30 by 30 #22–Pay off our debts

AJ and I started out our marriage financially better off than many people. We were both able to pay for college without accumulating any school debts and we paid for our wedding out of money we had already saved up. This was a huge blessing.

Then, just after we got married, it was time for AJ's car to be replaced, so we bought a new Mazda on a 5-year term. A couple years later, we were ready to leave the condo and get a bigger space, so we bought a house and took out a loan for the down payment. We're very careful with our credit cards so we don't have any debt there.

Neither of these loans were too much for us to bear financially, which was great, but they were loans nonetheless. We do, of course, have a mortgage as well, but the house is what financial planners are calling "good debt" so we're ok with that.

In November of 2010, we paid off our down payment debt and on November 27 of 2011, we officially paid off our car loan, making us totally debt free!

We took a financial planning course through church and are sitting down together every month to plan out our spending before the month starts to ensure we are living within our means and hopefully with some margin. This has been a great tool especially with me on maternity leave, which has cut our income significantly this year. We're planning on keeping my 2003 car around for a few more years so we can save up some money and buy my next car with no debt if possible.