Not familiar
with Dave Ramsey? He has a three-hour
radio show about personal finance, urging listeners to follow his baby steps to
financial freedom1,
most notably by getting—and staying—out of debt.
I got hooked
on his show while I worked long library shifts in college with nothing else to
do, and I was itching to throw everything I had at my student loans so that the
Professor and I could move onward and upward.
And then the
Professor decided to go to graduate school.
In a
different state.
Where we’d
live on his livable-but-not-roomy stipend2.
And then we
made tiny people who like to eat and wear clothes and expensive things like
that.
And all of
my debt-reduction schemes were reduced to so many abandoned Excel spreadsheets.
We’ve been
faithful to pay on my student loans and are determined to avoid going into
further debt during grad school, but my debt-reduction fervor faded and with it
my penchant for listening to Uncle Dave on the radio…until recently.
For the past
month, I’ve spent all of naptime listening to Dave give out advice and rail
against credit cards. I’ve made new
charts. I’ve made new goals and promises
to myself. Professor even agreed to a
budget meeting before the end of the month.
A budget
meeting! With spreadsheets! And pie charts!
But then
things sort of soured:
- Because it seemed all too easy for people making $100K to wipe up $25K of mess.
- Or it would be so nice to climb out of a million dollar hole…by selling a McMansion.
- Or who wouldn’t be debt-free if they were left a six-figure inheritance from a long-lost relative?
I became
bitter. And bitter is ugly. I coveted what others have and that’s not
only sinful…it’s petty. And small.
So, I write
all of this to say…we’re nowhere near debt-free, and I’m nowhere near perfect—our
life is nowhere near perfect3,
but that doesn’t mean it isn’t wonderful.
And now, more for my benefit than yours, are a few things I know we’ve
done right in this still-weighed-down-by-student-loans-and-academic-poverty
life we lead…
{1} Even if progress is slow, we’re winning. We’re making good choices: we don’t do credit
cards and we do pay above and beyond our student loan payment every month. I wish I could move the needle on our
debt-o-meter a lot faster, but it’s moving in the right direction, and it’s
never going the other way again4.
{2} Not having money means lots of time for
reading. I had so much time on my
hands when Professor was working and I wasn’t (first before I had a job, then
after I came home). I spent hours
reading online about frugality, the drug store game, how to save on
everything. The library has been my second
home and led me to subjects beyond just straight up frugality, which leads me
to…
{3} Living frugally has given me lifelong,
life-changing habits and outlooks. I
started out doing crunchy-granola, hippie things—like cloth diapering and
line-drying clothes—to save money. But a
lot of reading (see #2 above) has really changed my thinking on a lot of things
in this world and the impact little changes can make. I don’t think we’ll stop being “crunchy” even
when if the money starts rolling in.
{4} The want machine has slowed waaaaaaaaay
down. We don’t have the money to buy
everything we want on a whim, so you can bet we think long and hard about
things before we plunk down cash for them.
And you know what? Other than a
bike for me5 and a backpack for Professor, this year our “fun” money has gone almost
entirely to clothes and beyond-the-basics, just-for-fun food. “And having food and raiment let us be therewith content”—so saith the King James and we’re finding it to be so very true.
And so very good.
And so very good.
So, yes, we
don’t have a lot, and my student loan debt bothers me like an itchy sweater I
can’t take off, but I wouldn’t trade the lessons we’ve learned about money,
stuff, and values for anything.
P.S. I still love Dave Ramsey to pieces…I just
might need to take a break from his show again until I can get my heart in line.
1 When I read that, it sounds super cultish, but I promise it’s not. Dave Ramsey has never hawked any Kool-Aid and there are so many ways to glean his advice without spending a dime.
Still, people love or hate the guy, so feel free to find out where you
fall by visiting daveramsey.com to see what he’s all about.
2 So
technically, we didn’t always live on just that, but since we got married in
2009 when you were more likely to get bitten by a shark (in Minnesota) than get
a job, we budgeted as if his stipend was our only income.
3 If
I say that I used #iliveintheghetto the other day, does that explain it well
enough?
4 A
house being the only exception, and even then, we’re super picky: 15-year fixed
rate, more than 20% down, no more than $100K worth of loan, and we need to be
able to pay it off in ten years or less.
But we’d love to see if we could save up and pay cash…it will all depend
on the feels-forever-away future.
5 I
lurve that hubby of mine. :D