We recently had a red-letter day in pursuing the cruising dream! As of April 29, 2010 we officially own Kaleo and no longer owe the bank a dime on it. More importantly, it was a red-letter day in life – We are officially debt free! We don’t owe a dime to anyone. No ifs, ands, or asterisks involved.
Screen shot of our loan account
Not only is it great to have paid off the boat, it feels even better because we did it earlier than planned (thanks to the payback of a generous interest-free loan we gave the government last year – aka our tax return) and a dedicated savings plan outlined by Crown.
Since before our marriage we have both been following the biblically-based Money Map (which is available for free right now) from Crown Financial Ministries. Following its steps have guided us to this liberating day of being debt free. The Money Map outlines specific steps to not only becoming debt free, but achieving true financial freedom (being able to use the resources we’ve been given to help others and live enjoyably).
Of course, our intention is to stay debt free as we follow the remaining steps of saving for a future land house, our future children’s college funds, and … well you’ll just have to order a Money Map to find out!
Obviously, we’re big fans of Crown, their Money Map and the daily money management tool we use, Crown Mvelopes. Whether you’re 6 or 60, Crown has advice, tools and live counsel to help you easily manage money successfully.
We are shifting our boat payment into the cruising fund and will build it up as much as possible before we take off. Now we just need to keep working on all the boat projects!
