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What Happened To Make Me Want To Live A Debt Free Life

March 6, 2017 By Omar 6 Comments

For me, and probably most people, in order to make a huge change in my life I need convincing information, an event that completely rocks my world, and/or a slow gradual feeling of disgust with yourself that blows up over time.  These reasons can be so powerful that they motivate you to stay the course with whatever change took place even though others around you may not understand it.  I call this the “why”.  It’s the emotional-motivational fuel that pushes you toward completing a goal and never going back to the previous state.  I want to share how my “why” came into existence…

Life was good.  I was living with my best friend and having a blast not being under my parents’ roof.  I had my first real job in Atlanta making 45K a year PLUS a 10% bonus.  Twenty-five years on this planet and I had arrived (or so I thought).  I had found Dave Ramsey at that time and paid off 3K in credit card debt from some stupid college decisions I’d made.  The car was next!  I had plans of how much I was going to invest to be well on my way to becoming a millionaire.  Like I said, life was good.

I still remember it like it was yesterday.  I had just completed my first project as an IT Consultant.  By that time I was on the job for almost a year.  It was a small Human Resource Management System company based in Spain looking to get into the US.  We were on the client’s site and had almost about finished up the work day when my manager called me outside.  I was excited because it was nearing time for the other half of that 10% bonus.  Instead, I was told that my services were no longer needed, that I would be getting a one month severance, and to leave my laptop.  There I was, at a client’s site where I had just finished my first project, being laid off.   I was stunned.  I got in my car, dazed as if I just got out of a fight with Mike Tyson.  On the way home I called my girlfriend (now wife) and told her the bad news.  A few days later I was at the Department of Labor signing up for unemployment.  Unemployment checks couldn’t pay my rent and my car payment so I had to make a tough decision.  After a year of being on my own, I moved back in with my parents.  In an instant, my dignity and independence had been stripped from me, and I couldn’t do a damn thing to stop it.

I spent the next year looking for a job while on unemployment.  Honestly, I don’t know which one was worse –  the year of unemployment or being laid off.  I did do the work of applying for as many jobs as I could, but with each rejection, my self-esteem dropped.  There were months when I wanted to give up on life.  Then one day after a year of searching and multiple interviews I was finally going to get an offer from a company that developed and supported movie theater software.  When I opened the email with the offer my jaw dropped.  They were offering a 20 hour per week part-time job with no benefits that paid $11.50 per hour.  I remember considering not taking the job because I was so ashamed.  A year ago I was making $24 per hour, was full-time, and had benefits.  I still remember the conversation I had with my dad.  He basically said, “You’ve been sitting around the house for a year, which I understand.  Here you have an opportunity to get more experience in your field.  Take it”.  On his advice, I took the job.

These events took place in 2008/2009.  I’m happy to say that I’m doing much better today on the income side, but I haven’t forgotten the lessons of those events.  I swore to myself while unemployed that I nor my family would ever be in a financial position where a layoff would steal my independence and dignity.  I also realized that having debt aided in me having to give up my independence.  The words in this article cannot express how intense these feelings are embedded in my being.  These feelings are the nuclear core of my “why”.  My “why” is the fuel that pushes me to meet the goal of financial independence in spite of what others may think.


Make your money work for you instead of only working for your money.


Today we have no debt except our house, which is on a 15-year mortgage, with plans to pay it off early.  We have an emergency fund.  We’re investing for retirement and also saving for our 2-year-old’s college fund. We’ve  decided to take complete control of our finances because of my “why”.  And yes, we’re still following Dave Ramsey’s baby steps.

Kim’s thoughts: I remember when Omar was laid off.  It definitely wasn’t a good time for him.  I tried to be as encouraging and supportive as I could.   My “why” is somewhat like Omar’s “why”.  To read my story, check out this post.

What is your “why” for getting out of debt?

