So what happened after we paid off our house the first time?

In the 5 years following us reaching Baby Step 7…

-We saved a lot.

-We gave a lot.

-We lived a little more, and I’m so glad we did!  (Because I can tell you one thing: it was HARD those first 5 years living on such a tight budget! We were ready to eat out a little more and take a few vacations!)

-We also experienced life with a new lens: We became parents.

And in the midst of learning to provide for 2 tiny humans, Will had two job changes - both which required hustle from the ground up (meaning: he didn’t make money at first but needed to build his work over months and months to create a sustainable income.)

We did not stray from Dave Ramsey’s plan, and we certainly didn’t go into debt. But we weren’t able to save quite as much as we had hoped, because life happened.

Looking back, I have absolutely no regrets! Will is in a job he LOVES now, and that required some sacrifice, trusting God’s voice and navigating through seasons of waiting and building - especially in regards to our finances. That’s what marriage is about. He was the breadwinner while I built my business, and for a season, I was the breadwinner while he built his. Now we both are so grateful for work we love.

But we still lived in the tiny townhouse we paid off 5 years ago… with 2 kids, a giant dog, and a team of 3 employees and a nanny that came to work every day. We both worked from home, and we knew it was time to find more space for our family and our work.

(Bless Will’s heart - he worked out of the tiny guest bedroom for years!!)

So last year when we began looking, we knew we could pay cash for another house if we sold our house for $200,000 and bought a house for $300-$350,000. The market was hot - houses were being sold FAST! So we began to look.

2 beloved houses that we were ready to make offers on went under contract before we ever could make an offer. It was a long process of waiting. So when we found a foreclosure for $499,000, we thought we’d take a look just for fun.

Long story short - we loved it. It sat empty for over 1.5 years, and needed some WORK. But it had a separate studio space, an acre of land, and almost the exact layout we were looking for.

I had some work that needed to be done in my heart though. I was so prideful about going back into debt - I told Will we couldn’t do it. I cried and cried about it. I was fearful of what other people would think, and I didn’t want to live with a house payment again. I honestly felt like a fraud because we had “preached” debt freedom so often.

I prayed and asked God to make a way if this was it for us. My specific prayer was that we would get the house for under $450,000 in an impossible market. After much negotiating, we did! I also knew it wouldn’t be $100,000 of debt, but also an additional $60,000 because of the renovations that would need to be done. It was so humbling for me to feel like we were, in a sense, starting over.

Thankfully, God kept saying “I have something good for you! Accept it!” I also knew this was Him reminding me that my identity is NOT in a finish line or an accomplishment, but my identity is His daughter. Debt or no debt, I’m still His.

And in all of this, we still plan to pay it off fast! We are giving ourselves a bit more grace with 3 little ones, but the plan is to hopefully pay it off by the end of 2020.

We are also saving for colleges, two weddings, and a few last home renovations in the meantime too. (Life is dang expensive!)

I share all of this for a few reasons, and I hope this didn’t make you feel awk because if I’m honest I totally feel that way typing out all these numbers and my fears and where we are today. But in all of this, I hope you are encouraged by a few things:

1. Our identity is not linked to our financial status / successes / failures.

2. You can give yourself permission to change your financial plan and that is OKAY. LIfe happens!

3. Dave’s Baby Steps really do work and are a great guide for healthy finances. We are still following his plan! We just bumped back from Baby Step 7 to Baby Step 6 for a few years, but are excited to be back on Baby Step 7 soon enough.

Do you follow Dave’s Baby Steps? If so, what step are you on so I can cheer you on?!

If you’ve followed our financial journey in the past, you know a few important things about me and my husband Will:

• We enrolled in Financial Peace University when we were engaged and it CHANGED OUR MARRIAGE.

• We followed Dave’s Ramsey’s 7 Baby Steps to a T!

• We lived on a tight budget for 5 years, then paid off our first house at ages 25 & 26.

I’m a numbers girl, and since you are probably wondering “how the heck did they pay off their house that young?” Imma tell you how:

$160,000 : Home Value

$60,000 : Our Down Payment

$110,000 : Balance of our loan

We lived on Will’s salary as a youth pastor, which was tiiight.  Everything I made in Nancy Ray Photography, we set aside and put onto the house. Usually it was a pretty large lump sum at the end of the year. This is how we paid it off in 2.5 years. Notice we were not making the big bucks… we were just living on one income and making it work!

$35,000 : Year One

$45,000 : Year Two

$30,000 : Year Three (half my income)

=

$110,000 Paid Off in 2.5 Years!

After we paid off our house, we flew to Nashville and screamed “We’re debt freeee!” on the Dave Ramsey show. It was amazing and I’ll never forget that sweet experience.

I KNEW THAT I KNEW we would NEVER go into debt again.

But God has a way of humbling me, and so I humbly and honestly tell you that we have another mortgage we are paying off as fast as we can…

Come back tomorrow to read about how we got to this point, and to learn about our new financial goals!

On January 2nd, 2013, Will and I screamed “We’re debt free!” on the Dave Ramsey radio show. The 5-year story leading up to that point consisted of so much sacrifice, so many tears, so much learning… too much to be captured in just a few short minutes on air in a brief interview. I look forward to sharing the rest of that story here, with you.

