Passive Income

Have you started a plan to become debt free? Why did you make the decision to leave the hassle and stress of consumer debt behind you?

My wife and I had the “ignore it and maybe it will go away” approach to our finances for such a long time. We would throw all of the bills into a wicker basket and forget about them until fight night bill night. We would rip them open, add them up, and then figure out which bills we could skip until next week. Of course, we would try and pay the ones that were late first, with the stupid tax included.

Finally, we had enough. We needed to become debt free as fast as possible. The stress was just too much to handle on a monthly basis.

The first thing we decided to do was to stop incurring new debt. Next, we enrolled in Financial Peace University. I will say that this was one of the best decisions we have ever made! Not only did we get on the same page, we developed a plan.

Life does not need to be a struggle! You can become debt free, but you have to want it more than you want the material trappings you have fell in love with. You must take a stand against what is considered normal and do what is best for your family. What are you waiting for?

Have you finally made the choice? What finally pushed you over the edge? I would love to here from you.

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When I began studying personal finance and money management, the first thing I wanted to learn was how to become debt free. I had over $20,000 in consumer and student loan debt and could truly feel the weight that this burden was placing on my life. Like too many Americans, I choose to ignore my problems until I could bear it no more. Recently, a friend confided in me that he wanted to get out of debt, but he did not really know where to start.

If you really want to become debt free, the first thing you need to do is stop incurring new debt. After working my “debt free plan” for a few months now, this step seems pretty obvious. Apparently it is not! In order to actually begin chipping away at your balances, you must stop using credit.

“But what about emergencies”, I hear you asking. If you want this to work, then you need to re-define necessity. What I mean by that is you must decide what constitutes a “real” emergency before you begin. It is completely a personal choice that truly depends on what you value most. For me, having no consumer debt holding me back is much more important than chicken wings and beer with my buddies after softball. I define an emergency as something that must be addressed (paid for) immediately or I will lose my house, have my electricity cut off, starve my family, endanger my (or my family’s ) health, or not be able to get to work. Almost anything else can wait until I have the cash to pay for the emergency (or should I say unplanned event).

Believe me, learning how to become debt free is extremely challenging. You must visualize what your life will be like once you have achieved this goal. The truth is that you can do this but you have to start somewhere. I suggest you start by not incurring any new debt; then you can begin to deal with the debt that you already have.

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It is no secret that one of my favorite personal finance blogs is MiB. Hank does such a great job writing about subjects that really hit close to home.

If you have not checked out MiB lately, you owe it to yourself to spend a few hours catching up. When not debunking the 25 most outrageous money myths, Hank is developing really cool widgets that try and give you a true value of your blog based of traffic, links, etc. He is even hosting a huge contest, along with Free From Broke, in which you can win the following prizes:

$125 in cash

Books
How to Finance Your Invention or Great Idea

The Boss’s Survival Guide

One of the ways to earn additional entries into the contest is to discuss “The Things That I have Learned This Year”.

Over the past year, I have come to realize that my family is the most important thing in the world. When I was in my 20s, I had one goal; make money so I could retire early. What I failed to understand is that if I did not have such a wonderful family, retirement would not have been as wonderful as it will be.

Weekends are now filled with games of “Chase”, which involves me running after my 2 year-old son, pretending that I cannot catch him, playing with Thomas the Tank Engine, throwing a Nerf football, and watching the Veggie Tales.

And to be honest, I could not be any happier!

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