Living Optimized

After the Garage Sale I had a few things that I needed to list on eBay.  After a couple nights of taking pictures and writing the item descriptions I got everything listed.  7 days later we were $298.92 richer.  You’d be surprised of the things that you can get rid of.  I guess it’s true one man’s junk is another man’s treasure.  I am almost finished shipping the items to their new owners and still waiting on one more payment.

I also finally made it up to Redeemed Music and Books, a used music and bookstore that sells Christian material.  Adriane had about 250 CD’s that we had leftover from the Garage Sale that I took to see if they would buy them.  I was really hoping that they would take them all but they only wanted about 50 of them but they offered $162 in trade or $81 cash.  Of course I took the cash to apply to our Debt SnowBall.

Dollar by Dollar we’re killing the debt!

Mandy and I still have a while before we make our last payment but I have wondered what life will be like after our debt has been paid off. I sure hope I maintain the same focused intensity when it comes time to save money as I have now while we’re paying off debt. I can’t imagine I’d lose the intensity but we shall see soon enough.

I got to thinking more about this after reading “Life After the Last Payment.” These few sentences really stood out to me:

While you were getting out of debt, you spent a lot of time focused on money you spent in the past. Now you can focus on money you’ll spend in the future!

Soon we can focus on money we’ll spend in the future. I can hardly wait!

Because we had such a successful garage sale over the weekend, Mandy and I were finally able to pay off our very last credit card last night. August 23, 2010 marks the day that we kicked Bank of America Credit Card Services to the curb and the day that we killed our last credit card. We are both extremely excited although it hasn’t really sunk in for me yet what we’ve just accomplished. After all, this is the first time that I can remember not having a credit card balance since we were married nearly four years ago. Another debt killed and only one more to go! I can see debt freedom in the distance. We are getting closer.

Excited to kill debt!

Don't underestimate the power in unity.

Alright, we are having a two family Kill That Debt Garage Sale.  We have gone through every room and every drawer looking for things to put in our KTD sale.  There are no sacred cows here, plus it just feels good to get rid of clutter and things you haven’t used for years.  Money earned through this sale will be applied towards our ever shrinking debt total.  We have the signs, the clothes racks, free advertising placed and all that’s left is to finish pricing everything now.  Will update you all on how it went!

UPDATE:  Uploaded Some Pictures Of The KTD Garage Sale Here!

Having a ‘plan of attack’ can make life so much easier and the debt snowball is simply that – a plan to attack debt. I was first introduced to the idea of a debt snowball by Dave Ramsey and in my own words I’ll explain how it works.

In the debt snowball method, you list your debts in order from smallest to largest and attack the smallest debt first. Once the smallest debt is paid off, you take the payment you were paying on the first debt and combine it with the payment for the second smallest debt. As debts are paid off, you take the payments you were making previously and apply them to the debt next in line. Your payment amounts will grow substantially, like a snowball rolling downhill gathering more snow.

Many financial experts will advise you to list your debts in order of highest interest to smallest interest. Mathematically this approach is correct but behaviorally it is tough! Once you understand that personal finance is 20% head knowledge and 80% behavior you’ll know why this isn’t necessary the best way of killing off your debts. Paying the smaller debts off first can get the snowball rolling faster and will give you some quick ‘wins’ which will help keep you motivated.

Quick Review

• List your debts smallest to largest (if two debts have the same amount, place the debt with the higher interest rate above the other).
• Make minimum payments on all debts except for the debt that is at the top of the list.
• As a debt is paid off, take that debt’s payment and combine it with the minimum payment of the next debt down the list.
• Repeat until all debts are paid in full.

When you pay off a debt, get excited and have a cost-free celebration. Killing the debt with focused intensity is the key to becoming debt free. Don’t let up!

Write the vision, and make it plain… okay, here it goes.

Kill That Debt .org is a site created by two brothers who are equally passionate about living a debt free life.

Our mission (vision) is quite simple:

• Document our separate journeys to debt freedom
• Share our passion in becoming debt free in hopes of encouraging others to follow
• Introduce creative ways to earn and save money

Adam, anything you’d like to add? If not, to the rest of you… Enjoy!