"Home, Debt-Free, Home" Chapter 1

Chapter 1 

You Must Be Rich

I vividly remember sharing about purchasing our new house with cash 

and someone responded “you must be rich”.

I am not a professional writer, or a financial adviser. All I am able to do is tell you our story. I am going to tell this in a series of posts, which I hope you will enjoy following. This will be our true story, from start to finish (hopefully) of our "Home, Debt-Free, Home".

Many people dream of owning their own "Home, Sweet, Home" or piece of land for a farm. It still is the American dream for many. Especially for those of us who desire a more self-sufficient style of living. Sadly, that dream seems unattainable to a growing number of people.

The last few years has been interesting for my husband and I, we decided to get out of debt and stay out of debt. At the same time we decided we were going to purchase our retirement home, a little homestead in the county. We were striving for as much self-sufficiency as possible and the goal was to all of this with cash. At the end of this journey we also wanted to be debt free.

Let's set the stage. First my husband and I have been married for about 28 years. We started out in debt. His, not mine. I couldn't even get a credit card.

Like a lot of people we struggled to raise our family and pay our bills. We couldn't seem to make ends meet without credit. Our cars were financed. We put a lot of things on or credit cards, including to my abject horror now; food. It boggles my mind how we rationalized paying for food in a restaurant on a credit card, which we didn't pay off each month which was flushed down the toilet by the end of the next day.

Eventually, we were able to finance a home. Note that I didn't say buy a home. Most people assume when they get a loan to purchase a house, in their minds they believe they own their own home. The reality is the bank owns your home. Now I want that to sink in the bank owns your home. If you don't believe that ask the many people who have had to move out of the banks property when they hit financial difficulties and started missing payments. If you have a mortgage payment you do not own your home.

Admittedly this was ultimately an advantage we had, because though over the years the value of our home fluctuated we have managed to always make the payment to the bank. What helped is the economy has seemed to have rebounded and we developed equity in our property.

We both are college educated but have chosen blue collar jobs for it fits into our personalities better. He works as a mechanic and a weapons range master/instructor He has always worked at least two jobs, plus did side work on vehicles and taught classes. I've have done many things from working retail, I ran a little singing telegram business, I have been a paid storyteller, a personal assistant and my current job is as a perky barista at a fine purveyor of coffee.

Basically, we were hard-working people with debt up to our eyeballs. Then a friend had a conversation with us and handed us book that changed our thinking entirely. We sat down and had a talk and decided that we had to change our way of life before it was too late...

Feel free to join our community at Perky Gramma Teaches on Facebook. We have a nice little group of people and we share various vintage skills & tips. It's all about the journey of farming/homesteading.

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"Home, Debt, Free, Home"
Chapter 1: You Must Be Rich

CHALLENGE: What is it you really want and what are you willing to do to attain it?.
LESSON: A Beanie Baby is Not A Need
Chapter 2: Soul Crushing Debt
Chapter 3: 4 Keys to Find Cash and Make Your Money Work for You.