After 6.5 years I'm debt free!

[dave_the_wave]

Hey man I'm like, proud of you or something!

Also with a nod to the comments posts around stoicism, I feel grateful I don't have such a huge debt to right now and that if I follow your formula I could put that much in the bank.

Also congrats on the engagement. Financials in order will definitely help your relationship!

Inspiring

Much appreciated! I wonder if Pete knows how influential his journey is. All of the financial bloggers I've read have had such an awesome effect on their audience's lives. Jacob from early retirement extreme was also very influential.

I think you're spot on that the journey to financial independence is a formula. If you do this, you will get this. Apply the formula, build wealth, and be happy the whole way there :).

Thank you!

[dave_the_wave]

Yeah, I've considered that.  It does make some sense, as getting a $5k car and a $10k loan to pay the difference on my current loan would essentially lower my debt by $10k. My concern is that I do drive a lot, and car problems when I'm on my way to an important meeting would negatively affect my job. My current car only has 33k miles on it, and is still under warranty. 

Im considering it though.

Thanks for the tips!

  I am an attorney, and court dates are certainly not to be missed, but I drive a vehicle with 318,000 miles.  Before this one, I got over 500,000 out of a prior vehicle before finally declaring it officially unusable by me - but it was usable to a buyer who drove off with it. 

I do all of my own maintenance, which helps with the cost, but modern cars can last a whole lot longer than cars from the 60s, 70s, and 80s with good care.

It would take me over 75 years to put that many miles on my car.

  I used to have a three hour round trip commute . . . no longer.

Man I did that for about 6 months...if you're familiar with Los Angeles, I had to commute from LAX to Glendora. Everyday, the transition from the 105 to the 605 took 30 minutes alone. When I say transition, I mean literally the time spent sitting in traffic at the start of the on-ramp to the 605. Almost always encountered at least 1 accident on the way home, no exaggeration. Never again.

[thereserve]

@dave yeah i think financials get a bad rep. It's a bit like religeon, childrearing, etc., people just shut off and do things "The way they have been taught" which is usually a mish mash of myths and heuristics that are way out of date - and then they don't follow those anyway because they don't truly know why they're doing what they're doing.

I was thinking last night how this is somehow related to my discovery about nutrition. Once you understand and consciously choose to do this or that it is so much more empowering, compared to before I understood nutrition and was following "rules" i thought I had dialled down but made no sense!

Similarly, your financial life can be understood by breaking down preconceptions and building it up from scratch and trying to let go of biases and logical fallacies we all harbour.

In a way, it's the logical next step to take care of if you're already taking care of your health & basic needs, and a natural progression of growing up, I suppose.

I want to see a Maslow's hierarchy where dieting & exercise comes before saving up your excess cash and reducing spending. What comes next?


/rant

[Dicey]

One thing that really helped me see clearly is listing everything I owned and its value. I then asked myself if I could've bought the same thing for cheaper, could I have done without it, or could I replace it with something that serves the same purpose for cheaper?.

OMG, this is golden. And Badass! Congratulations on your success!

[Dicey]

From vindicate414 (Too lazy to quote the whole thing.)

$200* - I've reduced my 401K to 3% (Company Match is 2%)

Can you clarify your company match? 2% of what? My old ball and chain used to contribute 2% of the first 6%. If yours does something similar, you could be leaving money on the table.

Dave, any luck with getting the investment options Improved? I believe a few employee groups have successfully sued to punish their employers for such bad options. Not saying you should sue, but encourage them to provide better options. Apparently yours has confused quantity of options with quality of options..

[dave_the_wave]

Just sent out the email to my HR department to take a look into this. I'll update as soon as I get an answer. My fear is that we may be dealing with a very high level of incompetence and it may not change anything.

[FIREby35]

One of the biggest improvements to my life I have ever made, but I did that commute for more than a decade.   I cringe even to think about it now.

Malum -

I am fortunate to live 1.2 miles from my office (and the County courthouse, Federal courthouse and biggest jail in the area). Mustachianism allowed me to quit taking cases where I have to drive. But, I do cringe at some of my best friends who do a 30-45 minute suburban-to-downtown commute everyday and, because of their big suburban house debt, car debt, student loan debt, chase cases within a three hour drive. I swear one of them spends his entire life in the car.

I love them, but it appears miserable.

[Rotax]

Congrats Dave! Being debt free is one of the most underrate quality of life improvers I know of. For me, debt is a prison that you build around yourself, and I am excited to hear your have broken out!