From Bankrupt and in debt to debt free and a net with over a Million - منتديات الجلفة لكل الجزائريين و العرب

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From Bankrupt and in debt to debt free and a net with over a Million

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قديم 2023-04-26, 16:02   رقم المشاركة : 1
معلومات العضو
AbuHossam
عضو مميّز
 
الصورة الرمزية AbuHossam
 

 

 
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افتراضي From Bankrupt and in debt to debt free and a net with over a Million

Here’s my story:
It’s a strange feeling to pay off the mortgage then not tell anyone. I don’t want to go blasting it on my page and I don’t want to call friends and family to tell them and my husband feels the same way. Is that strange? I worry that I will sound like I’m bragging or boasting. But I want to yell from the rooftops. We are FREE! And we are Millionaires!!!

We started our FI journey without calling it that in 2005, not long after we got married. I had a son from a previous relationship and had already filed bankruptcy 3 years before meeting my now husband of 18 years. I had hit rock bottom financially, living on welfare, food stamps and section 8 housing. My car was repossessed and I felt like I was drowning. I thank God that my brother was able to help get me back on my feet, I was able to get a good job and get off all of the government assistance.

I met my husband in 2003 and we had a whirlwind romance and were married in 2004. He came with $50k student loan debt and was starting up his own web development business, living off savings and credit cards. It was tight. We lived very modestly in a rental in the country and scrimped and saved and worked hard. We both had car payments and credit card debt and it seemed to always be a dark financial cloud over us. So we decided to find a way to pay off the debts.

We started out selling things we did not need around the house on EBay. We also decided to split our income, everything I made would go straight to debt and everything he made would cover our living expenses. We started out small, going on a “spending freeze”, meaning no eating out, no movies, no extra spending whatsoever. Once we accomplished paying off that item, we would celebrate with a treat! Then back on the spending freeze again. After 1 year of doing this we did it! We were debt free! No car payments, no credit card debt, no student loan debt!!!

By this time, I was pregnant and we decided to buy our first home. True to our frugal nature, we bought a foreclosed house on the courthouse steps for $1 over the banks asking. We walked away with our first mortgage and instant equity. It was such a great feeling until we realized we were back in debt again. But this was “good” debt. An investment. Because we were debt free, I was able to stay home with our son and start a small eBay business. My first leap into entrepreneurship!

After 5 years we decided to sell and move to a be closer to my mother who’s health was deteriorating and to be in a better school district for our son as he was about to start public school. Sold the house and made a $20k profit. We were once again 100% debt free so we decided to rent and enjoy being debt free.

Life was good at the beach. But we were still missing something. I felt like we were just throwing money down the drain renting (which we were). During this time period I started a new business and my husband’s web business was doing well. We were comfortable and our son was settled into school, now in 4th grade. But on Memorial Day, I got a text from our landlord, she wanted us out of the house so she could have the house available for her family. I was devistated. Finding another rental in the summer was virtually impossible in this beach community. We did not want to move schools. So we decided to look at buying. It was hard for my husband to even consider going back into debt but we knew that buying would be a smart investment. So we did.

We found a beautiful beach house with a pool and ocean view! It was our dream house! It needed work and had been on a vacation rental program for 10 years (which would later prove to be a huge plus). We ended up getting it $40k under asking!!! Once again, instant equity.

Fast forward a few years. By this time both of our businesses were thriving so we had started investing, maxing our our IRAs, maxing our our HSAs, investing in stocks and saving for retirement, making extra payments on our mortgage. Financially we were good.

But we still were not happy. My mom and his dad passed away within 6 month of each other. It was crippling. We also had a miscarriage right after my mom passed away. We both were working too much and it just seemed like we were not “Living” life. We were depressed but we knew that life is short so we better get to living it. So we made the decision to do something absolutely off the wall crazy and rent our house during the summer for 10 weeks on VRBO. We would take that money and travel to exotic places.

First summer COVID hit but we still remained booked so we moved into a 10 week rental in Key West for the summer. Absolutely epic! Cannot wait to go back.

Second summer we took a cross country road trip in an RV which we ended up putting my company logo on it and made it into a cross country advertising blitz!* Another absolutely Epic summer.

Now we are in our 3rd summer and ironically we are back in the original rental that we were in before we bought our house, 1 mile up the road. funny how life works.

We made the decision last year that we were going to pay off the house. As we started discussing our grand travel adventures we decided to stay close to home this summer and use the money from the rental season to help us to pay off the house.

3 days ago, we did it! We wired the funds and now our mortgage is $0!!!

We bought our house in 2016 for $390,000. Before the huge housing bubble our home was valued on Zillow at $550,000 and now it’s up to almost $800,000!!! With our investments and savings, our net worth is over a million. I never in a million years thought I would EVER say we are Millionaires!!!!

I cried. I remembered the day I went to court to file my bankruptcy papers like it was yesterday. I remembered living off Vienna sausages and Ramen. I remembered that feeling of drowning in collection bills. And now it hits me, FREEDOM!!!

We still have a ways to go to get our retirement nest egg where we need it but this was a huge step towards that.

Italy 🇮🇹, here we come!

I’m hoping that my story can inspire others that It IS possible!









 


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