christ with everything in me, my view of possessions and what I think I need, will change drastically.

One of the greatest things about making a budget, and one of the crappiest, is it causes you to do a lot of self-evaluating. You no longer buy stuff because you “feel” like it and talk yourself into needing it. Honestly, Stephanie and I have had a few mini-arguments over such things. We will be walking around the grocery store and one of us (usually me) will pick out an item that we “need” only to have to have the other person say we don’t need it and to put it back.

Me: Look!  A sale on potato chips! They are so cheap, we have to get them!

Stephanie: Babe , why do you need that?

Me: What do you mean? They are tasty and only $2!

Stephanie: Put them back. We don’t need junk food.

Me: (Nodding in agreement while putting back the 4 bags of potato chips)

Okay, so maybe that’s not exactly what happens. But imagine seeing a couple arguing over whether they can afford chips or bread. It’s not a fun thing. It’s why we have decided to make the list BEFORE walking into the store because we are tired of making the other person upset and having those min-arguments in the grocery store. I can honestly say I never thought I would be at this point in my life, but I’m glad I am. I’m also glad I have a wife as wonderful as mine to show me incredible patience and love during this process.

Like I said before, it is very hard to be a newly-wed couple living on such tight budget. It would be wonderful to go out to dinner every week and do lots of fun things. However, that’s not what the good Lord has for us right now. We are sacrificing like crazy now so that later, we will be able to do a lot more.

I have been listening to Dave Ramsey a lot lately. He is always saying, “If you live like no one else now, later you will get to LIVE like no one else” and that is a very encouraging thing. Looking toward the future and knowing that this is just a temporary burden is wonderful. We are both excited to be able to use these experiences as a way to minister and encourage other people who are facing the same struggles.

We are working on a few things to generate some more income. We realized there only so many things we can cut out before there is nothing left. We even considered dumpster diving for our food! However, I don’t know if that will happen seeing as we aren’t homeless, but we aren’t ruling it out just yet. One of the things we are trying to do is clean houses. So, if you need your house (or apt.) cleaned, let us know! We will work for 2 hours for $65. Now, you get both of us so there is a LOT we can do in those 2 hours. If you would like us to work longer than 2 hours, let us know and we will give you a price. Please help us spread the word on this! The hatred for our debt is growing by the day and this would be a huge help in cutting into it.

Also, we have $930 in our debt jar! We will be making the regular $300 payment that we HAVE to make in addition to the $930 at the end of the month. It will be amazing to see our debt amount go down a little bit.

Thank you for all the continued encouragement and support!

- Brian

How to View Money

No updates today. A friend asked me why we haven’t updated the “Our Debt Progress” yet. I told him it’s because there hasn’t been any progress and I got a little sad. This is a difficult progress to be sure. $42,000 is a LOT of money to try and pay off, especially when our combined income isn’t even that much! I think this is why so many people have problems paying back their debt. They get discouraged when that number doesn’t change. They want to see progress more often, but sometimes it’s just slow. Yes, we will be making a large payment soon, but even that doesn’t seem very big. Even if we were to make $1000/month payments we would still be in debt for over 3 years. That’s depressing if you look at it that way. I don’t think we will be able to keep that up if the only thing we are focusing on is our progress.

So, how do we stay motivated?

Well, I think it comes down to our goals in life. Stephanie and I have to constantly remind ourselves that this is not forever. Even if we are stuck paying this off for 3-4 years, that’s really not THAT long in the scope of your whole life. We have to think about what we want our lives to be in 10 or 15 years. If we don’t stay committed to this then we will STILL be paying off our debt when our kids are teenagers.  How crappy would that be?

I think a lot of things in our culture tell us to be happy now and not worry about the future. It has been something beaten into us every day since we were little. We think we won’t be happy if we can’t go out to eat or buy Starbucks every day. When you think about it, that’s really dumb. It’s all about sacrifice. We have to realize that the habits we are creating now will follow us for years and years. If you have the habit of going to Starbucks every day, it’s going to be harder to break the longer you do it.

