If I Were Debt Free…

Posted on October 24, 2007 by Melissa
Filed Under Debt, Savings

I was tagged by Rocket Finance to participate in the “If I were debt free” meme. This meme, started by DebtFREE-Revolution asks:

What would YOU do if YOU were debt free?

Right now, Eric and I are debt free except for our mortgage. We managed to pay off our credit card balance and our car loans this year. So debt free for us would mean that we would no longer have our monthly mortgage. Our mortgage takes up about a quarter of our monthly income. So I get to imagine what it would be like to not have to pay a mortgage and have 25% more money left in our bank account every month. Nice.

I know that as a personal finance/frugality blogger I should dutifully respond that I’d save it. But to be honest, I’m not sure if that is the case. Don’t get me wrong. I would likely put MOST of it in savings, but definitely not ALL of it.

The first thing I’d do is get our emergency fund up to a full 6 months salary. I’d get that fully funded so we are ready for anything that comes along.

After that goal was met, I would put 75% into savings/investments, 5% to cushion the budget a little more, and the remaining 20% would be used to enrich our lives.

That 20% would not be for things, mind you, but for experiences.

My long lost love I miss going to cooking classes. A new class schedule came in the mail yesterday and I was excited that one of my favorite chefs was hosting a few classes in November. Then I realized that we don’t have the money for these professional classes now that we are close to moving so I threw the flyer away. The sadness was fleeting, thankfully, but I do want to be able to go to a class or two again one of these days.

I know my response to this meme might be colored by my cooking class withdrawal and the fact that we have been in “saving overdrive” for the upcoming move. But I do think that extra 20% could help us remember to “live a little” which is something we haven’t been doing much of recently. Perhaps we could take a few classes together, go out to a nice dinner once a month, and go to the foodie events we enjoy.

After the dust settles from this move I might have take another look at our budget and see if I can spare a dime towards this “enrichment” project.

Now for the tagging - I think I will tag Kyle at Rather Be Shopping and Make Love, Not Debt.

Image Source: jwalsh

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Comments

8 Responses to “If I Were Debt Free…”

Mike on October 24th, 2007 9:09 am

Life is about balance. You can’t save everything and forget about living life now.
rocketc on October 24th, 2007 9:14 am

Thanks for participating. I would love to be in your position (only a mortgage). Maybe I can get there by reading your blog more. . . :)
wealthy_1 on October 24th, 2007 9:57 am

What about giving? Wouldn’t you give a percentage to your favorite charity?
Melissa on October 26th, 2007 8:52 am

@Mike - Yeah, I know. We are normally better about maintaining that balance but it seems the closer we get to moving the more we feel compelled to save. I suppose it is the fear of not having enough after the down payment to get the things done to the home we need to do. I think that after we move we should regain that balance. An “all or nothing” attitude isn’t healthy or sustainable.

@rocketc – Thanks for tagging us! We enjoyed writing about this topic. Being completely debt free is something we never really think about since a mortgage feels “normal” to have.

@wealthy_1 – Thanks for bringing that up. You know, I’m kind of ashamed to say that I didn’t even think about increasing our monetary giving. Although we still contribute 12% we have been focusing on giving more of our time lately. We volunteer by managing several administrative tasks and websites for our charities of choice. With the amount of time we give I sort of feel like I’m giving more already. That’s definitely something to think about – does time equate to money? Good comment!
Carnival of Debt Reduction #111 ~ What’s Scarier Than Debt? | I've Paid For This Twice Already... on October 29th, 2007 3:55 am

[...] If I Were Debt Free… posted at A Penny Closer. From a little closer to debt freedom, another picture of what could be. [...]
Sandy on November 23rd, 2007 9:53 pm

I read where you miss going to cooking classes. I found a website for you that I think you will really, really enjoy. If you go to Google and type: about cooking videos

the page of websites will come up. Click on Cooking.com - Technique Videos (it’s the second one on the list) You will find lots of video cooking lessons! Hope you like it. I want to learn some of them too.
Melissa on November 27th, 2007 10:19 am

@Sandy - I checked the cooking.com technique videos out and it looks great! Thanks for the link!
Think Money(new comment) on September 29th, 2008 8:27 am

Thank you for sharing your thoughts. If enough people participate, there will be plenty of useful ideas buzzing round the blogosphere! Aside from that, it’s a real motivator considering what you could do if you were debt free!