Blog Posts
Growing up in Nebraska and being a huge Nebraska Cornhusker fan, I never would have imagined that I would have moved to Texas. But that's exactly what happened in the fall of 2009. I moved to Texas to student teach, because they offered me a paycheck along with student teaching.
Every year, my wife and I discuss our old cars. We look at our savings, we look at how much a new car costs and the yearly expenses to keep the old car. Every time I look at this data, I always draw the same conclusion. In the long run, I am better off keeping the old car. Whether you decide to keep an old car or buy a new car, you must understand that a car is going to be a money pit. It will need gas, it will need repairs, it will even need to be washed and there is no way to avoid these extra costs.
Everybody who owns a car, owns one for a reason. Some people need their cars to get from point A to point B. Some people buy cars to impress their neighbors. Some people just buy an absurd amount of cars, because they like them. No matter who you are or why you buy a car, there comes this added cost of insuring the vehicle.
Over a year ago, I wrote the fourth article in this series. I have been avoiding the fifth step, because there have been lots of other articles to write and I wanted to experience what it felt like to pay off the house early. I haven't reached this point yet, but we have done a lot in over a year. We have paid down over $25,000 in principal on our house and we are working towards paying off our house early.
Last year, I was celebrating the fact that we were debt free in early August. By the middle of August, we had officially purchased a house and were once again in debt. I don't necessarily believe that everybody needs to take out a mortgage to buy a house, but it is the one debt that I accept. It can be okay to take out a mortgage, because a house is an investment. Now, this doesn't mean that you should go and put yourself into 30 years of debt. I am personally a fan of the 15-year mortgage, because I prefer to get debt out of my life as fast as possible. Due to this belief, my wife and I took out a 15-year mortgage and have been making extra principal payments.