Paul said that he won’t be master by anything.  I love that. I love that he tried to live his life in a way that the only Christ was his Master. I think enjoying a coffee or a good meal is a great thing. God created good things for us to enjoy. However, if you begin to do it so much that you are addicted to it, I don’t think that is right. We are habitual creatures and will do what we are used to doing. If you are always spending money on yourself and what you want, then you will continue to spend money on yourself and what you want. However, if you begin to view your money as a way to change the world and change those around you, you will use it differently. See, I will be a father someday. The way I use money will affect my kids. If I am selfish they will also be selfish. However, if I give my money and time to something greater than myself then they will most likely do the same.

It’s not about your present happiness. It’s about those who will be influenced by you. Don’t live a life of self-indulgence because paying off your debt seems too difficult. We need to learn to view our money a different way. To me, that is how Stephanie and I will stay motivated. If we want to use our money to help others then we will stay motivated to pay off our debt so we can help even more people.   

How do you view money? What would your bank statement say about you?

- Brian

$12,000 in 4 Months

It’s been 2 weeks since we started this little journey.  It’s interesting how much our lives have already changed in this short time. We are both so aware of where our money is going and how we are spending it. It’s a very free feeling knowing that you have enough to pay your bills. I remember in my single days worrying about that from time to time. I don’t ever want to have that feeling again. Yes, things might happen that will put us in a tough spot, but even then we trust that God will provide for our basic necessities. 

However, if we are good stewards with our finances, it will be a lot easier to avoid those tough spots.

I remember about 18 months ago when I first heard about the whole “Dave Ramsey Plan”. I was living with a couple of friends in Tempe and making decent money. I did not have a budget and basically lived paycheck to paycheck. My car needed new breaks in the worst way and I, of course, did not have the money. It would cost about $900 to get everything fixed. So what did I do? I asked my parents to loan me the money. It was awfully humbling. I understand that sometimes you do need to ask for a handout, but this was all on me. I didn’t have any money saved up and should have been able to cover this relatively small expense. I remember having a moment where I was tired of living like that and needed help with my finances

So, I texted my sister Karen for help; what was one of the wisest things I have ever done.

We sat down and went over my budget. She discussed with me the “Debt Snowball” and how to pay off my debt and have a $1000 emergency fund. I decided to be “all in” and pay my dad back the money I borrowed, the $1500 I had on my credit cards, and the $10,000 I had left owed on my car. I didn’t really understand how much sacrifice it would take. I did the envelope system and drastically cut back on so many things. I put any extra cash I had towards my debt. I paid my dad off pretty much right away and began tackling the other debt I had. I stopped eating out as much and wasting my money on stuff I didn’t need.

I made my last car payment four months later. I pad over $12,000 of debt off in about 4 months. It was amazing to see what a disciplined financial life could accomplish.

Unfortunately, I didn’t keep that going. Instead of going after my student loan debt, I got back into my old habits. I had friends telling me I was making a “god of my budget” and putting my finances above God because I wouldn’t eat out as much. It was beyond discouraging. I have learned, since then, to not take financial advice from people who don’t understand the situation I’m in. I have been told, more than once, that what I am doing now is not what God wants. Instead, we are to trust Him with our finances and not have a budget. Sounds dumb right? Well, when you hear that a few times, you start to believe it.

This time, I have Stephanie to encourage me. We are doing this as a team and are fully prepared for people to think we are being “cheap” and not trusting God. That’s fine. Life is too short to live in the bondage debt provides. We have a goal and if God wants us to stop reaching for that goal, He will tell us.

Also, we do have a debt update! We have been saving and putting a lot of money in the “debt jar” these past few weeks. We are to about $750 and will be making a $1000 payment by the end of the month. It’s very exciting! Thank you for your continued support and encouragement!

The Budget

Here is the blog I have been dreading the most. So far it has been easy to write and not very revealing about how we are going about paying down this debt and how we are spending our money. Sure, I wrote a self-deprecating blog about how I suck at spending money and wasted way too many dollar bills on energy drinks and eating out. But that was "the past" so it makes it sound like I am great at, now, spending money. I'm not. Stephanie has to always remind me that "Just because it's cheap, doesn't mean you should buy it." So here is our budget. We are both working jobs that have semi-fluctuating schedules so we will each work between 30-40 hours every week. So, while that makes budgeting a little more difficult since we can't write down an exact amount for month's worth of income, we are still going to do a budget. It's our first REAL budget so I'm sure we will be changing it around and making it better as time goes on.

