Debt Free in 2003!

"The rich rule over the poor, and the borrower is servant to the lender" Proverbs 22:7.

Debt, an every day facet of life in America. Most of us have heard some of the alarming statistics about how many Americans are in debt, and how deep that debt really is. A teacher made an impression on me when I was young that the only legitimate reasons to borrow money are for education and home buying.

I came into 2003 with a decent job at Agere Systems and my only debt being student loans. I was happy that interest rates have come down, and I was able to consolidate my loan and lock in a rate of under 5%. My payments were low, I was able to make double payments, and was planning on having it paid off in 3-4 years.

It was the middle of March, and I was sitting in my apartment one weekend surfing web sites from local Ford dealers looking for Mustang prices. I have wanted to own a Mustang for years, and have told many people that a Mustang will be my next car. Sure, my Grand Am is still running well, but it does have over 110K miles on it. Of course I don't have the cash on hand for a Mustang, so I would have to take out a car loan. Rates are low though, so I pulled up Excel and was crunching some numbers on how much it would cost to go out and buy a car.

About 10 days before March ended, I realized I was out of cash for the month. I've had my job for 2 years now, and one would think that I would have adjusted to monthly paychecks by now, but it seems I hadn't. Up until then, I was not living on a budget. I was not in control of my spending. I didn't have an emergency fund. And I was thinking about going into more debt!

Around that time, I was listening to More Than Money on my local talk radio station. Gene Dickison mentioned some things about Dave Ramsey on that show. Dave, he said, is a Christian financial advisor with a radio show who is passionate about getting people out of debt. I jumped online and found Dave Ramsey's website. I soon realized that Dave had his radio show is archived on the web! I started listening to the most recent show, which was a Friday show. That was the beginning of my "Debt Free in 2003" mission.

I encourage all of you to listen to Dave's show. If you only have time to listen to a little piece of a show, listen to a piece of a Friday show. On Friday's Dave invites people to call in and scream "I'm Debt Free!!!" at the top of their lungs. He allows these callers to tell their stories of how much they have paid off, and how long it took them. I soon realized that there are many people out there who had more debt than I currently have, and paid it off in less time than I was planning on taking for my loans. Dave also reminded me that a car loan is not the way to go!

Dave talks a lot about baby steps, which are nothing more than practical sense. One of these steps that I have been neglecting was getting myself on a budget. When I did so, I realized that I could pay off my student loans faster than anticipated. In fact, I realized I could pay them off by the end of the year if I really "bust it" and go with the "beans and rice, rice and beans" approach. That is what I am doing, and I am going to make it to my goal. Yes, the Mustang will have to wait, but when it is time I will have one sitting in my driveway. Best of all, it will be paid in full when I first pull it off of the lot.