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Filed Under: Personal + Finance Tagged With: debt, debt free

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thinkingofsomeday

#tbt To last Thursday (1/7/2021) when we became mo #tbt To last Thursday (1/7/2021) when we became mortgage free!! Yes, you read that correctly! We are 100% debt free! Like debt free, debt free. 🤣
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
To be honest, it’s been a week and it still doesn’t feel real to us yet. But it was real watching that money disappear from our account and no longer seeing our mortgage balance when we signed into our credit union account. We must say, our credit union works pretty fast! Lol.
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
We didn’t even get around to sharing our mortgage payoff goal for the year with one of the little cute pictures explaining how we were going to do it. But here’s a quick recap of the numbers that we were working with...
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
• mortgage principal: $54,507.37
• mortgage interest: $35.84
• reconveyance fee: $69.00
• paying off our mortgage... definitely not priceless, but oh so worth it!! 😂🙌🏽
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
We’ll share more in depth details soon because you’re probably wondering how we came up with that amount of money 7 days into January. It definitely wasn’t from hitting the lottery! Lol. But until then, just know that...
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
WE’RE MORTGAGE FREE!!! #piecesofsomeday
So we took some Christmas / family pictures back i So we took some Christmas / family pictures back in 2020 (as if that was so long ago), but I never got to share them. 😩 So here’s one. I actually like the fact that it’s in front of our house. #piecesofsomeday
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
And I also wanted to add that we finally did another blog post after quite some time. Maybe we’re the world’s worst bloggers. 🤷🏽‍♀️🤷🏽‍♂️ But if you’re interested, we’re sharing a recap of quarter 3 and quarter 4 from our mortgage payoff journey. We’re also sharing what our mortgage payoff goal is for 2021. We’re a bit excited about it! You can check it out at the link in our bio.
2020. This has been a year that I’m sure none of 2020. This has been a year that I’m sure none of us will ever forget. While this year has been ok for us for the most part, there are many people that it’s been a really really tough year for. Whether it’s been financially, emotionally, health wise, etc. etc. etc. So here’s to hoping that next year will be much much better, for everyone, but especially for those who had a tough time this year. ✨♥️
We started 2020 off with owning 43% of our house a We started 2020 off with owning 43% of our house and we now own 69% of it. We had paid off 39% of the mortgage loan and we’re finishing the year out at having 66% of it paid off. (These 2 numbers are not the same for us because of our 5% down payment as well as when we refinanced to a 15-year mortgage.) It’s been really exciting to see these numbers increase this year.
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
(Annnnnd this concludes our December numbers. I can’t believe I managed to share them all before the end of the year!! 😂)
Q4 was our best quarter by far, mostly due to the Q4 was our best quarter by far, mostly due to the RSUs that we were able to use. However, even if we hadn’t been able to use them, Q4 would have still wrapped up nicely thanks to us still being able to stick to our 70/30 plan.
For December we were able to color in 4 rectangles For December we were able to color in 4 rectangles. This puts our mortgage balance for the end of 2020 at $54,507.37.
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
• 132 rectangles total
• 88 rectangles colored in
• 44 rectangles to go!!
The total of our mortgage principal payments for D The total of our mortgage principal payments for December was $3514.74.
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
$995.13 came from our regular payment and $2519.61 came from our budget.
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
This put us at meeting our second stretch goal of putting a total of $45,000 towards our mortgage principal for the year! Yes, we did a little magic with our budget in order to get it at exactly $45k, but I’m sure that’s what we all do in when we’re trying to hit a certain number!! Haha.
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
We’re soooo happy that we were able to meet this goal because we really weren’t sure if it was going to be possible or not!
Am I right? Or am I right? Throughout parts of thi Am I right? Or am I right? Throughout parts of this year it seemed like the days, weeks, months were going soooo slow. And then all of a sudden summer was over and school was starting. Then it went drastically slower again, but yet here we are with only a couple of days left in this year.
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
And as usual, time has gotten away from me when it comes to sharing our mortgage payoff numbers. So starting later today and over the next couple of days, I’ll be sharing our December numbers in the hopes of getting them all in before January 1st! 😆 We’ve enjoyed seeing everyone else’s numbers though!
Merry Christmas!! #christmas2020 #piecesofsomeday Merry Christmas!! #christmas2020 #piecesofsomeday
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Comments

  1. Kimberly W. says

    March 7, 2017 at 9:41 pm

    This was very inspiring…thank you both for sharing!!!

    Reply
    • Omar says

      March 8, 2017 at 8:07 am

      Absolutely! If we can do it you can too!

      Reply
  2. Jimmy Williams says

    March 9, 2017 at 9:21 am

    Awesome story. Still working on my story.

    Reply
    • Omar says

      March 12, 2017 at 10:34 pm

      Yep! You can make it whatever you want it to be!

      Reply
  3. Yvonne says

    April 6, 2017 at 1:29 pm

    I am DEBT FREE!!!It is the greatest feeling in the world………It is not the amount of money you earn it is the mindset in managing it. You can be debt free too.

