Turned the fucking corner.
In the summer of 2014, we were drowning. All the credit cards were maxed, payments on them and various other loans were sucking down all my income, and at the end of the month I felt like a piece of shit because I couldn't afford to buy a banana for my kids. It looked like not only would we never be rich, but we'd be on the treadmill forever. Eventually somehow I realized the only way out was to pay off the debt.
Sold a bunch of stuff. Canceled many money-sinks like cable, magazine subscriptions, clubs, etc. Sold more stuff. Wife got a job. I worked a little bit extra outside my main job. Sold even more stuff. Paid off over $110k in debt over the last year and a half. Late in 2015, I started to be amazed how rapidly the cash began to build up in the bank account now that there were so many fewer payments. Accelerated debt payoff.
Refi'd 19k of student loans, approved for 2.1% by SoFi. Once that refi is finalized, we will slow-roll finishing paying those. Only remaining debt is 8k on a car at 3.75%, and our mortgage which is at the same interest rate. Car loan will be gone by May; I'm prioritizing cash into 2015 IRA contributions until April (3k of 11k invested so far). I know we weren't debt free just yet but knowing that we will be soon I wanted to cheat and start investing sooner, ha ha.
By the end of the year I want us to have put 22k into IRAs (5.5 each for 2015 and 2016 for myself and wife) plus 18k into my TSP. She has a 403b that she puts into up to the match, but is planning on quitting to be a SAHM again before the end of the summer.
Back when we decided to get serious about destroying our debt and becoming rich, I told my wife that by the end of 2017 we would have $50k saved/invested. She didn't believe me and said that was impossible. Ha, we're on track to blow that figure away by then. Looking at years after that I get dizzy thinking about the numbers, when just a short time ago it looked like we were up the creek.
Still revising our goals now that I've gotten smarter about finance and investing (been reading and studying everything I could over the last year) and have realized what we're capable of. Hoping to fire in late 2025 with my military pension (expected to be 50k in todays dollars) plus a stash of at least $500k. I think we can do even better than that.
Holy fucking shit. We are gonna win.