Our Journey to Financial Freedom Pt. 4
It's been almost two whole seasons since I have written about our journey- year 4.5 of pursuing complete financial freedom.As God would have it about 5 months after writing our Journey to Financial Freedom Pt. 3, Hunter was let go from his job that had been providing so well. It definitely left us in a pickle. It set us back in paying off school loans and being able to cash flow grad school as easily. All the money that we saved in cash to pay for the baby ended up having to be used so that we could meet our monthly expenses so we didn't get to completely pay for our medical bill as we'd anticipated. It was a fairly stressful fall and winter for us, but God really brought us through. As the ground began to thaw and sunlight made its return, the two of us finally launched our own businesses to help supplement our income. Hunter opened Hand Hold Assist, which is a grab bar and wheelchair ramp installation business. I began to write and fundraise my book, Sown: Rooted in Redemption, that will be published in late June, as well as rebrand and reopened our old small shop, Hippy and Spice. We have been so so incredibly busy but it has been such a growing season within its difficulty.
We have been more adamant about keeping tight to our budget as we are just so ready to be completely out of debt! We are over the halfway mark as I mentioned in pt. 3, but we will not likely be done next this year as planned. At this current rate, we anticipate being done just past the new year. However, that could all change if our businesses pick up! Which we hope they do!Something that we are doing to continue to bring our costs down to our surprise yet to our excitement is moving again! While this is only across town, it is the sixth move we've made in the four years we've been married! It's such a fun move too because we are moving into a barndominium and our rent will be nearly $400 less than what we pay now. We are so excited for this move and new piece to our story. A barndominium is something that we have always hoped we could live in and it will give us great insight as to how we will build our own when the time comes.
Another great lesson we've learned in this season has been that really, truly, credit cards are not made to be a blessing! So here's the story-Hunter took out a credit card without talking to me about it as a surprise when we were planning a two fall seasons ago. We ended up canceling that cruise because it was not good for our budget at that point and with that money we paid off our old Honda Accord. We had not been using the credit card that would give cash back for the said cruise. We have been asking for Christmas money over the past Christmases to pay for this cruise and very, very, little of it is coming out of pocket. However, Hunter used the credit card to get some more cashback for the cruise by paying off his school tuition with it. This, of course, came to bite us in the butt when the anticipated tax return that was paying for school was late this year! So we were charged a minimal late fee. But when you are getting out of debt and have been gazelle intense for 3+ years, a minimal, $30 late fee or a little bit of interest is a hit. Every single penny counts when you're getting out of debt. Every penny! It was then that we were completely sold on the concept that even with the best intentions and utmost responsibility, credit cards do more harm than good. They caused division in our family when Hunter and I were at odds when he took the credit card out without my knowledge in the first place and when I wasn't told that the payments were late. We have definitely healed and repaired our relationship from this, but it goes without saying we definitely do not buy into credit cards whatsoever anymore! The cashback our flight miles really aren't that nice against the mistake of missing a payment or being late. Accidents happen. Paychecks get delayed. You really never know what could happen, so why even take the risk?
Another incredible story that we have has been about the power of prayer. For nearly an entire month I specifically prayed to God that he would bring us a barndominium and $10,000 so we could completely meet our goals for paying head school in cash by 2021. It seemed like there was silence on His end but I came to learn that He was working out a plan that we could never anticipate. The first came as a generous gift that brought us through a time of unanticipated lag in income as well as allowed us to start our businesses and then some! The second part came through one of the most "random" connections when we found a guest house barndominium that we are about to move into that is not only absolutely beautiful but comes at a price that will save us $10,000 by the end of our stay when Hunter completes grad school and we have saved up enough to buy a plot of land. Can you believe it? I surely couldn't! After all of our stress over meeting our budget this past winter, God delivered a rainbow to us. With just weeks to move we have been downsizing and selling our furniture while upgrading it at the same time to fit our new home comfortably! It has been so encouraging to see how God has brought us so far in our marriage financially and physically. He truly is bringing us on a beautiful journey and redeeming our mistakes of taking out the debt to begin with. We're almost there, I can feel it!