Over 8 years?

That couldn’t be right. I checked again.

My stomach dropped. My calculations were correct. It was going to take me more than eight years to dig myself out of debt.

What had I done to myself?

As a teacher, I did not know how I was going to pay back all of my debt. At the time, I was looking at up to 120% of my income in debt. I had bought my first car with payments. I’d bought my first house with a second mortgage. I’d gotten a second master’s degree with student loans. I felt like I’d done all the right things to get ahead in life. So how could I be buried so deep in a mountain of debt?

Luckily for me, a former co-worker loaned me tapes of Dave Ramsey’s Financial Peace University. She swore it had changed her life. Always game for some good self-help, I listened, and the more I heard, the more I found I hadn’t been living by God’s principles according to money.

I assumed that the car, house, and education debt was normal. I justified my choices based on the fact that I had never lived outside of my means through credit cards. But sitting down at my desk that evening, looking honestly at my finances for the first time in my adult life, everything began to shift.

From overwhelming anger, to overwhelming action

At first, I was embarrassed at my choices. The sheer amount of debt I was facing felt overwhelming, and I didn’t have anywhere to turn. Then, I got angry. I couldn’t believe I’d let myself make these choices, and I wanted out of this mess as quickly as possible.

So I started making some changes. I opened my home to two new roommates (a tight crunch in a three-bedroom home). I took extra assignments at work, gained a second job, and even babysat for the first time in 14 years. I called service providers to ask them to lower my bills, declared war on the student loan companies, and took a lot of walks with friends instead of going out to eat.

At one point, I realized my student loan payment had not been credited correctly and I was owed about 5 cents in interest. I asked to speak to a manager at the loan company, and let’s just say we eventually got to know each other on a first name basis after that. I’m sure he rolled his eyes each time his assistant told him that I was on the phone, but I didn’t care. That’s how badly I wanted out of this mess.

I would work at my full-time job, take a quick nap, and head to my second job in the evenings. Some nights I didn’t get home until 8 or 9 p.m. Yes, the days were long, but I was seeing the fruits of my labor.

I continued to learn more about finances, reading and listening to everything by Dave Ramsey that I could get my hands on.

Creating a new foundation

Toward the end of my debt journey, I got married to my sweet husband John. Thankfully, we have had a strong financial foundation in our marriage. We are able meet our needs, give to organizations that do God’s work, and travel on occasion. We feel called to help others feel this same financial peace.