We’ve paid off over $120,000 worth of debt up until this point. Accomplishing something like that hasn’t been easy but it has definitely been worth it. This list isn’t in any particular order, but we hope that some of the things we’ve learned can help you with your own journey!

1. Every penny counts.

Our tagline is “Paying off debt & building wealth – One penny at a time” because we truly believe that every penny is important during your journey. We made the majority of our progress while living on one income.

We cut expenses, increased our income, and figured out every way possible to stretch our money to meet our goals. Progress is progress, so whatever we could put towards our debt or savings was an accomplishment, whether it was $100 or $1,000.

2. Make a plan or plan to fail.

It’s hard to achieve a goal without a plan. We came up with “The Basics” to help people get started with their personal finance journey in 3 easy steps: Assess your situation, make a budget and figure out the best method to attack your debt. There are millions of other plans out there, but this is what makes the most sense to us.

The most important part of our plan revolves around our budget. This is truly what gets you on track and keeps you on track financially. Your budget tells your money where to go and helps you stay focused.

3. Personal finance is personal.

We know that some people believe there is only one path to follow in order to achieve financial freedom.

This is absolutely not the case. There are many methods to achieve financial success and you have to find what works for you. No situation is the same so that means there will never be a ‘One-size-fits-all’ solution that works for everybody.

4. Be honest with yourself.

The worst thing you can do is tell yourself that your debt isn’t that bad or that your money habits aren’t that terrible. You have to start being honest with yourself so that you can actually start making real progress.

The first step is admitting there is a problem.

5. Find an accountability partner.

We were lucky enough to have each other during this journey. After Dannie figured out the best way to get me on board with the process, we made real change in our lives.

Find someone to help keep you motivated. This can be a friend on a similar journey, your partner (if you have one), or even complete strangers on the internet!

6. Cutting expenses has the same effect as increasing income.

It’s as simple as that. Cutting expenses, in most cases, is easier as well because you actually control most of these things. We cut out a LOT of stuff at the beginning of our journey.

7. Living below your means is crucial.

We got into debt primarily because we were living way above our means. We were on one income and supplementing with credit cards.

Don’t do that.

If you live on less than you make, you’ll always have money leftover at the end of the month to pay off debt or put towards your goals.

8. If you can, DIY.

We don’t necessarily like to do ‘handiwork’ or projects, but we do like to save money. We have done things like styling our own hair, replacing carpet with hardwood flooring and landscaping our own backyard simply because we didn’t want to pay anyone else to do it. Just by doing things ourselves, we saved over $10,000, you can do the same.

9. Cook at home.

Dannie and I LOVE to eat but eating out all the time adds up quickly. We started cooking more at home and saw immediate savings with our budget.

10. Comparison shop.

Never settle for the first price you see. Shop around and find the best deal. Dannie will actually make spreadsheets for certain purchases we make.

Yes, it’s that serious.

11. Avoid lifestyle inflation.

During our journey, we’ve gotten raises and new jobs. Regardless of that fact, we never increased our spending to match our income.

Just because you have more money doesn’t mean you should spend more money!

12. Don’t compare your journey to anyone else’s.

Seeing the amount of debt other people have paid off or how much they’ve saved can be discouraging. We learned pretty early that you have to stop comparing your journey to everyone else’s.

13. Be nice to yourself.

Newsflash. None of us are perfect! When we made mistakes in the past we’d fall into the habit of getting down on ourselves and making ourselves feel bad that we screwed up.

These days, we embrace the fact that the mistakes aren’t important but the lessons you learn from them are!

14. It’s not a race.

We don’t get caught up in calculating our “Debt Free Date”. Fixing your finances is already stressful enough and adding a time limit to that just adds to it.

Some people use that as a motivation, but it can also lead to overexerting yourself to meet a date you came up with or trying to keep up with someone else’s progress.

Just remember, as long as you’re moving forward you’re still moving in the right direction.

15. Enjoy the process.

At the end of the day, remember to have fun during your journey. Just because you’re paying off debt and saving money doesn’t mean you have to give up having a life. There are plenty of things that you can do for free or a low cost, you just have to get creative.

What have you learned during your journey? We’d love to hear from you in the comments below!

$tay wealthy friends,

— Dj & Dannie

Recently, we’ve been tossing around the idea of automating our finances. Why? Because we’re TIRED of looking at this crap every month. Not only do we have to remember when to pay our bills, but we also have to remember how to get into the websites each month. We just feel like the time we spend paying bills could be better utilized.