    Reply
    • Kim says

      April 6, 2017 at 4:29 pm

      I could hear your debt free scream!!! I agree that it’s definitely about how you choose to manage your money.

      Reply

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A married couple making someday a reality all while balancing family + finances + avoiding debt. Find out more about us, here.

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See what’s happening on Instagram

thinkingofsomeday

#tbt To last Thursday (1/7/2021) when we became mo #tbt To last Thursday (1/7/2021) when we became mortgage free!! Yes, you read that correctly! We are 100% debt free! Like debt free, debt free. 🤣
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
To be honest, it’s been a week and it still doesn’t feel real to us yet. But it was real watching that money disappear from our account and no longer seeing our mortgage balance when we signed into our credit union account. We must say, our credit union works pretty fast! Lol.
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
We didn’t even get around to sharing our mortgage payoff goal for the year with one of the little cute pictures explaining how we were going to do it. But here’s a quick recap of the numbers that we were working with...
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
• mortgage principal: $54,507.37
• mortgage interest: $35.84
• reconveyance fee: $69.00
• paying off our mortgage... definitely not priceless, but oh so worth it!! 😂🙌🏽
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
We’ll share more in depth details soon because you’re probably wondering how we came up with that amount of money 7 days into January. It definitely wasn’t from hitting the lottery! Lol. But until then, just know that...
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
WE’RE MORTGAGE FREE!!! #piecesofsomeday
So we took some Christmas / family pictures back i So we took some Christmas / family pictures back in 2020 (as if that was so long ago), but I never got to share them. 😩 So here’s one. I actually like the fact that it’s in front of our house. #piecesofsomeday
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
And I also wanted to add that we finally did another blog post after quite some time. Maybe we’re the world’s worst bloggers. 🤷🏽‍♀️🤷🏽‍♂️ But if you’re interested, we’re sharing a recap of quarter 3 and quarter 4 from our mortgage payoff journey. We’re also sharing what our mortgage payoff goal is for 2021. We’re a bit excited about it! You can check it out at the link in our bio.
2020. This has been a year that I’m sure none of 2020. This has been a year that I’m sure none of us will ever forget. While this year has been ok for us for the most part, there are many people that it’s been a really really tough year for. Whether it’s been financially, emotionally, health wise, etc. etc. etc. So here’s to hoping that next year will be much much better, for everyone, but especially for those who had a tough time this year. ✨♥️
We started 2020 off with owning 43% of our house a We started 2020 off with owning 43% of our house and we now own 69% of it. We had paid off 39% of the mortgage loan and we’re finishing the year out at having 66% of it paid off. (These 2 numbers are not the same for us because of our 5% down payment as well as when we refinanced to a 15-year mortgage.) It’s been really exciting to see these numbers increase this year.
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
(Annnnnd this concludes our December numbers. I can’t believe I managed to share them all before the end of the year!! 😂)
Q4 was our best quarter by far, mostly due to the Q4 was our best quarter by far, mostly due to the RSUs that we were able to use. However, even if we hadn’t been able to use them, Q4 would have still wrapped up nicely thanks to us still being able to stick to our 70/30 plan.
For December we were able to color in 4 rectangles For December we were able to color in 4 rectangles. This puts our mortgage balance for the end of 2020 at $54,507.37.
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
• 132 rectangles total
• 88 rectangles colored in
• 44 rectangles to go!!
The total of our mortgage principal payments for D The total of our mortgage principal payments for December was $3514.74.
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
$995.13 came from our regular payment and $2519.61 came from our budget.
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
This put us at meeting our second stretch goal of putting a total of $45,000 towards our mortgage principal for the year! Yes, we did a little magic with our budget in order to get it at exactly $45k, but I’m sure that’s what we all do in when we’re trying to hit a certain number!! Haha.
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
We’re soooo happy that we were able to meet this goal because we really weren’t sure if it was going to be possible or not!
Am I right? Or am I right? Throughout parts of thi Am I right? Or am I right? Throughout parts of this year it seemed like the days, weeks, months were going soooo slow. And then all of a sudden summer was over and school was starting. Then it went drastically slower again, but yet here we are with only a couple of days left in this year.
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
And as usual, time has gotten away from me when it comes to sharing our mortgage payoff numbers. So starting later today and over the next couple of days, I’ll be sharing our December numbers in the hopes of getting them all in before January 1st! 😆 We’ve enjoyed seeing everyone else’s numbers though!
Merry Christmas!! #christmas2020 #piecesofsomeday Merry Christmas!! #christmas2020 #piecesofsomeday
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