Since I stayed home from work today due to coming down with a cold, I figured I’d write about one of our big “whys” for being so desperate to get out of debt. On a quick side note, I do realize that missing time from work doesn’t do a lot to help us reach this goal. The kiddo himself was sick this past week and likely passed it on to me. Sigh. If it were anyone else, I’d be tempted to give it back. Lol
Getting back to the “why.” I don’t believe I’ve talked about it much on this blog, but we do have more than one. The biggie is in knowing we can’t retire with any debt. Doing so just feels like a recipe for disaster. Another huge reason is that I am sick and tired of owing others. Although we’ve eliminated a lot of our interest via balance transfers, paying any amount (even on our house) makes me sick. I view this as money that could either be saved, used for something we want, or benefit others via additional charitable giving.
One huge thing we would like to do is to renovate our house. It is something we have talked about since we purchased it three years ago. Providing money permits (no debt and a tidy sum of the green stuff!) our plan is to make our current living room, dining room, and kitchen into a master suite. We would then move our existing garage about 150 or so over (to create a workshop for Hubs) and add a new wing and new garage for the main living areas. The finished project would have a timber frame look to it, minus being a true timber frame home. Beautiful as they are, they are crazy expensive to build.
Big why? Yes, it is! Realistic? To an extent. That extent will ultimately depend on the cost. One thing I know for sure is we will not take on any new debt to make this a reality. Nor will we pull from our existing retirement funds. Should we need to reduce what we envision, we will.
What are some of your whys for changing the way you handle your finances? I think a huge part of learning to how to control your money is that dreams can become more than just merely dreams. They can become a reality.
Our “why” is also retiring without any debt. We have many, MANY things that need to be done around our house and dh & I have a dream of seeing a baseball game in every single park (except Dodger Stadium….if I step in there I might burst into flames, lol) and in order to do that, we also can NOT owe others. I truly wish we had figured this out before now, but we can only go forward and make choices for change NOW. I am also a huge animal lover and would like to give the SPCA money as much as I can….things like that instead of buying crap we don’t need!!!!
You are so right. We can only go forward. I am thankful to have learned this before our finances got any worse. Love that you want to take care of the critters! I’m sure you and your DH will have a blast going to so many stadiums…minus one! Lol
Timberframe homes are beautiful.
I echo both you and Sue: no debt upon retirement. Also, these are two more simple but important whys for us: We want the flexibility of living close to “the kids,” and we want to be more generous.
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Both excellent reasons!