which is about what my husband had. Outside of my vet school debt, I also had some additional loans from undergrad. Our total debt load in 2015 was $320,000. My profession that I was so in love with put me in chains to my debt.
Once the gravity of our debt situation hit me, I became desperate for a way out. I had been ignoring my finances the entire time I was in school because I didn’t want to face the truth. Ignoring my debt was easier than admitting I made a mistake and now I had to fix it.
I have never felt so helpless as I did when explaining to my husband how we were in so much debt. We were at a pivotal moment in our marriage where we could unite to conquer this, or we could let it tear us apart. We decided to face it head on and fight for financial freedom.
Since then, we haven’t looked back. Over the last few years, we have radically changed the way we think about and handle our money. I guess you could say we grew up and learned to tell ourselves “no.” I became a borderline obsessive budgeter, figured out ways to cut our spending, made a debt payoff plan, figured out how to stick with it and we are still going strong today!
By focusing on our goal to be debt free, we have been able to put $70,000 toward paying off debt and cash flowed 2 children (only 16 months apart!). This journey is not impossible, but we know it is a marathon given our total debt amount.
I don’t ever want to feel trapped by debt ever again. I know what desperate feels like and I want you to know, it doesn’t have to stay that way. You can get out of debt!