It’s been a long journey. In 1991, right out of high school, I made a huge mistake and got a credit card (and then another and another…). I see the stupidity now, but at the time it seemed the thing to do. When you have never been taught how to manage money and are given astronomical credit limits, it is easy to understand why the average college student comes out of school with $18-25k worth of credit card debt plus school loans. I made excuses for continuing to use the cards and worked half-heartedly at making my payments. Then God called me to work at Voice. So four years and $30,000 in debt ago, I decided that enough was enough and started on the process of getting rid of the debt. I had to cut my lifestyle to nothing, and at the same time, I was working for the ministry making next to nothing and doing design on the side. But God is amazing, and I know that it was all because of him. He really used a guy named Dave Ramsey to give me the practical tools I needed to get started and the encouragement from his daily radio show to know that it can be done. So yesterday was the day. I walked into National City Bank and paid off $2,866.37 with 28 hundred dollar bills and it was an amazing feeling. I now can say that I owe no man anything and no longer am I a slave. It’s awesome and I give all my thanks to God. Here’s to making wise financial choices in the future because I have no desire to go back.
AWESOME!!!!!
I have watched you be so super faithful and accountable to your debts and responsibilities over the last few years. It is SOOO nice to hear there is freedom to be had from the noose of debt and it doesn’t have to take you till your 75.
Praise the Lord!! And hooray for you!
(and Dave Ramsey too) I like that guy. He is so straight forward and really has wisdom in the area of financial freedom. He outlines biblical principals to follow and they are just timeless.
Wow Joshua! You must feel incredible right now. I am soo proud of you!
Blessings to you friend! Faithfulness and good stewardship is valued highly by our Lord and I pray he blesses you richly for it.
That is phenomenal!!!! And your teeth are really white, by the way.
My friend, Sarah, swears by Dave Ramsey. I think I need to read his books.
Liz and I are so pumped for you! Words cannot express the transformation we have seen in you form then until this day. Congratulations are in order! You are another life that much closer that is inspirational in the journey to debt-free living. Praise the Lord!
thanks for all the comments! i do feel amazing!
kristi – yeah i look like joel osteen or something. i’m not sure why they look sos white but i wish they were like that in real life!
You’ve come a long way from that yellow piece of notebook paper in our apartment on a Sunday afternoon in 2000. Do you remember that?! Words can’t describe how happy we are for you! The next part of the experiment will be to see how fast you build wealth now that the debt is sayonara! Congrats man!
Congrats, MAN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!11
Liz – I wish I would have got on it in 2000. I didn’t get really serious about it until 2004. That’s when the debt board went up, remember?
Totally remember, but in this case the saying is definitely true: Better late than never!
CONGRATS JOSHUA!!!
I am so happy for you! Hope that you are loving the daily walks in freedom! Blessings to you friend!
Darc-
And I was thinking that somewhere I probably still have that yellow piece of paper! But I definitely have people like Dave & Liz to thank – all those floorplans paid little chunks off here and there as well as the many gifts “just because” really added up to knocking it out.
Oh wow… well thank you for the thank you! It was a blessing for us!
YIPPEEEEEE I am so excited for you–if I were 15…okay 20 years younger i would do a backhandspring:) As a friend I’m thankful for the example you are to my family! Way to go! AND PRAISE THE LORD!!!
Dave Ramsey is the man, I too am on my way to be debt free!!!!!!! Get out of two leased vehicles next year and the only item left will be my house, paid off $50,000 worth of debt last year from the hard work of flipping a house! Nice Job Josh
Cousin Shawn