Debt wasn’t really a problem for us. Or so I thought. In fact, I would’ve almost considered ourselves not to actually have debt because we could afford the payments every month. Since we weren’t living paycheck to paycheck, debt wasn’t a problem to me. At least until I saw this.
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One afternoon Robert emailed me requesting that I send him the list of debts we had remaining. All “good debts”, of course. {Good debts of over $184,000 to be exact. That’s NOT including our mortgage.}
- Home Renovation Loan
- School loans
- Car loan
These were “wise” debts in my opinion. I felt good because we didn’t have any credit card debt. But that was nothing to rejoice over.
I emailed Robert and ended it with a simple.
How depressing.
That response by me is not me! I’m full of emoticons, exclamations, bold, italics, and any make-up I can throw to the alphabet. Not this time. Just a simple “How depressing.”
Overwhelmed by Debt
I took this to be a challenge. How could we pay off debt, and when would we be free?
By my records, it was going to take yeeeeears!!!
That was even more depressing.
Then I got into the numbers of this one student loan we had. It was over $80,000. (Remember, this is $80,000 of $184,400…insert sigh of sadness here.) Graduate school. A pretty penny.
I opened the account online and scanned through a list of numbers.
ARE YOU KIDDING ME???!!!!
It happened. I went all “Dave Ramsey” on my computer! That’s when the “colorful buttons” started flying onto my emails, texts, paper!! You name it…I was mad!! I was furious!!!
Every month for the past few years we were faithful. So faithful! We paid $400 a month; every month, to this one (of many) debts. Then I realized something was wrong with the numbers.
Go ahead, get mad with me. Here we go:
$400 payment
$40 = went to the Principal (you know, the actual amount we owed) That’s only 10%! Talk about a BACKWARDS tithe! Could be known as our personal “curse”… Kind of interesting, huh?
$360 = someone…someway…somehow…STICKIN’ SALLIE was stealing our money!! Interest. Pure interest. (Sorry for the explicits…I was angry. Still am, kinda!)
$360 of our hard earned money was going down the drain! It was making someone else rich!! That’s wasted hours Robert is away from the family. That’s money we couldn’t give away to bless someone else.
And there you have it. Doesn’t that make you mad too??!! Maybe my numbers don’t make you mad but go ahead and look at your own payments and loans, and get mad for yourself. Get mad with me!!! We can get righteously angry. You know, like Jesus flippin over the tables in the temple. Let’s get a bit upset about this epidemic. Debt. Let’s get mad. We are being robbed! And it’s socially “normal”. This makes me MAD, for ME, for YOU, for US!
What If We Got Mad Together?!
What if we got so mad that it propelled us all to get out of debt?! What if we were debt free?! That’s $360 that can go to orphans, the homeless, the widows, families in need!!! You name it, we can do it!!!
Wow…my keyboard is wondering why the abuse.
I better stop writing.
Go ahead and fuel my own personal righteous fire. Comment below with a simple “I’m mad too!” or just a nice “Let’s do it!” 😉
Whew… I love you all more than you know! Let’s get free!
Need a little 3 minute story of one way we got out of debt? Enjoy the story!
Living Intentionally Focused Everyday!
Jamye
Have you heard about my 50th wedding anniversary (in 40 years)?! If not, you’ve got to hear it! 😉 What’s your 50th going to look like?!
Resources:
“The Total Money Makeover” by Dave Ramsey
About getting out of debt and into wealth.
“The Legacy Journey” by Dave Ramsey
About wealth, according to the Bible.
Jamye Sack 
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