Who knew there is a right way to get out of debt?!

We have always been huge fans of Dave Ramsey, yet along the way we have noticed that he is as rigid as a square. Always doing things the safe way. Like a drug counselor, Dave assumes that everyone in debt is a debt addict and must avoid it at all times. Maybe it’s because he gets tired of giving good advice, only to watch people not follow it.

We have found that many people just need to start paying attention to why they are negatively charged! Once smart folks start paying attention, they figure out the right things to do and then do it. Hello hero, goodbye zero.

Take us for example, we got out of debt in a strange order, yet we still got to the finish line in the same amount of time. First we paid off the credit cards, then the house, then the car. Why in that order? So I (Deborah) could reduce my work hours without fear of a looming mortgage. The order of debt payoff was based on lowering all of the risks, not just the lowest remaining debt. A large mortgage payment scared me more than a small car payment. And working full-time while someone else gets to spend most awake hours with our daughter bugged me. I wanted to cut back on my work hours. Weird, huh?!

Factor in all the risks before making any decision. Things can be replaced, people can’t.

Talk about ironies. Getting a car loan (so we could mail a check to pay off the mortgage) kept us off the Dave Ramsey show. We were scheduled to shout “we’re debt free” on Dave’s radio show a while back and the producer declined to have us on the air because “Dave wouldn’t like” how we got here. Hey, but we’re debt free – does it really matter how we got there! Who knew that we were debt free losers?

We still love ya, Dave.