Life starts at 40. Today as I turn 43 and I have to say that life has never been more exciting. In the last year I accomplished two major goals that I’ve carried for decades.
The first one was to publish a book. This last year I managed to publish two; End of Mae and No Money Marketing: All You Need Is Like
Our debt was officially paid off on 11/11/11 which I thought was an amazing coincidence. We thought we paid it off back in October, but Bank of America hit us with an extra little bit of accrued interest. How we could have accrued $30 plus of interest on nothing we have no idea. We just paid it off (again) and canceled them (again). When I looked at the date I got a thrill: 11/11/11.
Life after debt is worth every sacrifice. We ate a whole lot of tuna for over a year, didn’t go see Harry Potter when it hit the cinema and went without AC and heat unless we were in dire need. We walked instead of drove, we cooked from scratch and we bought new clothes sparingly at thrift shops.
Even our wedding was a penny pinching event. The entire event cost us less than $200 counting the romantic celebration dinner out afterwards. We knew we wanted to be debt free, and we dedicated ourselves to finishing that goal.
Because of the year or so of doing without, we can now look forward to a lifetime of financial freedom. I can work a part time job, and all our expenses are paid in two weeks. We can focus on living instead of making a living.
I encourage everyone I know to do whatever they can to climb their way out of debt. We live in the land of the free, but the consumeristic lifestyle foisted on us enslaves us and ensures that we will continue on in the pits trying to pay off televisions and cars that have long since died. Debt tarnishes our golden years and leaves us with nothing but crumpled foil bits to crown us in our old age.
As I celebrate this year my deepest wish is to help all my family and friends to take the steps to financial freedom with me. Every penny you don’t spend is a step that gets you closer; make more and spend less. I want to help us all to be free.
Happy birthday to you. You’ve already given yourself a great present. I bet you do a happy smile every time you remember you’re debt free 🙂
Happy Birthday and congratulations on conquering debt. That is no easy thing to do.
Happy Birthday! And congrats on your accomplishments!
You might like this direct action protest I took on my own. I called my credit card’s customer service line to do some negotiating. Having a bit of leverage, I thought it presented a great opportunity to mess with them a little and make a few points about the unfairness of the credit card lending system. I made video of the call and posted it on my blog and Youtube. It is quite funny even if you are pro-megabank. Since it’s a protest at home, I called it my kitchen counterstrike against Bank of America. http://www.ragingwisdom.com/?p=508