Our Financial History

For years we have been your average American couple i.e. living paycheck to paycheck, some credit card debt here and there, student loans, car loans, and budgeting monthly with an excel spreadsheet. We were completely happy with that because I am in the military and just knew my paycheck was going to be there no matter what (how naive is that). Then the government shutdowns happened and every day was a mystery as to if we were going to have food to eat that next payday, shortly after that the USAF started with their personnel cuts and my secure paycheck seemed so much less secure. 

Shortly after all of that a guy I worked with introduced me to The Total Money Makeover by Dave Ramsey. I read it in one sitting, and it changed my view on money forever. Many of the teachings in his book I already knew and understood but never really followed. As any DR follower has heard, Personal Finance is 80% behavior 20% head knowledge. The part that really hit home for me was the debt myths that I had always believed. I started listening to Mr. Ramsey's podcast on the radio and following every word he said. It did not take long for Mrs. Air Force to get on board because we both knew it was sound advice. We just finished Dave Ramsey’s Financial Peace University and have learned a ton about personal finance.

We started the Dave Ramsey Plan immediately and got our $1k emergency fund in place pretty quickly (less than a month) because we already had a small one set aside. We were still using Excel for our budgeting but were well on our way and began working on Baby Step 2: Pay off all your debt except your home mortgage. We have now paid off and canceled all of our credit cards ($2k worth) and half of our truck payments ($2k worth). We have also decided to sell our third car (my baby, a 2007 Nissan 350Z) because for one it’s not a need, and two it would improve our financial picture a ton.

We have now decided that it is no longer a desire of ours to continue my military service and would like to separate from Active Duty at the end of this contract in October 2015 and move closer to family in SC.  We decided to put our debt snowball on hold to start saving to cover living expenses until we get a new jobs

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