Our combined income is $660/week BEFORE taxes. That is with us working 30/hours in the week as that is the least amount we usually work in a given week. So, we will multiply 660 by 52 weeks and find out that we make a WHOPPING $34,320 (that "whopping" part was a joke). Just in case you were wondering, you want to make more money in one year than you owe back to someone or something (unless it's a house). We will take that $34,320 and divide that by 12 months to come up with an income of $2,860/month. Now, remember, this is before taxes so lets just say we make $2,500/month so we can have a nice round number. Remember, that is with us each working 30 hours/week so that number will probably be more on a regular basis.

Okay, here are the bills each month:
Tithe - $250 (10% of our take-home pay so this will change each month depending on our income)
Rent/Utilities - $900-$950 (we will use the higher amount of $950 for budgeting purposes)
Internet - $20
Gas - $250
Student Loans -$300
Health Insurance - $200 (this number will change, but not sure if it will be more or less)
Car Insurance - $150 (this number is also going to change)
Cell Phones - $100
Netflix - $8
Groceries - $100 
That's right, $100/month for groceries. I was talking to a friend about that who has a wife and 2 kids and he was shocked that we would try to only spend $100 on groceries. We don't have a reason to think it's going to be $100, but we are going to try. This means that I will be eating PB&J's every day for lunch and avoiding a lot of the junk food that costs so much money. We are both committed to that $100 goal so we will see if it is doable.
Credit Card - $50
I don't think I have talked about my credit card. I do have one card that has $652 on it. The reason we are not paying off the whole thing and then cutting it up is because I am need of building up my credit a little bit. We never use it and will be making those $50/month payments until it is paid off. It will take a while, we know, but in the mean-time I will be building back up my credit. My credit isn't bad, but it could be a lot better.
Charities - $125
Eating Out - $50 
This is something we struggled with figuring out. At first we were just saying, "We are going to avoid eating out no matter what." While that is a good goal, it became increasingly difficult to avoid and if we did spend anything we felt like crap after. Also, we don't want to be in "bondage" to our budget. We want our budget to provide freedom to our finances. Yes, we could be putting an extra $50/month towards our debt, but I think that restricting ourselves so much would do more harm than good.
Mad Money - $20 ($10/each)
This is also something we debated doing. However, it gives us a LITTLE bit of flexibility. This way we can get a coffee from Starbucks or an ice cream sundae every now and then without being riddled with guilt over breaking our budget.

That is a total of $2,573! Wow, living is expensive.

Well, if we make $2,500/month and have $2,573 in bills and such we are a little short. However, that $2,500 is the LEAST we will make in a month so I'm not too worried about it. As we go along we will be able to know exactly how much we will be bringing in and fine-tuning our budget.

We also need to budget in things like future presents, car repairs, and other misc. items. However, if we are $57 short on our budget, we should probably wait until we know more about our income.

So, those are our monthly costs. Yes, some things we could "do without" like Netflix, eating out, and the Mad Money. However, I believe that by cutting those things out we run the risk of hating this process and not using our money for enjoyment. Being in debt does bring bondage, but so does restricting yourself so much in your budget that you hate every single day of your life. Those numbers will most definitely change as this is our first budget and we are still figuring things out.

This is a process for us and we know that. We know we won't be pros and budgeting right away, but we are excited to learn and get better at it. Thank you for all the support!

- Brian and Stephanie

One Sacrifice

A couple months ago, our good friends Michael and Bayli asked us if we wanted to go to Puerto Vallarta, Mexico with them and a few other couples in October. Our first response was, “YES!” The deal for the trip was from Groupon and I won’t say how much it is on our blog, but it was a pretty good deal to have everything inclusive. Although we said we wanted to go, we told them that we would have to pray and think about it some more. So we did and it came down to 2 sides…. Either we go on the trip and have fun while we don’t have kids, or don’t go on it because we want to get out of debt ASAP so that we have close to NO debt when we have kids. We want to have kids sooner than later, so the trouble with going is that we would be spending money that we might need for a new baby and everything that comes with it. It was a hard decision, but we decided not to go.  Instead, we all planned a cabin trip for next month! It’s a lot cheaper and we can still have fun with our friends.

