TVRodriguez
3-31-12, 5:30pm
I wasn't sure where to put this, but since it feels like a success story, this seemed like a good forum.
When I joined this site (well, the old site) back in 2004 or 2005, DH & I had recently married at ages 30 & 40, and although I'd paid off my student loans of $65,000, we still faced DH's student loans of about $262,000 plus credit card debt of about $65,000 that he incurred in starting up his medical practice. We had about $25,000-$30,000 total in savings (mostly from wedding gifts) and retirement accounts (all mine).
Since then, we've bought a modest house and had three kids. I downgraded my work commitments from more-than-full-time (Big law firm attorney) to very relaxed part-time (2 attorney firm closer to home) working 3 days/week. DH went through boom and bust times here in South Florida in his practice and cut back to 4 days a week when things were really slow, so as not to have to fire any staff members and stayed at 4 days when things picked up, so as to have more time with the kids (they don't have school Fridays).
And we've steadily paid down the debt: first the credit cards, then one student loan at a time, and now we're working on the mortgage and building up our retirement and the kids' college funds.
I'm working on taxes today, and I took the time to do a net worth summary, something I haven't done in a while. Part of the reason was that, no matter how much we put towards the debt, the drop in home values made all our gains disappear in the total. Our home value dropped by almost 50% from when we bought it. It started to get depressing. So we kept paying down the debt and I neglected the net worth statements.
Well, today, I did it, and I was surprised to see that our net worth is now over $400,000! Wow. From our negative $300,000 8 years ago. Just wow. I'm thrilled with our progress and proud of us for keeping on trucking. And even more proud that we are trying to live our lives modestly, with our used (and paid for) cars and simple pleasures.
Thanks for letting me share this excitement. I don't post often, but I'm so glad this forum exists. I bounced ideas off you guys several times in the past, and I always appreciate the encouragement I get from members. It is heartening. Thanks.
When I joined this site (well, the old site) back in 2004 or 2005, DH & I had recently married at ages 30 & 40, and although I'd paid off my student loans of $65,000, we still faced DH's student loans of about $262,000 plus credit card debt of about $65,000 that he incurred in starting up his medical practice. We had about $25,000-$30,000 total in savings (mostly from wedding gifts) and retirement accounts (all mine).
Since then, we've bought a modest house and had three kids. I downgraded my work commitments from more-than-full-time (Big law firm attorney) to very relaxed part-time (2 attorney firm closer to home) working 3 days/week. DH went through boom and bust times here in South Florida in his practice and cut back to 4 days a week when things were really slow, so as not to have to fire any staff members and stayed at 4 days when things picked up, so as to have more time with the kids (they don't have school Fridays).
And we've steadily paid down the debt: first the credit cards, then one student loan at a time, and now we're working on the mortgage and building up our retirement and the kids' college funds.
I'm working on taxes today, and I took the time to do a net worth summary, something I haven't done in a while. Part of the reason was that, no matter how much we put towards the debt, the drop in home values made all our gains disappear in the total. Our home value dropped by almost 50% from when we bought it. It started to get depressing. So we kept paying down the debt and I neglected the net worth statements.
Well, today, I did it, and I was surprised to see that our net worth is now over $400,000! Wow. From our negative $300,000 8 years ago. Just wow. I'm thrilled with our progress and proud of us for keeping on trucking. And even more proud that we are trying to live our lives modestly, with our used (and paid for) cars and simple pleasures.
Thanks for letting me share this excitement. I don't post often, but I'm so glad this forum exists. I bounced ideas off you guys several times in the past, and I always appreciate the encouragement I get from members. It is heartening. Thanks.