So.

How the hell are we going to make this happen?

1: Enable auto-pay for all bills

To kick things off, we’re going to log into all of our sites and enable auto-pay for our bills. This way, all of our payments will be automatically withdrawn from the joint account that we use for our monthly budget.

Alternatively, we could also set up ‘Bill Pay’ from our bank’s website. This is an option if you don’t want to trust other people with your account info.

But in order for auto-pay to work, there needs to actually be money IN THE ACCOUNT…

2: Transfer enough money to be one month ahead

Dannie and I have separate bank accounts but we also have a joint bank account that we transfer our budget funds into twice a month. We will leave enough money in our account each month to create a buffer that would cover an extra month of expenses.

This is to ensure that there is actually enough money in the account at all times to cover every single payment. If we only put just enough money in, we would risk an overdraft if our electric bill is $10 more than it was the previous month.

Dannie would probably kill seriously injure somebody if that happened.

3: Readjust the budget at the end of the month

Even though we are automating our finances, we will still continue to have our monthly budget meetings so that we can review what came out of our account. If any of the bill amounts change due to usage, we’ll adjust the budget for the following month. If a bill was suspiciously high/abnormal, we’ll investigate further and most likely fuss at someone. We already do this now, so it’s not much of a change but it definitely helps us continue to have accurate numbers.

There is nothing more frustrating than sitting down for the budget meeting and not being able to figure out why our spreadsheet says we should have $$$$ but we only have $$ left.

If you have a problem figuring out where your money is going each month, make sure that you grab our FREE budget/debt tracker. I promise it will change your life for the better!

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So, that’s the plan. We’re automating our finances and hoping for the best. Fingers crossed that we don’t crash and burn!

Do any of you guys currently do this with your own finances? How has it worked out for you?

— Dj & Dannie

Newsflash:

That is a total load of BS. Building wealth starts with your mind, not your money!

If you’re like 99% of Americans, you don’t come from a wealthy family. My wife and I grew up under a similar set of circumstances. Our families taught us, pretty early on, that it was almost impossible for the “average person” to build wealth in America.

Did they tell us these things explicitly?

No, we did not have “You can’t become wealthy” discussions every night before bed.

We learned how wealth worked by watching the actions of the people around us.

Children Are Very Observant

Ever wonder why it seems like kids are always staring at you?

That’s because they are. Kids learn by watching and mimicking the things that people are doing around them.

So, it’s no surprise that the majority of children who grow up in low-income families grow up to repeat many of the same financial mistakes their parents made.

I remember times where I would overhear my parents talking to each other about how ‘money was tight’ or how ‘we can’t afford XYZ’. When I was younger, I figured that was normal. I assumed that not having money and having debt were regular growing pains of life.

Little did I know that there was actually an alternative to being broke.

If you listen to what some of the world’s wealthiest people have to say about money, you’ll learn one important thing:

Your MINDSET has the biggest effect on your wealth building potential.

Why Did We Start This Blog?

If you’re not actively thinking about your finances, they will get out of control. We learned this the hard way as a young married couple. After my mother passed away, we realized that we needed to get our finances in order.

We started this blog to share some of the tips that have helped us along our way towards debt freedom. The things that we have learned helped us increase our credit scores from the 500s to 800s and allowed us to get rid of $130,912 worth of our debt.

Who Is This Site For?

This site is for everyone:

Broke college graduates, couples, single people, young people, old people.

If you are looking for actionable tips that can help you get out of debt, stay out of debt, and start building wealth – you’re in the right place!

What Can You Expect From Us?

While we can’t promise that the information we share will be perfect for you, we can promise that we will be open about our own experiences and what worked for us. Everyone has different circumstances and experiences, and we understand that. There are no one-size fits all solutions when it comes to your money. The good thing is that there are so many tools and resources available that there will be something useful for everyone.

We don’t claim to be financial wizards, but we do know a thing or two about reclaiming your money. We believe that it’s never too late (or too early) to start getting your finances in shape and starting the process of building wealth. Every penny counts when it comes to getting out of debt or saving money. You’ll have to stop looking at pennies as worthless pieces of change and start seeing them as tiny footprints on your path towards financial freedom!

Remember what we said:

— DJ & Dannie

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Don’t be shy! Share our tips with your friends and family. Then connect with us in the comments section and on social media. We want to know what has worked for you and what information you’re most interested in learning more about.