HI THERE AND WELCOME TO SWIMMING IN DEBT!
Do you have student loans? Car loans? Credit cards? Or any other debt? Do you feel like you’re swimming in debt? Well your not alone…
I’m Megan and we have debt just like you. I am on a mission of creating a life that I love and that life includes being DEBT FREE! I am confident that life can be fun and exciting while paying off debt. And I am going to show you how you can achieve this too!
GET TO KNOW ME!
I am married to my right-hand man, Eric and he puts up with all my crazy. We currently live in the state of Utah. And my days are spent chasing 3 tiny people that have way too much energy, in other words, I am a stay-at-home mom! Which means we are a one income family.
Now I should warn you that I am not that super frugal blogger who stops spending money. I do not coupon because let’s face it, who has time for that! I believe that vacationing is something everyone should do no matter their financial situation. I use credit cards because they give me FREE stuff. I BELIEVE that if you use a BUDGET you can make your dreams a reality!
You should also know that I am not an expert, just someone learning about finance/blogging and sharing what I learn with you. The projects, suggestions, and tutorials on this blog are not error-proof, they are simply what worked for us or did not work.
Side Note: I am not the greatest writer or speller and sometimes I make up words (Eric is always correcting me). So please excuse any grammar or spelling mistakes because I will make them, often…
We have been there…
- living paycheck to paycheck
- wondering how will we pay for all this
- not budgeting
- wondering where the money goes every month
- hiding our debts because the number scared us
Let me tell you the short version of our story.
OUR DEBT STORY (SHORT VERSION):
Our debt story started before we got married. And I don’t want to make one of us look bad, so we are just going to say that we are both not perfect!
After high school, we headed off to college with no real understanding of credit cards or loans. Things were purchased and student loans were taken out. After some years, we happily found one another and got married! One year into our marriage, we realized we had about $60,000 in debt (this was debt from both of us!).
After 5 years of figuring out how to better manage our money, we had paid off $40,000 of that initial debt. Please note that we were living on one income for 4 of those years plus had some kids. But at the time of paying off that debt, my husband was back in school to get his MBA, meaning more debt. See the in-depth look at how we got in debt and how we paid off 40K.
We now have over $115,000+ in debt of student loans and a car loan. Plus we also have a mortgage on top of all that.
A CHANGE OF HEART (AKA: GOALS):
In the beginning of 2016, after a trip to the Caribbean, we realized what goals we really wanted in our life. We wanted to live on an island, in a tiny house, and just live (or we wanted to travel all the time)!! My husband was ready to just do it, sell everything and take our debts (student loans) with us. But I told him, I did not want that debt hanging over our heads.
I then showed him some numbers I had been crunching for months; these numbers showed that if we really wanted this, we could be debt free in 7 years, if not sooner. (I used my debt calculator to figure this out!) Plus this time frame was not by being super crazy; we could still go on vacations! This is when we started considering the idea of really being debt FREE.
WHY THE BLOG?
I started this blog to commit to paying off our debt and living our dreams! This blog will hopefully help you find a little extra money (or a lot) in your pocket each month. It will help you take control of where your money goes every month. It will give you ideas, tips, and methods to reach your financial goals, whatever they may be! Whether you’re swimming in debt, trying to save money, planning for retirement, or all of the above; this is the place for you!
I feel that debt is one of those things that most people struggle with. And we are one of those people, are you? Let’s be different and become DEBT FREE. Plus let’s enjoy life right now!
I really hope you will join us in committing to making waves and becoming debt FREE.
Thanks for stopping by! -Megan
If you are wondering where to start, click the New? Start Here tab to being your own journey.
If you have any other questions you can email me at: megan@swimmingindebt.com
