Real Life Debt Busters: Bob Snyder
Real Life Debt Busters: Bob Snyder
This is the latest entry highlighting people who are making the elimination of debt a priority.
Today we share the journey of Bob Snyder, an Technology Specialist and fellow Personal Finance blogger who has made leaps and bounds of progress in his debt-free journey. If you would like to learn a bit more about his financial philosophy be sure to check out his website, More Money Than Month.
Name:
Bob Snyder
Occupations:
Technology Specialist in IT
Starting debt:
Currently we are debt-free except for our mortgage, but 8 years ago we had about $43,000 in consumer debt between credit cards and auto loans.
Debt paid off:
We started our debt free journey late in 2006 and we paid off our final debt other than our mortgage in March 2009.
The kicker was I had a very good job at a stable local company. I had worked there for 21 years and expected I’d retire from there someday. Well, you know what was going on in 2008 and 2009. My company decided they needed to make some fairly dramatic cuts and I was laid off from that job of 21 years in June of 2009, just 3 months after we paid off our last debt.
That was the heart of the great recession.
Fortunately I was able to find another similar job 8 months later. It was stressful and a bit scary but it would have been so much more stressful had we also still had all that debt hanging over us.
Debt-busting motivation:
My main motivation was even though I had a good job, it seemed like we just were existing paycheck to paycheck. Just about the time I’d think we were getting ahead, something would break or need to be replaced and we’d be back in debt again.
Throughout that time I had this disquiet in the back of my mind that said what if you were to lose your job. We’d have been in trouble in a month or two. I know now that disquiet was God telling me we needed to get our act together because there was a storm brewing on the horizon.
Debt-busting method:
Primarily we followed Dave Ramsey’s debt snowball and the baby steps in getting out of debt.
I started to listen to Dave on the radio back in probably 2003 or 2004. Got the Total Money Makeover book and realized that this might be the plan that could help us get that debt paid off.
Best thing about the debt-free journey:
Looking at this from the other side having paid off everything but our house.
I think the best thing is just knowing that my paycheck is mine to give, save, and spend as I desire and God leads me. Not having a bunch of it already committed to various payments before the month begins is a wonderful feeling of freedom.
We still have to be careful with our spending, but the decisions are based on what we are saving for and what we are giving as opposed to how we can make payments.
Debt-busting philosophy:
Paying off debt is hard and takes sacrifice and a change of behavior.
One thing I think is important is to track your debts as you begin to pay them off. It is easy to feel like you aren’t making any progress from month to month, but when you are tracking and look back 6 months or a year, you realize just how much progress you have made.
Another key for us was using envelopes and cash for things like groceries, entertainment, and clothing.
I really thought we were pretty careful with our grocery spending before and that using cash envelopes wouldn’t help much, but I was totally wrong. Using cash really did change our spending.
As a side note the other big benefit for envelopes was that while I primarily did the budget, my wife often did the grocery shopping. Before we started doing the envelopes even though we communicated about money, she was never quite sure where we stood. Once she had the envelopes she felt very empowered because she always knew exactly what she had to spend.
First thing they’re going to do when they’re debt-free:
We have had many great experiences since being debt-free.
Bob’s debt-free vacation to Yosemite.
A couple of years ago we took a vacation through the Black Hills and Yellowstone. This summer we did 7 national parks in 12 days including Grand Canyon and Yosemite.
Both trips 100% paid for in cash.
Last year I was able to replace my old Toyota Corolla with a newer car paid for in cash. 20 years ago I would have never dreamed I’d be able to buy a car with cash. Thought I’d always have car payments. Really looking forward to the day when I can make the last payment on the mortgage too, and then I can be completely debt-free.
My experiences also left me with a desire to help as many others as possible escape the chains of debt. This fall I will be leading my 9th Financial Peace University class at my church. I also started blogging about personal finance at www.moremoneythanmonth.com.
Bible verse:
When I first started listening to Dave Ramsey’s radio show, the verse he mentioned that really convicted me was Proverbs 22:7 “The rich rule over the poor and the borrower is a slave to the lender.”
The truth of that verse really hit home as I realized that my debt really had left me in a position where I no longer controlled my destiny.
There are so many other scriptures that talk about debt that I could bring up as well. I do not believe that the Bible ever says debt is a sin, but it is very clear to me that debt is always shown to be unwise in scripture. Nowhere can I find an instance where God ever blessed his people through debt.
Many financial “experts” talk about good debt vs. bad debt or the wisdom of keeping a mortgage around because the interest is so much lower than you can make through your investments, etc. While mathematically sometimes there may be some validity to their points, I have just become convinced that God has clearly shown through a variety of scriptures that debt is not wise.
I tried doing things in my wisdom and it yielded $43,000 in debt.
I’m going to do it His way from now on.
