About a year ago, I stumbled across the MMM website and decided it was time to right a lot of past financial wrongs. Aside from dramatically under-performing in the spend/save department, I had about $50K in student loans festering in my life.
Against what some people would recommend, I decided to go full-on into debt killing mode, and throw all of my discretionary income at this bill until it was paid off.
Somehow along the way, I got my wife to buy into the philosophy, and get her car loan and student debt paid off as well. To be honest, we got a somewhat unexpected assist when her Grandfather passed away and left us enough money to pay off our student loans about 6 months earlier than we would've otherwise. That was MUCH appreciated.
Now that we've turned the corner, we're both replenishing a minimal emergency fund, and then amping up our investments to somewhere in the neighborhood of 55/60%. That, along with current investments and some luck should reasonably get us to FI in 6-8 years.
My point is not to rant or brag, but to let folks here on the forum know that making this kind of transition is possible, and it's never too late to do it
(we're 38 and 40). I also want to express thanks for the collective knowledge I've found here, and on the blog. It's really become a rudder in my life, and without it, I'm sure I'd still be chipping away at my debts, if not adding to them.
Thanks again to everyone out there!
-E in DC