            The way I look at it is, the more we sacrifice and save now, the less we will have to do later. I would rather get the whole thing over with than have to deal with debt forever. We want to be able to show our kids someday that we both were disciplined in something that we wanted to accomplish together.  With all of that said, our prayer request is that we stay motivated to meet our goal for next year in November. 

Thank you for all of your prayers! 

-Steph

The Difficulty in Giving

It’s funny how difficult giving gets when you are trying to budget. For some reason, I ALWAYS forget to put that into my budget at the beginning. I will go down my list of bills and then come to the end thinking, “Sweet, I have some extra money!” then I realize I didn’t add in my giving. It’s not that I don’t enjoy giving or want to avoid it, I just forget that my tithe should be treated like everything else. I have to give. I am commanded by Jesus to give.

It’s honestly hard to do once you have started to pay down your debt. Stephanie and I have decided to give a 10% tithe and also another 5% to whatever charity we want for that month. That’s 15% of our income that can’t go towards debt. It’s not like we make a TON of money so every dollar matters to us now. We could really use that extra money. I would love to put that in savings or put it towards our goal of paying off our debt. However, that is not what we are commanded to do as believers. It sucks, to be honest. I often imagine how much faster we could pay off the debt with that extra 15% and try to talk myself into not giving that money away. It doesn't FEEL like the wise financial decision to give money away when you are in debt. But I know that is just my own selfishness wanting to keep more money for myself. Most likely I would spend that extra 15% on eating out or some new toy instead of putting it towards debt. 

I heard someone say “Do what’s right because it’s right until it feels right”. The Bible says that if we know what we should do, and don’t do it, we are sinning. Stephanie and I both know we should give, so if we don’t, it is wrong. That is a tough thing. Why can’t we just hold onto that money until our debt is paid off? I mean, would God really miss it? It’s not like we are giving tens of thousands of dollars, it’s only a small amount! There is no way He would even notice my lack of giving!

Well, of course that isn’t true. You know the story of the poor widow who only gave a few pennies? Well, Jesus noticed her giving that. He praised her because she was giving, not out of her excess, but she was giving sacrificially. It hurt her to give that amount. I doubt she was excited to give that. I bet she felt a calling to give that amount and acted in obedience. It’s interesting to me that there isn't anything said about Jesus telling her “good job” after she gave that amount. Just that He that He noticed it. We aren't asked to give to get an "Atta boy!" from Jesus. We are to give because it is an act of obedience. 

For us, we want to give in a way that will hurt a little bit. We don’t want to just have some extra cash lying around and give because it’s a good idea. Even though we don’t have a lot, we have way more than we need and are obligated to give that away. The Bible says that if we are faithful with little we will be faithful with much and that is very true. If we don’t give now, why would we give later? It is all about the mindset. If we truly believe that the money in our bank account belongs to God, wouldn’t we do what He wants us to do with that money? It’s not like He is asking me to give MY money to a charity. He is asking that we give the money He is letting us use to charity. It’s His money so we are to do whatever He want us to do with it.

In my opinion, giving away your money is one of the best ways to keep from making it an idol. Paying off debt can even become an idol if you let it be the most important thing in your life. However, if you are continually giving a portion of it away, and are faithful with giving it away, you will be able to view money with an appropriate view and not rely on it too much.

- Brian

How We Got Here

(Oops, this turned out to be a lot longer than I intended. I’m sorry if your retinas begin to hurt from staring at the computer screen for so long.)

I started attending Southwestern College (now Arizona Christian University) right after high school. Since it is a private, Christian college tuition is a good amount more than your regular state college, or at least it used to be. My original plan was to attend a community college for the first 2 years then transfer over to Southwestern so I could save some money. However, after talking with my parents I decided to attend all 4 years at Southwestern as they agreed to help cover a majority of that extra tuition. I don’t want to say that it was a mistake doing what I did, but taking all of my classes at Southwestern and not knowing how financial aid worked is the reason for the debt Stephanie and I are now trying to pay off.

I want to share with you the reason that I ended up with $48K in student loans and my parents also took out around that much to help pay for my schooling even though my degree actually cost about $45K in tuition . It’s a story that so many students can tell and I’m hoping it will be a warning to people who take out any kind of loan without fully understanding how it works.

