The Silver Lining of Being $800,000 in Debt

I firmly believe there is a reason for everything.  In our 20s, we spent every penny on drinking, eating at restaurants, clothes, expensive cars, and traveling.  We still travel and eat out occasionally but we are learning how to live way beneath our means. If we make $150,000 a year we need to learn how to live on $60,000 a year. If we can master that, once we are debt free we will have $90,000 to invest, give and save.

Let's see how much we would need a year if we were debt free. 

Utilities: $300
Phone: $15 (see Changes Page for explanation, was $188)
Internet/Cable: $87
Hair Cut: $25
Netflix: $15
Groceries: $521 (budgeted)
Gas: $280 (budgeted)

Total: $1,243 x 12 months = $14,916

What is my point?  If we weren't in this much debt now, we would have continued to spend, and spend, and spend.  I am sure you know at least one person that gets a new car nearly every year... or someone that constantly gets new stuff like phones, ipods, computers, ipad, kindle, and any other electronic.  Chances are pretty damn good that they are broke.  Even if they did pay off the credit card they bought the stuff on... what are the odds they have a fully funded emergency fund? How about a plan for retirement?  

There is no way I could have ever imagined living debt free. If we hadn't been in such a deep hole, I never would have read Dave Ramsey's book and learned that we could be debt free.  I never would have learned how to invest in my 401k properly or to have an emergency fund.  


The future is bright... much brighter than if we would have just continued down the spending path we were on.