We Are Credit Card Debt-Free!

Hey everyone, I just had to make sure and tell you that as of this moment...

WE ARE CREDIT CARD DEBT-FREE!

Elliott has been working very hard the last couple of years to pay down our cards and work with companies where we got behind on payments.  But as of May 1, 2012...

WE ARE CREDIT CARD DEBT-FREE!

(Did I say that already?) 
We started our journey with almost $50,000 in credit card debt.  One card alone had over $25,000 and another was maxed out at $10,000.  In the end, after working with credit card agencies we paid $20,000 over the last two years, including an increased tax bill this year.

AND NOW WE ARE CREDIT CARD DEBT-FREE!

We are not quite ready to call into the Dave Ramsey show, but we are getting awfully close.  We still have our van loan (though we are in a good place because we could sell it today for more than we owe), student loans (combined Elliott and I have alot) and a small 401K loan (which we took out to cover the tax bill). 

We are now excited to be looking to the future.  We intend to have the van paid off this fall while paying off the 401K loan through an automatic deduction each paycheck.  And saving, saving, SAVING.

Although we are not in a hurry to buy, that does seem like the next horizon.  Since we short sold our house in Las Vegas, we are not eligible to rebuy until we are two years out, which for us is this August.  But that is only with 20% down and we don't have that.  So if we wait for another year we only need 3% down, which will be much more doable.  This is if we even want to buy at that time.

We have decided that we want our next home to be our "forever" home.  Of course life can change and we may end up having to leave it due to job change or something, but we don't want to buy thinking we will leave in 3 years.  We got burned on our condo in Boston, we got burned on our house in Las Vegas.  Obviously the market has not been in our favor in our home buying adventures.  So we don't want to have to factor the market into our decision.  If we buy with the intent of never selling, it doesn't really matter if housing prices go up or down - because we aren't selling.

So that's the game plan. Save, save, SAVE.  It's so freeing to see how much progress Elliott and I made by working together and keeping each other accountable.  And it's so freeing to know that the future is set for at least another year and a half, allowing us to enjoy the peacefulness for a little while.

BECAUSE WE ARE CREDIT CARD DEBT-FREE!