Let’s take a trip back to the summer of 2004. I just graduated from high school and was trying to figure out the best way to complete my degree. As I said, I planned on attending a community college for the first 2 years and then transfer those credits over to Southwestern to save money. One night my parents sat me down and told me it would be a better decision to attend Southwestern for all my credits. They talked about the benefit in taking all my classes there as I would have a better experience. I told them that it would cost too much to do that. They countered by telling me they would help pay for those extra 2 years on top of helping with the entire cost of tuition. I thought and prayed about this and decided it would be in my best interest to attend Southwester all 4 years. I figured I would end up with about $20-$25K in student loans, at the most once, I graduated. I had a decent paying job for an 18 year old and thought I was good with money so I wasn’t too worried about it.

Here is a quick lesson on how financial aid works in college.  Let’s say your school’s tuition is $5,000 per semester and in order to pay that amount you decide to apply for government funded financial aid. You fill out your FAFSA and because your parents make too much money, the only thing you qualify for are student loans. You think this isn’t too big of a deal because people are always saying, “Student loans are good debt!” and that the extra money you make from have a degree more than makes up for the debt you incur. The only problem is that you only qualify for $2,500 in student loans (for the semester) so you will need to ask your parents for some help. Well, they don’t have that cash lying around so they apply for the Parental Plus Loan. They get approved and you now have enough money to pay for school! Yay!

So what happens now? Well, your school gets all this paperwork into their systems and takes all that money and pays for your tuition. However, when your parents applied for the Plus Loan they were approved for $4,000 for that first semester. The school takes your $2,500 and your parents $4,000 to pay the tuition which, remember, costs $5,000. But wait, you and your parents are giving them $6,500 for tuition, but it only costs $5,000! What do they do with the rest of it!? Good question. They write you a check for the difference of $1,500. They put it in your mailbox and you get to take it home! 

Now, most 18 year old kids don’t bother asking why they got a check, they just know they got one. Some kids will spend this on living expenses, but most will spend it without knowing what it was for.  They don’t realize that the $1,500 they just got is actually loan money.

If someone had told me those last 2 paragraphs before I started college, it would have saved me a ton of frustration and money. But nobody did. Nobody sat me down and explained what was happening. I was an 18 year old kid. I didn’t know how that stuff worked.

For me, I didn’t just blow that check I got. I gave it to my parents. Every semester I was in school I gave that check to my parents because I had no idea what it was for, but neither did my parents. What I should have done was take that check and put it towards the loan I just took out to lower the balance. I didn’t do that. Every year I qualified for another $1,000 in student loans, which of course I had no idea about.

When I reached the spring of 2009, I go a statement in the mail from my loan company. It said that, with interest, I owed over $31K in student loans. I was shocked, to say the least. I thought this was some kind of mistake because I wasn’t even done with my degree yet! I started to do some research and found out what happened. I was pissed. I couldn’t believe I was taking out this debt and nobody ever told me or explained it to me.

I decided to take a year off of school as I didn’t want to get into more debt at the time. However, I knew I would have to go back and get into even more debt to finish my degree.

I finished my education in the spring of 2011. Part of the reason I didn’t finish on time was because I was terrified off paying off these loans. Because of interest that had accrued over those 7 years, I owed over $48K in loans. My graduation day wasn’t all that exciting because I knew that I would now have to begin payment on these loans.

See, people view student loans as “good debt”, but the only people that say that don’t have any student loan debt. The interest rates are double what a house loan would be except you can’t sell your degree in 25 years. You are stuck with this debt. I understand some people have to go into debt to pay for college, but they need to know exactly what they are doing and have some plan for paying it off.

In my opinion, going into debt to pay for your degree as an 18 year old is stupid. I hate my debt. I hate that I didn’t pay more attention to what I was doing and how much money I was borrowing. Student loans are never a good idea. Never. There is no such thing as “good debt”. Is it a necessary evil sometimes? Yes. But it is never good.

And that brings us to today. I am now married and have a bunch of debt to pay off. This is what happens when you don't pay attention. The same thing happens to people when they try to buy a house or a car. They want what they want and don't read the fine print. We are a society of viewing debt as "good" because it allows us to have what we want before we can afford it. If I showed more patience and responsibility as an 18 year old, who knows how much money I would have saved. 

