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Jul 18, 2008    |       17 comments

You Need to Move Closer to Us

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While visiting our families, there was a comment made to us by my family as well as by my in-laws:

You need to move closer to us.

First things first, it is really tough living so far away from family (about 500 miles). I miss them like crazy and it does bother me that our son isn’t able to see his grandparents, cousins, aunts and uncles on a more regular basis. We usually visit once per year and then correspond via telephone throughout the year.

I’m often asked about our secret to paying off debt. There is no secret, but one thing that has helped us tremendously is where we live. We enjoy a low cost of living and we have tons of free things to do that match our interests. We can afford to live here. We can’t afford to live where they live. At least not right now, and we especially couldn’t a few years ago when our monthly debt payments were so high.

I’ve been trying to write about this since yesterday. I get so far, and then I get stuck. I think to myself that living so far away is the best thing for our family. But wait – we miss our relatives so it can’t be the best thing. If you think too much into something like this it can drive you batty. I’m not sure what else to say except I hope that we are doing the right thing.

I think a lot of things in life boil down to that. You are just hoping you are doing the right thing, whatever that may be.

Jul 16, 2008    |       12 comments

Savings Account is Fully Funded – It’s Time To Pay Off Some More Debt!

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I finally finished updating our finances after our trip. I also paid a bunch of bills that were waiting for us after our trip (yuk). You can imagine my excitement when there was just enough money there to contribute $354 to our savings account. That brings the balance to the magic number we were shooting for – $4,000.

Now we can start focusing on paying off the last chunk of our debt. It sure seems to be stuck where it is, but hopefully that will change soon. We are on the home stretch, and it’s time to hit our debt hard again.

Here are a few things “in the works” to help us reach that glorious credit card balance of $0.00:

  • We are having a garage sale by the end of summer.
  • We are going to work hard to get our new business generating some income.
  • We are going to continue to try to reduce our expenses.
  • We are going to keep an eye out for little projects that we may be able to do to earn some extra money without a long commitment.

I feel like I’m missing something in there. Hmmm…maybe it will come to me later.

I am so excited to get cracking on this last little bit of our debt. At the same time, I am a little nervous. In less than a year I could be writing that post proclaiming that our credit card debt is at $0.00. I get butterflies in my stomach just thinking about it. We are so close now!

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