Sounds like an introduction at a twelve–step group, huh? Well, that’s sort of what I aim to create around here. Sure, there are tons of sites discussing finances, frugality, budgets, debt, wealth and all the rest but I’m going to attempt to make this a bit more personal than the others. We’re going to “walk the walk,” if you will.

I’m a web developer by trade. I’m not much of a writer, so if you’re looking for Pulitzer prize winning stuff around here you’re in the wrong place! I’d like to simply document the things I’ve learned from all over in a single place and share it with others who are thinking about doing something similar.

Backstory

My wife and I met in late 2004 at work. She had just finished law school and passed the bar and was starting her career as a Human Resources professional with a small distribution company for which I was a Project Manager. Our offices were side by side and we quickly became friends and much more.

Fast forward to today: we’re married with two cars, two dogs (Sasha and Spike), a house and a brand spankin’ new baby boy! And debt. A pretty large hole by most folks our ages’ standards. Just a little over $210,000 USD when we married. Pretty substantial, huh? That’s a really scary number, looking at it now.

Fortunately, I was raised by some pretty frugal parents and for that I am thankful – now more than ever! When my wife and I began discussing finances before marriage, we had some pretty heated arguments and I knew we had to learn to work together or we’d get nowhere fast.

Enter Dave Ramsey

About that time, I’d started listening to Dave Ramsey’s podcast on my iPod. I was totally taken in by what he was talking about. Paying it all off, living without debt, saving money (lots of it) and paying for everything with cash. Amazing stuff! It was pretty revolutionary, but it seems I just forgot everything my parents taught me. I began reading Dave’s books and talking with Katharine. We had to work together and hammer out some kind of plan to rid ourselves of this mess.

I’m still a fan of Dave’s financial advice and you’ll probably hear a lot of it here, but I’m not a fan of his recent political discourse and generally hateful attitude. It’s not very uplifting, to say the least. As an atheist, I’ll omit the constant Christian references. However, don’t think we’ll skip the charitable aspects of this little project! Everyone needs to contribute something!

Why Make it Public?

We talked about doing this publicly and we both agree that by putting it out there for the world to see, we’re giving ourselves motivation and (hopefully) encouraging others to do the same. So, join us! It’s going to be fun!

That brings us to today. We’ve been snowballing our debt and knocking out big chunks in the last six months. I’m going to post here with tips, tricks and motivation to help you do the same!

Chris, Katharine & Wesley