So, that is the story of my debt. Pretty sad, huh? Don't be like me. Pay for things with cash. Only buy stuff if you have the money on hand. Avoid debt at all costs. So what if you have to wait an extra few years to get what you want. Isn't that better then spending the next 25 years making payments???

- Brian

Every Dollar Counts

Yesterday was the 4^th of July. Originally, Stephanie and I planned on going to this hotel to hang out at the pool for the day. It was going to cost $30 for admission ($15/person). Normally, I wouldn’t have any qualms with spending that money for a fun-filled day! However, since we both have a goal in mind, we realized how difficult it is to part with that money. It’s not that we were having sleepless nights about spending it, but it wasn’t as easy as it normally would have been. Every dollar counts to us now.

Well, we ended up getting rained out yesterday. So, no money was spent, which was nice. However, it made me realize how much thought I give, or don’t give, to what I am spending my money on. Like I said before, I nickel and dime myself to death. A few bucks here, a few bucks there, what’s the difference? How can $30 hurt us? And while it may not hurt us at all, I think our mindset is beginning to change. No more can we say, “Oh, it’s only a few bucks” because we know what that could mean for us achieving our goal.

If we are serious about our goal, and I think we are, we will be doing all we can to achieve it. If I told you my goal was to run a 6 minute mile but I never ran, would you think I was taking my goal seriously? Of course not. I am the kind of person who makes a lot of goals in my mind but then have a hard time putting them into practice. I work out once and I think, “I’m gonna work out every day!” and then it’s a week before I do anything. I think of the glory associated with the goal instead of the sacrifice needed to achieve it. So, for me, it was nice that yesterday I was thinking about the sacrifice.

Our society tells us to do whatever we want and there won't be any consequences. As a young married couple, we are supposed to travel and go on awesome dates because when we have kids we won’t be able to do that anymore. It’s hard to be a newly-wed and have to be stingy with our money. There aren’t many couples out there doing this, or at least any that I have come across. I guess most of that is because not many people have debt like us.

All that to say, we are coming to the realization how much sacrifice we will have to make over the next 17 months. However, I think the goal of paying off debt is only part of it. For me, I want my kids to be blessed by the decisions I make now. I know that Stephanie wants to be an encouragement to others who might read our blog. See, we aren’t going to give a bunch of advice on how to handle your finances, we will leave that to Dave Ramsey, but we do want to show people it is possible to be completely happy and not live beyond our means.

- Brian

The Truth

Ever since Brian and I started dating, he wanted to make sure I was aware of the debt that he had. My first thought was, “Wow that’s a lot, that sucks.” (Obviously not knowing yet that I was going to marry him). As the months went on, I finally came to see that he might be the one. After we got engaged, debt was a little more of a subject to talk about. Since I was living under my parent’s roof for so long, I wasn’t used to paying for things myself. So the whole idea of not being able to buy ANYTHING I wanted with my extra money kind of frightened me. I was scared that I wouldn’t be able to live the life I thought that I needed to in order to be happy. Well, with lots of alone time praying and talking to God about what and where my motives were, I came to the realization that that’s actually not the life I wanted! The life I want is to worship and glorify Him in all that I do. Making money an idol and thinking that it was the one thing that could make me happy in life was stupid.

I’m not saying that everything went smoothly after God showed me what was true… Before we got married, we decided to do the envelope system with cash and only use our debit cards for gas and if our car breaks down, etc. After we got married, we needed to start doing things that married couples do, like grocery shopping :) Just the other day we went and it was hard for both of us. We wanted to buy the things we “wanted”, not “needed”. For example, I wanted to buy coffee creamer and he wanted to get some junk food. The funny thing is, we had milk at home for coffee and some left over snacks from our honeymoon trip. Its things like not buying the little extra things that make you realize that you don't need them at all. That’s when you count up the months in which you are not buying the things you want and see how much you are saving! 

