When Marc and I got married we were poor college students. :) We didn't have much.... but we didn't spend much either. We worked our tails off to get through college without student loans. When I was expecting Matthew we bought our first little starter home. We always had a frugal mindset, but it never occurred to us to opt for a fifteen year mortgage. We lived in that house throughout graduate school and the birth of our third child, Madeline. Marc finished his specialist degree and took his first administrators job in another town, which meant a move. When we sold that first little house we made enough off of it to have a good down payment on the next house, but we still took out another 30 year mortgage. We lived in that house for three years and added our fourth baby, Mariah.
During this time, we always lived modestly and paid cash for everything. We never felt like we were missing out on anything, we just lived simply.
Our last move was to our current house. We bought this place in the country fourteen years ago with the hopes that it would be our forever home. We knew we didn't want to raise our kids in the city! This place allowed for McKenzie to have her horse on our property and to add lots of other animals!
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We bought less house than the bank said we could afford, but again.... we took out a thirty year mortgage. We added three more babies during this time and when Macheus was a toddler we attended our first Financial Peace University. Wow! I wish we had learned these things when we got married! So during the next four years we got serious about paying extra payments on the house, but we also renovated almost the entire house. We remodeled the kitchen, completely gutted two of our three bathrooms, ripped out carpet from upstairs and put wood floors in, refinished the ceilings throughout the entire house, and built the tiny house on our property... and we cash flowed all of it!
About a month ago, Marc and I walked into the bank and paid our mortgage in full- sixteen years early! It has been amazing to be completely debt free! I am very excited to see where we will be in another ten years! It is exciting to be able to save, and also have the freedom to give even more when we see needs!
I think the key to financial freedom is contentment! Along this debt free journey has also been my quest for minimalism! My goal with our home is to love the space we have, but to do it with less! I still have a ways to go, but it seems that each day we learn a little more. I have let go of so much "stuff" and it has been so freeing!
I love this place and the memories we have made here, and look forward to many more!
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