Feeling Rich #2 - Living Debt Free

I had always wanted to stay at home with my kids when they were born. My hubby and I had been married for 5 years before I got pregnant with our first baby. During those years we were a two income family. My Hubby in all his wisdom put my whole paycheck toward our mortgage. We were able to pay off our house before our baby was born.

We were also lucky enough to graduate from college without school loans. So during the first year after graduation, before the wedding, we were both working and putting money away. So when we found the perfect house, we had a substantial down payment. (Plus it was a pretty good deal)

We are also naturally fairly cheap, so our expenses are generally pretty low. However, we did manage to spend lots of money before our kids were born: new furniture, remodeling our kitchen, cars, and eating out all the time. We never carried a balance on our credit cards. We must have had good training from our parents or something.

Now that we have three kids, having zero debt is absolutely crucial. We only have one salary coming in. My Hubby has chosen to work for a place that he loves and believes in rather than going for the big money job that he doesn't like. Still, we have managed to make sure that our income is greater than our expenses.

I know many people think that it may work for us, but it won't work for them, for whatever reason. What they don't understand, is that we have made this a choice in our lives. We decided that we would say no to things that we might want, so that we can get what we need. We stopped eating out all the time. We stopped buying whatever we wanted, because we wanted something better.