Go Debt Free!

Good morning, Rebels!

Grab your coffee and let's talk about being debt free.

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My wife and I have been debt free for seven years now. 

Recently we added a reasonable mortgage for a townhouse, but remain debt free otherwise.

We weren’t always debt free.

We lived the typical American life in our 20s:

• Car loan

• College debt

• Ever-growing credit card balances

We had college debt (though less than many because we attended state universities and worked full-time during graduate school), a car loan, and an ever-growing credit card balance. 

I realize how privileged (in numerous ways) we are to have the opportunity to be debt free, but we also made a lot of decisions that impacted our lifestyle.

• We chose to not have children.

• We chose to live within our wages (and on 50% of our paychecks to pay down our debt).

• We chose to make budgeting and debt repayment a goal.

• We chose to wait to buy another car until we could pay cash for it (keeping our original car for 13 years).

• We chose to wait to buy a house until we could afford a large downpayment.

• We chose to focus on careers (and the related stress) to grow our income.

I’m not sharing this to brag, but rather to highlight that most debt is a choice.

You may not choose to take on debt during an emergency or unexpected crisis.

But it is a choice to focus your energy on paying it off, to not remain in debt.

A choice to take student loans, buy new phones, new cars, large homes, and travel.

Choices are a personal matter.

You pick your priorities - family, travel, retirement, tech, play.

We all start at different points in our financial journey - and many start significantly behind - but we all have a choice in our future.

Being debt-free provided us with numerous opportunities, including limited financial stress on a day-to-day basis.

We still focus on our budget, but the money that went to paying off debt every month now goes to (early) retirement, travel, and fun cars.

We no longer stress about losing our jobs, because we live off one income, so we have a fallback plan.

This gives us freedom of even more choices - where do we want to go next? Do we want to keep working or take a gap year (we did this one!)?

Are you debt free yet? Why or why not? (Email or send me a LinkedIn DM!)

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Please share with someone you think would benefit from being debt free - let's expand the rebellion!

I hope you have a great week!

Quinn