ChiefD
Footballguy
As of yesterday, my family is now credit card debt free. The only debt we have is our house (where we just refinanced to take 6 years off of our note) and 1 car.
11 years ago rocked our world. We had a 4 year old and a 2 year old. My wife worked part time, but only a couple days a week because we wanted her home with the kids as much as possible until they went to school. Plus, the cost of day care basically made her paycheck even-steven in terms of what we would outlay in day care.
I was working full time, but my insurance was not very good. We were lower middle class but could pay our bills and my job was secure. But we didn't have much extra money.
Then my two year old had a seizure in the middle of the night. For those of you who have never been through this, it is really scary. And we then had to go through a lot of testing and specialists and such to see what was going on. To make a long story short, we owed a ton of money. My insurance had a high deductible because that was all we could afford. As a result, we had debt. A ton of it. We had to supplement trying to pay medical bills with our credit cards for everyday expenses, mainly just to stay afloat and not claim bankruptcy. We paid the bills but ended up with a lot of debt on credit cards.
Today, we are basically debt free. That credit card debt is no longer hanging over our heads and never will again. We have cash in savings and can now build on that. My child, Thank God, is healthy and grew out of the issues he was having. We are very fortunate. We also have a 3rd child now.
The point of this story is two-fold: I am proud of us. We sacrificed and cut expenses and ate cheap food and kept the air conditioner and furnace turned way down to save money, and we finally won out.
But also for those few of the FBG'ers who are not FBG rich: you CAN get it done. It does take time. It does take sacrifice. And we were a very fiscally responsible family until life threw us a major curveball. But you can get out of it. We are what the middle class faces on a day to day basis here in the US. Life is tough, but you can grind your way into a better place.
Peace and love to you all.
11 years ago rocked our world. We had a 4 year old and a 2 year old. My wife worked part time, but only a couple days a week because we wanted her home with the kids as much as possible until they went to school. Plus, the cost of day care basically made her paycheck even-steven in terms of what we would outlay in day care.
I was working full time, but my insurance was not very good. We were lower middle class but could pay our bills and my job was secure. But we didn't have much extra money.
Then my two year old had a seizure in the middle of the night. For those of you who have never been through this, it is really scary. And we then had to go through a lot of testing and specialists and such to see what was going on. To make a long story short, we owed a ton of money. My insurance had a high deductible because that was all we could afford. As a result, we had debt. A ton of it. We had to supplement trying to pay medical bills with our credit cards for everyday expenses, mainly just to stay afloat and not claim bankruptcy. We paid the bills but ended up with a lot of debt on credit cards.
Today, we are basically debt free. That credit card debt is no longer hanging over our heads and never will again. We have cash in savings and can now build on that. My child, Thank God, is healthy and grew out of the issues he was having. We are very fortunate. We also have a 3rd child now.
The point of this story is two-fold: I am proud of us. We sacrificed and cut expenses and ate cheap food and kept the air conditioner and furnace turned way down to save money, and we finally won out.
But also for those few of the FBG'ers who are not FBG rich: you CAN get it done. It does take time. It does take sacrifice. And we were a very fiscally responsible family until life threw us a major curveball. But you can get out of it. We are what the middle class faces on a day to day basis here in the US. Life is tough, but you can grind your way into a better place.
Peace and love to you all.
