We started dating when I was 30 years old (she was 24). This was December 2004. At the time, she had just built a nice little starter home with a substantial down payment. I was in the same house I built at age 23 and had managed to owe more than I built it for. I built my first house in 1997 for $87k, but owed $93k in 2004.

When we met it was INSTANT sparks. It was obvious from the very first second that I wanted to spend my life with this woman. This feeling has only grown over the past 9.5 years. Neither of us had ever experienced anything like the feelings we shared. It is magical. I wish everyone could have a marriage like ours (and we believe they can. The formula is very simple: don't be selfish and childish...place the other person's interests ahead of your own in a loving way. As long as they're doing the same thing - you'll live in bliss).

Anyway...

In March 2005 I traded the 2005 Mustang GT I had bought in October 2004 for a new 2005 Ford SUV at my (now) wife's suggestion. This was the first of many good financial decisions. We still have that 2005 SUV, and hope it will last another 10 years!!!!

In April 2005 we bought an eight year old custom built 2100sf house in a nice neighborhood, and moved in together. We were both able to sell our houses and put a 20% down payment on the new home. We spent the next seven years there.

We married in February 2007.

The moment we moved in together she sat about GENTLY teaching me about finances. There was never one argument, or guilt trip, etc. She has a way of dealing with me that disarms me and makes me receptive instead of defensive. One day she came home from the bank where she worked with a spread sheet that showed we could be down to just our mortgage debt in less than four years. That day we owed:

$4,000 My Medical Bills
$18,000 Nissan Car
$24,600 Ford SUV
$33,000 My Student Loans
$36,000 Home Acreage (I had bought 2 acres a little further out before meeting my wife with the intention of building a home on it).
$MORTAGE on our house

It took A LOT of convincing, because I simply didn't believe people could be "debt free". She kept going over the numbers, and explaining reversed compounding interest, etc. Eventually I accepted she was right, and was FLOORED. The feeling of HOPE that poured over me was overwhelming. We could be down to our mortgage in just a number of years! Keep in mind, we never "hurt" for anything or were worried about money. We made plenty enough to continue living the way were living, but she wanted a better life for us.

Here was her plan...

1) She already had us on a general budget, but wrote out every item on a detailed budget. This even included a "snack food" line item.

2) We cut ALL unnecessary expenses. She quotes Dave Ramsey a lot so "live today like no other so we can live tomorrow like no other". This included: no cable tv, no internet, no going out to eat, no vacations, no extraneous travel (gas costs money), no going out to movies, no magazine subscriptions, etc.

3) We placed the 2 acre lot on the market for sale.

4) We placed her car up for sale. We made the decision to drop down to one car so we could save money (cancel the debt on it and eliminate 50% of our car insurance costs).

5) We revisited the budget every week to make sure we're meeting or exceeding it.

We sold her car pretty quickly, and shared one vehicle for the next six years. Remember, we lived 17 minutes (at 70mph) from the edge of town we both worked full time in. This was a big sacrifice, but it paid off.

Selling the land turned into a nightmare. We simply could not recover what I had paid (I paid $40k plus spent $5 building a drive onto it). After YEARS of trying (and exploring the option - IN DEPTH - of building a house on it) we finally sold it for $31,900. This $14,000 loss was painful, but it cleared another line item off the books.

She had a "debt snowball plan" meaning we eliminated the smallest debt first, and then rolled that extra money into the next larger debt item...repeat repeat repeat.

Before long we were down to just our single SUV and house. We paid the SUV off almost six months earlier than she had predicted.

At this point, I think it is important to note: we live in an economically depressed area and don't have "high incomes". Yes, I am an architect and earned my first license a year after we were married HOWEVER, in my area very few architects make more than about $80k a year. Most are in the $50-80k range. My wife was making $15 an hour at the bank. The reason I bring this up is to serve as notice that we weren't making over $100k at any point in this process. EVERYONE reading this can be debt free if you just have the will power to do so.