Listen to our call:

The minute we pulled into the building with the sign “Financial Peace Plaza” out front, butterflies fluttered in my stomach. We’re actually doing this. 

We parked the car. Will was driving, I was next to him, and my sweet mom was in the back seat. We decided to read through our notes one last time, to make sure we had all our facts right.  I proceeded to burst into tears as I read the following:

• $110,000 debt paid off in 32 months. (The house)

• The hardest parts: putting back groceries at the checkout line when there wasn’t enough money in the envelope at the end of the month (this happened regularly); renting a tiny apartment with no AC, no dishwasher, no washer/dryer when we first got married; very limited spending money or “blow” money ($40/month each, which included eating out); making huge payments on the house when we could have gone on vacation/gone shopping/done a whole lotta things; staying content.

• The key to our success: living on a budget (and sticking to it); living on $50,000 budget when our income was over $100,000; leading Financial Peace University (motivation!); contentment.

• Did your friends make fun of you: A little, but most have been converted by now :]

• What are you looking forward to: Giving… to ministries, to families in need, to our church. More grocery money ! Traveling together. Living like no one else.

I couldn’t pull myself together in the car. When I thought about our journey getting to that point, it was honestly surreal that our goal had finally been achieved. No more mortgage payment, ever! It was hard to wrap my mind around it. My mom said a prayer of peace over us – to be calm, to soak in this day, that we would have the words to say. We were both in tears by the end of her prayer. After stuffing tissues in my pockets, we took a breath and stepped out of the car.

We walked inside and greeted Martha, the sweet director of guest relations who also runs a complimentary coffee shop & bakery in the lobby. (Yep, pretty awesome.) She asked about our story, our debt, and she immediately got so excited! She said she was so proud of us, and Dave was going to love our story. We walked around, and Will’s family shortly arrived after that: Liz (mom), Jess (sister), John (brother) & Sam (my bff/John’s wife). We waited, we watched Dave begin the show, and before we knew it, we were putting on our headsets and microphones.

I honestly don’t remember much after that – I heard Dave say our names, and the rest is a blur. I was so excited I didn’t know what to do! My nerves went away during the call, but I didn’t fully know how to express the impact he’d had on us. I was just giddy with excitement, and full of emotion! Will did an awesome job leading much of the conversation. The “questions” we were expecting Dave to ask me never got asked (What was the hardest part? What are you looking forward to?), and honestly Dave just got carried away with excitement! He ran some numbers, showed us how we could build wealth, and then freaked out a little. It was awesome!

•••

Dave: Have you guys even sat down and done any calculations? Because with no house payment, and with this manner of living, do you know how much wealth you can build? Because it will scare you!

Will:  We’ve talked about it a little bit, and we’ve been through Financial Peace, we’ve facilitated it a few times and we love it, but we have not actually let it hit us fully, but I know… it’s massive. It has the potential to be unbelievable.

Dave: Absolutely. So what was the house payment?

Will: About $850/month.

Dave: Okay, and that’s not there any more. So if we just took the house payment, or say, $1000/month, and you just did that from [age] 27 – 67, in a decent growth stock mutual fund, that’s like, 11 Million Dollars.

Nancy: Not bad!

Dave: So if I’m half wrong, you’re still in pretty good shape! THAT’S FREAKING AMAZING!

•••

That part blew my mind. We can absolutely change our family tree with that kind of wealth. We can save lives, pay for our grandkids’ educations, enhance ministries, travel the world, bless so many people, and spend our last days in a comfortable, beautiful paid for home. Unreal.

We finished the rest of the blurry conversation, and Dave said the final words…

“YOU GUYS ARE INCREDIBLE! Will and Nancy, Raleigh, North Carolina, $110,000 paid off but the best part of the whole thing is, they NEVER BORROWED MONEY since they got married except their house and they paid that off early! These guys are freakin’ financial studs! That’s what they are! They’re incredible! Count it down you guys, let’s do our first Debt Free Scream of 2013!”

 We screamed our guts out. Then, I proceeded to burst into tears again.

Will and I hugged and kissed, just enjoying that sweet moment that marked such an accomplishment for us. I then hugged everyone in the lobby, including Martha’s assistant to helped her bake cookies. I was overwhelmed.

Dave came out to greet us and gave us huge hugs. It was so great; I could tell he was so pumped!

After we sat and listened a bit longer to the show, we made our mark by signing “the wall.” Yes, I insisted on drawing a house. (They won’t actually let anyone sign the wall anymore, since the giant wall you see pictured won’t be there forever. They are instead doing small pieces of plexiglass that look pretty sweet, which they will display throughout their office building.)

I’d say 2013 is off to a pretty amazing start. If you commented on my Instagram / Twitter / Facebook, THANK YOU. You do not know how encouraging it was reading all of your comments!

In the next few weeks, I will be blogging a series on the rest of our story – the five years leading up to this point. Will is also going to be sharing his perspective (read his blogpost about our Debt-free-scream here), since our journey was different. (He’s a boy, I’m a girl. Different backgrounds, different spending habits, different views on money at the start.) Our hope is that this will help you and motivate you to set goals and stick with them, to get on the same page as your spouse, and to take financial responsibility for your life this year.

It will take self-discipline and sticking to a plan. And it IS possible.

We can’t wait to share the rest of our journey.