Beginnings

We started this financial journey in February of 2008. My wife and I were sick and tired of living paycheck to paycheck! All of our income was going out to bills.

We make a good income, but were not making ends meet! It became obvious that our handling of money was out of control. I didn't even know how much money was going where and what we could afford. We thought were living the "American Dream"...but we were in debt up to our ears!

Not to say that all Americans are in serious debt, however, some of the friends, co-workers and family that we share life with, are mostly living beyond their means.

So, we decided to stop the madness, and get a handle on our finances.

First, we searched the internet for financial information. Through Google, I came upon "Get Rich Slowly", a blog about a man and his wife's journey to become financially responsible and debt free. After reading about J.D. and his situation, I could completely relate to what he went through. I too was deep in debt and without any idea of how to get out of this financial mess.

GRS has a story of how he became free of over $35,000 in debt. By using a "Debt Snowball", starting a budget and changing their lifestyle, J.D. completed what we wanted to do...become debt free!

So, we followed this plan, and found more information through his website. In particular, we found Dave Ramsey. I checked out his book "The Total Money Makeover" at the library(my first library card in years!). I read the whole book in one day and I was "All In"!

From that point on, we had a road map on becoming debt free!

In the next post, I will outline how we started back in February of 2008 on our "Baby Steps". Our goal: Pay off over $55,000 in debt!

We're not there yet, but we are heading in the right direction for sure!