How we paid off $132,408.98 in 24 months!

​Debt is like the heavy weight being carried around with us everywhere we go. Every purchase, activity, vacation, or meal, thinking in the back of our minds: “Can we afford this? Should we really be spending our money on this?” It sucks and after 24 months of diligently working on paying off our debt, using the Dave Ramsey Baby Steps, we are DEBT FREE (excluding our home)! ​We didn’t want to be like the average American 

who has about $67k worth of debt, even into their 70’s. ​So we worked hard to pay off $132,408.98 of school loans, car loans, and credit card debt! In that time period we sold a condo and a vehicle. The proceeds of about $38k from these sales helped to pay down our debt. Besides that we have worked 2-3 jobs each and put that extra income towards our debt as well.

The thing that made the biggest difference to help stick to our debt free goals was using a free app called “Every Dollar,” which is essentially a budgeting tool that allows you to track ALL of your income, spending and debt. It allowed us to keep track of all of our money. It was completely eye opening when we started using the app to see how much we were actually spending on going out to eat and activities. Once we reigned that spending in we were able to see where are money was actually going.

It took us about 2-3 months to get the hang of it and actually stick to the budgets we had set for each category. Even now, it is a constant challenge that we work at every day. ​

​During this time period we went on vacations (frugally), planned a wedding, and got married. We decided to combine our income and have one joint checking and savings account. Yeah, that was super hard!​ We are in our 30’s and neither of us had been married before so we had always had full reign on our own spending and money. To have someone see what you spend and not to be able to just buy whatever was a challenge for sure. But with the type of life we wanted to live, and the financial goals we set for ourselves, we ended up being much more successful working as a team then doing it separately.

We didn’t want to be like the average American who has about $67k worth of debt, even into their 70’s. ​

It’s crazy to think that we are debt free because all we have known is debt. We live in a society where you go from living at home and being taken care of, to then graduating from high school and going into college where you instantly have thousands of dollars’ of debt. Most students, if they have a part time job in college, are just making enough to get by and nothing goes to pay off the school loans until after graduation. Then you finish school with a ridiculous amount of debt and most likely aren’t making a ton of money when you start that first job after graduation. So making the minimum monthly loan payment is a battle and it feels like a win when you can make that payment. In reality, most of that amount is going towards interest and very little is going to pay down the principal balance of the loan(s). Most students graduate and are happy with a salaried job where they make $45k - $65k/year, and that’s lucky. For us, we graduated at a time, in a job market, where we were competing with seasoned professionals for the same entry level positions. To even have a job after graduation was a blessing.

For us, we graduated at a time, in a job market, where we were competing with seasoned professionals for the same entry level positions. ​

Everyone has their own story of how they got to where they are in their debt burden. But we can say from experience that if you put the past behind you (with all the bad decisions, crappy investments, and dumb purchases) and make a plan to build a brighter future for yourself and your family, then eventually you will become debt free. You will be able to experience the weightlessness and freedom it brings.

​This is not the end of our story; we still have to start saving for our future and eventual retirement. But we are now one step closer to financial freedom and it sure feels good!

Blog post written by:
Jacob and Amy Karras
Unnamed Adventures