There’s a lot that motivates me and pushes me on our journey to financial freedom. When I think about being debt free, I fantasize about all of the cool things we can and will do with our money instead of paying back lenders. Here are some of the things that motivate me the most on our journey and keep me going. These are the things I will enjoy once we no longer spend so much money on paying back debt.
A New House
On the very top of my list is a new (to us) house. This is my number one motivator, and the biggest thing that pushes me to want to become debt free and be wiser with my spending. I fantasize about my dream house and know that we can one day make it happen when we are debt free. Don’t get me wrong, I like our current house and all the history behind it (my great-grandparents built it), but I can no longer see it as being our forever home. For one, I want to move to a better town nearby with a better school district for Caleb, and for two, it’s just not my dream. My dream is an old farmhouse out in the country. It has a wraparound porch (even just a front porch would do) and a huge country kitchen. It has an island or peninsula in the kitchen where I can burn my candles and decorate nicely for the changing seasons. It has more square footage and room to grow. It has a nice yard for our dogs and a place for me to read outside wrapped up in a blanket. I often look at home listings just for fun and to keep me motivated.
Vacation & Travel
Jerry and I have only been on two vacations since we’ve been together: our honeymoon cruise and our cruise last year when I got sick. Ideally, I’d love to vacation every year but we just can’t afford to do it more than once every few years or so. Honestly, any kind of travel is fun to me, even if we can just do more road trips and weekends away. Once we’re not paying so much on debt, we can put more money into our vacation sinking fund account and travel AT LEAST once a year. We LOVE cruises so I’d love to do more of them and also be able to visit my grandparents in Florida more often.
Peace of Mind
Just the thought of having plenty of money in our savings account / emergency fund gives me a peaceful feeling. I hate living on the edge, always wondering if we’ll have enough money the next time a financial crisis or emergency arises. Once we no longer have debt, we will be able to throw SO MUCH money into our savings account and we will never have to worry again. I also like the peace of mind not only for financial emergencies, but also just life emergencies in general. What if one of us has a medical emergency and has to be out of work? What if lay offs happen? What if the dogs need to go to the vet for yet another ear infection? I’d like to not have to worry about how we’d take care of ourselves if the worst scenarios ever came to be.
More Freedom in Spending
I like being frugal and looking for great deals and I will NEVER stop shopping at Aldi or the Goodwill. I will, however, enjoy being able to spend more freely. I won’t have to wait as long to buy something when I want it. I won’t have to budget out to buy a new shirt a few weeks in advance… I’ll just have enough money to buy it. We can go out to dinner more often because we’ll have some extra money after our groceries are purchased. We won’t be limited in our activities and what we do because we’ll just have the money to do them. I feel so restricted at times, and I’d like to have more freedom in our spending.
Owning My Money
When we get paid, I feel like such a huge chunk of our money just immediately has to go to lenders, be it the credit card companies, the mortgage company, etc. I hate that! The money comes in and the money goes out. I feel like we don’t even OWN our money because we owe money to others. It’s a horrible feeling to work so hard and know that you won’t see much of your paycheck after all is said and done and the bills are paid. Once we are out of debt, all of our money will be ours to keep, spend, and save as we please. No one will be holding out their hypothetical hand, asking for this bill or that bill.
Retirement
Because we lead such busy and stressed lives right now as full time working parents, I’d love to have an amazing, relaxing, exciting, and restful retirement. I know it’s a long way off, but I like to plan ahead. I’d like us to not have to worry about money at all when we’re retired. I’d like us to be able to travel on a whim, help our kids out, go out to eat, and just have fun. I think we’ll deserve it after decades in the work force. Luckily, we both have state retirement plans that we’ve been putting into at work for years now and I love seeing them grow. However, I know that once our debt is gone, we can put even more into retirement and plan for an even better future.
I just can’t wait to be debt free! It’s a huge dream of mine and I’m glad I have so much motivation to keep me going.
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