In 2013, my wife Michelle and I published Debt-Free
Living in a Debt-Filled World. Since we’re more than a decade removed
from that publishing, and as we are now a quarter of a century into our
debt-free journey, we thought it was time to share an update.
Michelle and I were married in January of 1998 and a little
over a year later began our journey of living debt free as a calling. Our
intention was always to be a witness to the world of the truth of God’s Word on
all matters, but especially to be a witness to what God has to say about money
and finances.
To briefly recap, after marrying in early 1998, and after
Michelle fully grasped just how broke and in debt I was, she became very anxious
about our financial situation. Prior to marriage, we had agreed to live on a
formal (written) budget (maintained to this day). Before our honeymoon even
ended, Michelle had begun to formulate a plan for getting us out of debt. I
quickly agreed and we began paying off our debts, using the “snowball” method
taught by the late, great Larry Burkett.
At the time of our marriage, Michelle was a full-time
employee at the financial ministry Larry founded, Christian Financial Concepts
(CFC). Most everything we learned about money, debt, and other biblical
financial principles, came via Larry’s teachings at CFC (now Crown Financial
Ministries). These sound, biblical financial principles are still at work in
our lives today. Sometime in 1999, while living in our one-bedroom apartment, and
after getting out of debt (we had a total debt of about $25k), Michelle began
encouraging me to build/buy a home without a mortgage—in other words,
completely debt free.
I immediately bristled at the notion, thinking there was no
such path to that dream. I was a teacher of mathematics (still am to this day)
and she was an employee at a Christian ministry. In other words, we were not in
high salary jobs. (Throughout our 26+ years of marriage, our total annual
income has almost always been between $75k and $100k.) Also, our parents were
not wealthy—by American standards—thus, I saw no way we could get into a home
within a reasonable amount of time without borrowing money.
Michelle persisted, and then God took it even further. In
His “still, small voice,” God revealed to me that, to be a witness to the
world, He desired for us to live a completely debt-free lifestyle. In order to
get into a home (easily the largest expense for the vast majority of us), our
plan was to live in as low rent a situation as possible, save every dime we
could, and build on a small approximately one-acre lot that we owned (it was
part of the debt we paid off early in our marriage).
After saving around $40k, we broke ground in the spring of 2000.
Acting as our own contractors, and with tremendous help from several generous
and handy family members, we partially finished our home in the late summer of
2001. We were able to move into our 1,000 square foot basement at that time. Approximately
two years later, doing things in stages as we could afford them, we completed
the rest of our home.
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| Our snow-covered North Georgia home from a few years ago. |
Michelle continued to work full time at CFC until our first
child Caleb was born in the spring of 2002. After Caleb was born, Michelle
became a stay-at-home mom. This was always our plan, and our debt-free
lifestyle made this a much easier transition. Michelle has remained a
stay-at-home, homeschooling mom until this day. She has been able to work part
time mostly from home through the years to bring in some income.
As was her desire long before even marrying, Michelle has homeschooled
each of our four children throughout their k-12 education. Again, our debt-free
status made this much more doable. What’s more, homeschooling has allowed us to
take full advantage of the dual-enrollment options our home state of Georgia
offers.
Thanks to Michelle’s hard work and diligence in this area,
both of our two oldest children (Caleb and Jesse) both finished high school
with an associate’s degree. Both are now done with their undergraduate degree.
Caleb graduated at 20 with his B.S. in cyber security and Jesse finished at 19 with
a B.A. in humanities. Both finished their degrees with zero debt. (We started
college savings accounts for each of our children at a young age.)
Our daughter Caroline (child #3) will finish high school
this spring and our youngest, Noah, is a high school freshman. Now that Noah is
15, everyone in the house is a driver! With the exception of Noah, who’s yet to
have his own car, we’ve been able to help each of our children obtain a vehicle
of their own, paying cash each time.
However, every vehicle we have owned was bought used —and with
the exception of one, cost $10k or less, with several costing less than $5k. (We’ve
never bought a new car. We paid over $10k for a minivan once early in our
parenting.) Because we have a car maintenance category in our budget, we do
regular maintenance on each automobile and thus are able to help extend the
life of each car. Our oldest car is 24 years old, and the newest one is 13
years old.
Along with budgeting for cars, gas, food, insurance, school,
and so on, we’ve regularly saved and invested throughout our marriage. Our
savings account wouldn’t impress Hunter Biden, but we’ve socked away far more
than the average
American family. We’ve saved well for retirement, and we’ve even been able
to save for weddings!
Our oldest son Caleb married the beautiful, sweet Emma last
spring. They were both 21 at the time. To help them get a good start on the expensive
American life, Caleb and Emma live in our re-modeled full basement apartment.
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| Caleb/Emma’s Wedding Day, June 2023. Left to right: Noah (14), Caroline (17), Emma (21), Caleb (21), Michelle, Trevor, Jesse (19). |
Our debt-free life has been far from easy, and we’ve “missed
out” on some of the expensive “pleasures” that going into debt can allow for. However,
more than anything else, our 25+ years of debt-free living has brought us peace!
The peace that only comes from surrendering to the One who made
us and doing things His way instead of our own way.
As we’ve often said, the most important financial principle
that the Bible teaches is that of stewardship. Whatever our status with
financial debt, the sooner we grasp the fact that God owns it all and that we
are merely stewards—managers—of what is and has always been His, the better we
will be in every area of our lives. May God richly bless you as only He can!
(See this column at American Thinker.)
Copyright 2024, Trevor Grant Thomas
At the Intersection of Politics, Science, Faith, and
Reason.
www.TrevorGrantThomas.com
Trevor is the author of the The Miracle and Magnificence of America
trevorgrantthomas@gmail.com