The other day I went to lunch with my best friend and I knew that I would have to be careful of how much I spent. We went to True Food and I decided to order a $14 meal thinking that I would have leftovers to bring home to my hubby. Well, it turned out I ate the whole thing! It wasn’t very much, just a gluten free pasta dish and I didn’t even get a drink with it. I knew that it was a little too pricy to get, but I got it anyway. After I finished my pasta, a thought came to me… TIP! I forgot about adding tip into the whole thing. The bill came to about $16. When I left the restaurant, I felt guilty. I felt like I spent unnecessary money and I wasn’t even with Brian! Anyway, I came home and told Brian that I hated how I felt after spending that much on myself and told him that I don’t think that our new sacrifices will be too hard because of how I felt afterward.

There are so many ways to save money and use it wisely, you just have to find what way works best for you! Right now, Brian and I have a “debt jar” and any change or extra cash we make/find, we put it in and it’s the best feeling!  I would suggest that to anyone :) 

Thanks for reading my thoughts! I hope that someone out there can relate to what my feelings are and have been toward paying off debt. 


-Steph

No More Monster's!

Hi, my name is Brian and I'm addicted to Monster energy drinks (or any energy drink). Or, should I say, I was addicted. Well, I am probably still addicted, but it is a habit I have kicked... I think. I have tried multiple times to stop drinking them, but I was never able to. My old job had me sitting in a tiny cubicle for 8 hours-a-day and had those drinks in a vending machine for easy access. Needless to say, I accessed them. Every day, to be honest. I would suck those back like water and watched as my money was being flushed down the toilet. I didn't just drink them on weekdays while at work, I drank them on the weekends. Sometimes, I would have two drinks in one day. It's sad, really. It's sad I didn't give up a stupid addiction to caffeine or even replace it with something much cheaper like coffee. I am ashamed to admit how much money I wasted on this little habit.

I figure, that every year I spent roughly $900ish PER YEAR on energy drinks for the last 3 years I have been drinking them. That's me drinking 1-per-day for the whole year at $2.50/drink. I bet, though, that the number is closer to $1000 as I had more than 1 in a single day on multiple occasions. See, I always get trapped in the "it's only a few bucks" mentality. I don't buy big things, but I do buy a million small things. I nickle and dime myself to death. It's pathetic. I am incapable of seeing the big picture... or I should say I WAS incapable.

I did the math. If I stop drinking energy drinks between now and November 2nd, 2013 (our target for paying off our debt), that will save me about $1275!!! That's a lot. I have avoided those drinks for a few days now and my wife is holding me accountable. It also helps that my new job doesn't have a vending machine stocked full of energy drinks.

Also, I reviewed by bank statements since the turn of the year from all the times I used my debit card, I spent $581 on eating out. Now, I use cash a good amount of the time and I never keep receipts so it's hard for me to know the exact amount I spent on eating out. However, I think it's safe to say that number is closer to $900!!!! That's too much. In 6 full months, that is $150/month on eating out. I am ashamed of that number. Even if it's less than that, I know I eat out WAY too much and that is a terrible habit I must change. If I continue eating out at that rate, between now and November 2nd, 2013, I will have spent close to $2500 on eating out!!! I am not going to let that happen!

Finally, Stephanie and I have decided on cutting out our LA Fitness memberships (savings of $26/month) and to reduce our Netflix package to JUST the streaming online version (savings of $8/month). We are doing a great amount of praying and thinking about what else we can do without in order to reach our goal! It is kind of liberating to cut out crap you don't need if you want to know the truth.

This is an on-going process for us. We know that this goal may seem unreachable, but we don't care. We want to live a life of devotion to Jesus and cutting stuff out that we don't need is a great way to remove distractions. I'm not saying that having an gym membership or eating out is wrong. I'm simply saying that we are trying to ask ourselves, "Is this really something we need?" on a more regular basis.

Thank you for reading and for your support!

-Brian

The Beginning

I am not a very original person. Most of what I do and say has already been done and said by someone else. This blog is no different.

My friend, Billy, sent me a link to this guy’s blog where he chronicled his repayment of student loans. He started with $91K in student loans and was tired of being held captive to his debt. He decided to try and pay off the entire balance in 10 months. The blog follows him and how he tried to do this. He told stories of the sacrifices he made to accomplish his goal. 7 months later, the entire $91K was paid off.

