Category: Debt Free Stories

There’s no doubt about it, getting out of debt is WELL worth it. It’s the best!

But sometimes we all need a little inspiration and encouragement along the way.

So if you’d love to get a dose of debt-free inspiration, these 6 get out of debt stories will do the trick.

As a side note, the get out of debt stories featured here are from people whose incomes run the gamut from way below the average American income to quite a bit above it.

There are all kinds of inspiring experiences!

Read on to see how these folks paid off a combined $2.3 million in debt.
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The road to Financial Independence, Retire Early (FIRE), is anything but a straight line. It’s more like a really good movie… you’ll laugh, cry, get angry, frustrated, be overjoyed and a host of other strong emotions. At the end, you’ll be left with a sense of true fulfillment. So much so, you may even cry tears of joy…or maybe that was just me. Lol.

Starting on the Road to Financial Independence

I started on the road to FIRE back in 2009. Back then I was separated with two young kids, 3 ½ & 5. By the end of the year, the divorce was finalized. I walked away with the kids, the house and over $254,000 of marital debt. The debt was broken down into two buckets: ~$122,000 home loan and ~$132,000 on a HELOC. We didn’t have any other kind of debt.

When I look back, I don’t think it really sunk in…all that debt. After all, I had a temp job that might turn permanent (it never did). I thought I could find other employment, grow my career and make more money. That didn’t happen either – at least not for many years.
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If you’re at that point where you want to do anything to get out of debt, you might consider selling your investments. More specifically, using your retirement to pay down debt. We made the decision to use a $25,000 IRA withdrawal to pay off the mortgage. Do you think we’re crazy?

(Josh is a freelance writer during the day, and chases his two small children in his free time. He’s here to tell his debt free story — including why he used an IRA withdrawal to pay off his mortgage.)

There are many different mortgage payoff strategies you can use that eliminate your monthly payment without tapping into your IRA or 401k to pay off debt. However, there are several reasons why you might decide to follow a similar path to ours.
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There was just one little snag when Kaysha and her boyfriend started talking about getting married two years ago: she was $43,000 in debt.

While her boyfriend didn’t mind, she felt badly about the idea of bringing debt into the marriage, especially since he had none.

“It just made me feel kind of less than worthy, even though he never batted an eye,” she explained.

Bringing debt to the marriage?

When thinking about combining finances, she felt that it “didn’t seem fair for him to have to lose out on the ability to save that money or spend it how we wanted because of decisions I had made in the past. It felt like bringing baggage.”

Adding to the pressure was the fact that they live in the San Francisco Bay Area, where home ownership is insanely priced.

She realized how hard it was going to be to save with $800+ monthly payments hanging over her head.

But rather than stress out about it or shrug and move on, she decided to do something about her situation.
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