Finally, Living the Debt Free Life!

Well, this is a long awaited post but on Wednesday October 8th I sent Sallie Mae my very last student loan payment making me 100% debt free. They drafted it out of my account on Friday and I am happy to say that I am close to being broke and couldn't be more excited about it! I started this journey 20 months ago and have paid off approximately $18,000. This debt included student loans, credit cards, tax debt, and some classes at a community college. It hasn't hit me yet but I think November is going to be a pretty awesome month!

So what is in store next? In two weeks we are headed for a long weekend in the San Juan Islands to celebrate me being debt free, but also 9 years together. Then two weeks later I will be celebrating my 29th birthday.

Early summer we began exploring the idea of selling our current home and moving into a home that would better suit our needs, but we don't really know what our needs are. After spending months and looking at properties on acres of land to old homes that need renovating, to houses in a brand new development, or even just buying property and waiting to build in a few years.  We are leaning more towards a craftsman  home in a brand new development, building to our needs. Wayne has officially saved to allow us to put 20% down and we have so many options and advantages because of him but will be waiting out to do anything until late winter or early spring. We have even discussed staying here for another year or two to be in an even better situation down the road. Either way I am so excited to be able to start saving for our next house now that I have tackled all of my debts. We have a lot to think about when it comes to our future, where we want to live and what we want our life to look like financially.

And finally, on the not so serious side we decided that we're headed back to Yosemite this spring if we can be lucky enough to get a campsite, because seriously it is a struggle. Campsites open up one day a month for a 30 day period 5 months in advance and campsites are gone within the first 2 minutes. We'll be reserving our spot in December and if we get a site then we'll put our names in the lotto for a pass to hike to the top of Half Dome, a dream of ours!