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This is something I’ve been doing so I can cut ties with as many institutions as possible. I’ve been on a five year plan, with this year being the fifth year. I’ve been prepping a bit though, so if I go a tiny bit over it will be well worth it. I think that being there will take off some worry about being as prepared as I can be if everything breaks loose.
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We have my student loans, a car payment (thank you Mr. I can do whatever I want driver for totaling our just paid off truck..ugh) and one credit card to pay off. Less than one year on the car, depending on nothing major happening, maybe a year on my credit card and somewhere short of forever on my student loan. Working on them one paycheck at a time.
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To give all of you an incentive to keep up the good work. I can honestly say I would not be able to live as comfortably as I do now if I hadn’t made the effort to get rid of my debt and as importantly stay debt free.
Like some of you here, I had student loans, a debt inherited from a failed marriage and personal debt in the form of credit card balances. It took 5 years, I lived very frugally and hardly saw my son as I was working two jobs. Once I’d paid everything off I suddenly had almost 50% of my income to myself again, so as I was used to living on a shoestring I started putting most of that spare cash into various savings schemes, from bonds to precious metals no bank accounts, the interest rate isn’t worth it.
Now however, because of that hard work, the family have grown and it’s just me. I can afford to work part time and I’m on the home straight to retirement in a couple of years (I can’t wait) -
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Finally paid off all credit cards as of October 2, 2018! Can hardly believe it. Makes me feel younger somehow. Now for the mortgage. Hope we have enough time to get rid of that bad boy but don’t know if the market/jobs will hold for the minimum 5 years it will take.
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I read this article this morning. Very sobering to say the least.
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I’m curious how the average was figured. If they used all working age adults and included unemployed it would skew the figures. When I drive around suburban neighborhoods and see enormous houses and high end automobiles everywhere it makes studies like these less believable.
I have no doubt those collecting welfare are included in the study. Generational welfare is an enormous problem that is not being addressed. In fact I believe the opposite is true.
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If government reports are to be believed, Americans on welfare dropped by 8 million over the past two years.
I have read reports issued by the Dept. of Labor months ago regarding how 49% of working Americans earn $30K or less annually, so its not new information entirely. I have no reason not to think the figures are at least in the ballpark. It also stated that the “average” American doesn’t have enough cash savings to pay a $500 car repair bill and would have to sell something or borrow the money.
As for all those Mc mansions and similar indulgences, its debt. Whats it matter if someone earns $150K per year if 70% of it has to go towards servicing personal debt? The rest? Taxes, utilities, fuel, maintenance,food,clothing, and whatever unexpected expenses crop up… like your well.
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One of our biggest plans for preventing family economic collapse is paying off all our debt. We’re very close now to being completely debt free and on a single income as I’m a homemaker. Our vehicles were paid off a few years ago. The final credit card was paid off this past summer. There is one small loan that will be gone in 11 months and my student loan will be paid off within 3 years.
Part of paying all things off is that we dont have any credit cards now and live off whatever income we have. If we dont have the money then we dont buy it. Debt free equals freedom for my husband and I. -
@James, yep. I have seen it. They buy the big house, the cars /SUVs, dine out 3-4 or even more times a week, the vacations, flat screen TV in everyroom to include the bathroom, gaming consoles, tablets, new phone every year, etc.
A few days before the next payday they just whip out the credit card.
Savings? Forget it! Plan for retirement? Nope! The kids college fund? Maybe. -
There is a 2011 movie called Stand Strong, made by a small independent Christian production company, that I saw on Amazon Prime and personally found uplifting and watched many times. It’s about a suburban family living way above their means, the McMansion and all the toys, then going broke when the dad loses his job, and having to move into the basement of the dad’s brother and rebuild their lives financially. As the crash looms, dad is on the driveway selling off the boat and ATVs and motorcycles etc. trying to raise cash while mom and the teens look sullenly on — that was probably the best scene in the movie. The family members do rally and get their act together and there is a positive ending. I liked that movie and and its anti-debt, anti-materialism message and did not think it was “too religious.” However! The brother and his wife are preppers! The movie never uses the word prepper, though. They have a storeroom full of food! they have a garden and raise chickens in their backyard! they homeschool! the mom cooks! It’s on Amazon Prime and also for sale on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Stand-Strong-Chris-Steel/dp/B005SSBG6Q/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1541543320&sr=8-2&keywords=stand+strong+movie
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@MM,
Thank you for the review.
If I get a chance this winter, I will watch it. -
My husband and I got told by our church leader to read Dave Ramsey’s Total Money Makeover! It changed the way we think about everything money wise. I’ve been a prepper for 10 years, but still managed to be stupid and rack up some debt. We only have 1 credit card that was supposed to be for emergencies, but when our income didn’t take care of all the bills, we paid them with that credit card. Now we’re driving paid off cars, paying off all of our debts, and trying to live well below our means. The mortgage is the only debt we haven’t made a payoff plan for, but we will as soon as everything else is paid off!
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Something bad is about to happen. Something I can’t explain but a gut feeling. We use our credit cards for the cash points and other points for free stuff at end of year. We already used them and got some great deals on long term food and other things. I sat down this afternoon and paid them off. Do to hubby having to retire disabled. We had gotten the house paid off early. The car is paid off and now our credit cards are paid off. We have emergency money on standby that we do not keep in any bank. But I feel the bubble is about to burst as I see the stock market up and down. (bear market). Sears gong out of business and my understanding is more stores may be going down as well. For Sears alone that is at least 164.000 people unemployed. This could rise. The middle class never recovered. Things are lining up for possible war. Emp threats and so much more. I just hope we are all able to get ready before the SHTF. We really don’t know how much more time we have to prepare.
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@littlesister that is great, Congratulations on being debt-free!
You know, every time I hear someone say that we might as well run up debt because after SHTF no one will come around to collect… I think to myself that even in the deepest darkest depths of the Great Depression, our lords and masters were still evicting people from their homes. I don’t think even an EMP can stop the banksters and the bailiffs and the sheriffs… they ruined people’s lives in the nineteenth century, after all, no electricity required. I can just imagine our lords and masters repossessing paid-off homes after an EMP, claiming they aren’t paid off.
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Advice that I followed to reduce credit card debt was to eliminate your smallest debt first. Pay minimum amount on your other credit cards and pay as much as you can on your minimum debt card. Once that’s done, get rid of the card if you can. Next, start on your next smallest debt and do the same thing until all of your debts are paid off. We’ve paid off the accumulated debt on all of our cards, and pay off our credit cards each month. You;d be surprised how many thousands of dollars you pay each year in interest fees. Next, with the extra cash we’re not spending to pay off the credit card debt, we’ll tackle our 2nd trust deed and have it paid off within a year. Finally, we’ll tackle our mortgage payment and hopefully pay that off within a couple of years.
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