That is an incredible accomplishment and I don’t want to diminish what he did at all. But, at the same time, he had $30K in savings, a few cars, and made about $90K when he started this little project. He wasn’t exactly hurting for money. After I read about all that he made and saved I thought to myself, “Well, of course he paid it off so fast, I could pay off my debt too if I made that much!” But could I? Could I really pay off my own student loan debt if made that much money? I could, I guess, but I probably would blow a lot of my money on dumb crap that I don’t need because I “can afford it”.

Anyways, in the days following, this guy’s story kept bugging me. I did some praying and talking with friends about it as well. I thought about starting a blog to also chronicle me paying back my student loan debt. However, I kept procrastinating and putting it off. During this time I got married so I brought my new bride into this debt of mine. For all you single people out there, it’s not a good feeling bringing your spouse into your mess. It sucks. She is great and supports me and knew the mountain we would climb, but it was still hard for me.

My wife, Stephanie, and I have done a lot of talking about our finances. We have done a budget and are doing a “cash only” system for purchases. We put our money for groceries, gas, going out, and everything else into different envelopes. This way we can keep track of what we spend. They say that you will spend 15-18% more when you use your card because paying with cash “hurts.” You can actually see your money going away instead of just swiping a card and trying to keep track in your head. We want to be committed to this but know that it’s going to be a challenge.

Also, I got a new job. I am excited about what God has done with this career change, but I am taking a pay cut from where I was working before. After a while, not sure how long, I should be making close to what I was making before. But, for now, it is less. That means that we will need to be extra frugal and mindful of how we use our money. We want to pay off this debt for so many reasons. We would like to start a family in the somewhat near future and we hear that having a kid can be a little expensive. We also want show our friends and family that living free from debt is possible, even on a smaller income.

We are both strong believers in Christ and believe that the money in our bank account is His and He wants us to use it with great discretion and be charitable with it. One of the downfalls of debt is that you are not able to be as charitable as you would like because of that debt. I have had many people say, “Well, you should give as you feel led and not worry about your debt.” I agree with that, to a point, in that if I feel a strong push from God to give a certain dollar amount than I should give it. However, there are times when I just want to give, because I want to. But because of my debt, I can’t. It sucks, to be honest.

Proverbs 22:7 says that if you are in debt, you are slave. This is completely true. I feel like a slave to my stupid debt. I have this huge weight on my shoulders and it’s very tiring. Now, my wife also has that burden and I don’t want to have her live with that.

I’m not going to debate was is right and wrong with certain debt. I think that if you can avoid it, you should. Credit cards and car loans are silly because we can so easily avoid those things with a little sacrifice. We live in a culture that tells us we should have everything we want and have it now. We have credit cards and car loans so that we can have what we want now and worry about it later. Is it any wonder our country is $15 TRILLION in debt?

Anyways, Stephanie and I have decided to do something about it. This blog is about us paying our debt and being an encouragement, hopefully, to anyone else out there facing some of the same issues we are. We will be transparent and open about how much we owe and our progress. We ask that you will talk to us about our debt and help keep us accountable. If you have any tips or suggestions, or need some, please comment in the comment section.

On to the good stuff.

As of this very moment, we have $41,634.15 in student loan debt (all mine, by the way). Thankfully, we have 2 cars that are completely paid off. We have a $2K emergency fund set up in case anything happens. Our combined income, is approximately $2,200/month, but we will know more once I know the exact amount of my new salary. Our payments will be a minimum of $300/month starting the end of July. If we paid the minimum of $300/month, it would a shade under 19 years to pay the debt in full and we would have paid about $25K in interest. Sucks, I would be approaching 45 years old when that happens. Sucks, doesn’t it?

Well, we aren’t going to do that. We are going to attack this debt and crush it into the ground. Stephanie and I will be sacrificing many things for this, but are excited to see what God will do with our marriage through this time. She will be doing some extra babysitting and I will try to pick up a second job. We know that this will be hard, but we are ready.

Finally, we set a target date for paying this off: November 2nd, 2013. Why? Well, no other reason than it’s a date that is kind of far away and also Stephanie’s birthday. This won’t be easy and I know we will hit some potholes. Both Stephanie and myself will be posting periodic updates about our progress and anything on our mind. Thank you for reading and being a part of our journey.

P.S. If any of you know of a part-time gig we could do to make some extra cash, any and all ideas would be very helpful! Thank you!

Brian and Stephanie