Some fun things

I’ll start off with some positive news! With a gift of money that Nate and I got and with some of our own hard-saved money, we were able to pay off some loans. We are paying off the smallest to the largest—the “debt snowball” that Dave Ramsey preaches. It feels really good to get rid of some student loans, even if they are pretty small compared to our other ones. It definitely is motivation to get “paid in full notifications,” like this one! 

I’ve been listening to Dave Ramsey a lot. Here are a couple things he constantly says: “Debt is dumb, cash is king, and the paid-off home mortgage has taken the place of the BMW as the new status symbol of choice” and “Live like no one else so later you can live like no one else.” No matter if you like the guy or not, Nate and I are switching our state of minds to align with these principles. On Dave Ramsey’s channel on iHeartRadio, today there were some couples who did the debt free scream. It makes me feel like it’s so far away for Nate and I because we have so much debt. I don’t have any desire to do the debt free scream like the people on his show, just because I’m not like that, but I’m really looking forward to having the gratification of being debt-free. It will be such an accomplishment. Another thing that I’ve been hearing a lot on the show is couples talking about how they were able to pay off their debt. One commonality is being on the same page and being totally open with each other about budgeting and anything that has to do with money. Nate and I are totally on the same page and do a great job of communicating about money. I think that will really be an asset for us in the journey and beyond. One last thing about Dave Ramsey. He said something in one of his recent shows that resonated with me. He said something to the effect of (speaking like a spouse): “I love you so much that we are going to do this right.” To me, this means that it’s not important to have fancy new things; it’s important that we are doing something together to build our future.

I want to share something else—something that really made it clear to me why we are going on this journey. Last week Nate and I talked a bit about what our budget will be like (starting in January). Usually I get frustrated talking about money specific things because I easily become either disinterested or confused. But this time, I got to clearly see how much money we are going to allocate to different things, and it’s do-able. (Side note—I’m sure Nate will disclose what our budget is in a later post.) We are even going to budget for date nights twice a month. Yes, we could put that money toward the loans, but we want to actually enjoy being a married couple. We want to be able to go out and do fun things together and treasure this special time in our lives. Anyway, something that Nate said made it clear to me why we are doing this. He said that he doesn’t want to do this—become debt-free—for him, or us necessarily, he wants to do it for our future children. To me, that means so, so much.

Here are some other tidbits in our newlywed life together. AKA doing responsible, not fun, adult, married things.

• We went to the bank the other weekend to open up a joint checking account. That was fun. The “personal banker” kept on saying “Okay, good to know, good to knowwwwwww.” It took way too long and was super annoying. No, I do not want a Wells Fargo mortgage now. Or ever.
• We finally got a Target REDcard. I’m sure a lot of you either know about it or have one. It’s a debit card that is linked to your bank account and you get 5% off your purchases. 5% off, obviously, is not an amount to jump up and down about, but it all adds up in the end. And I’ve just discovered Cartwheel. So, I’m having, errrrr, “fun” finding Target coupons and Cartwheel deals to combine with using my REDcard to save as much money as I can at Target for the things that we need. Now the cashiers at Target can stop making me feel guilty for not having the damn FREE card that saves you money!
• We had a “check in” meeting with Nate’s insurance agent. That was, as you can imagine, thrilling.   

We are off to Mexico next week for a wedding and our honeymoon. Woohoo!