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WHEREAS, Debt stands in immediate opposition towards our pledge to live a life full of meaning and passion.
WHEREAS, Debt has forcefully entered our lives and shackled our ability to prosper.
WHEREAS, Debt has limited our potential, limited our choices for how we spend our time, and limited our security.
WHEREAS, Debt has taken our freedom, crushed it and sold it back to Sallie Mae, Chase, and Citibank.
We, the leaders of the Baker household, formally DECLARE WAR on Debt!
Let it be known that we will not stop until Debt is eradicated from our lives! We will not win every battle, but we WILL win the War. There will be no negotiations, there will be no cease-fires, there will be no treaties of any sort.
We pledge the following:
- We shall cancel all of our credit cards and shall not apply any new credit.
- We shall track every penny we spend.
- We shall spend less than what we earn.
- We shall “give every dollar a name, on paper, on purpose at the beginning of every month.”
- We shall use strictly cash for variable monthly expenses.
- We shall constantly strive to cut spending and fixed expenses.
- We shall dip into our emergency fund only during true emergencies, after all options are fully exhausted.
- We shall never have a car payment.
- We shall rent until the war is over, we have 20% down, and we can afford a 15-year fixed mortgage.
- We shall never co-sign for a loan, for anyone… anywhere.
- We shall never loan family or friends money. If we choose to give, it will be a gift.
- We shall utilize books and blogs to study our enemy and develop our strategies.
- We shall invest in ourselves and our earning potentials.
Declaration of War reaffirmed as witnessed on March 27th, 2009
Nicely done Baker… nothing like making it official… I bet that looks good posted on your refrigerator door!
Dave
Do You Dave Ramsey?’s last blog post..Goal Setting – Personal Development Goals (part 5)
Excellent! I love how you have written your “Declaration of War”. You made me a believer! I know you will win this war!
Keith’s last blog post..16 Symptoms Of A Successful Person
Nice use of the scanner! 🙂 And now I know to never ask for a loan from you! Here’s to hoping I never need one. Ha ha!
@ Keith… Thanks for the support, we will need it for sure!
@ DK… Thanks man… I actually took a picture and then edited the background! Learned everything I know from you, dog…
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Its great that you are doing this, but one way or another you will need credit sometime down the road.
And not using credit cards will only harm you and your score.
It sucks, i know, but you still gotta use it and manage it not abuse it.
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@ tom – Thanks so much for swinging by! I’m familiar with the pros and cons of closing credit cards. For my wife and I, we have decided that the positives far outweigh the reduction of score.
The only purchase we ever plan using credit for might be a home down the road. This is still several years away as we will be completely debt-free, with a nice e-fund, and down payment before we buy!
I think you’ve got an entire rag tag army on your side. Let me know if you need another soldier.
@ Sandy – We are always looking for more! In fact, just by dropping by to comment that officially makes your a soldier! 🙂
I ran into this post through a link on some other post on your site. OMG, this is one of the most awesome things I’ve seen all week. I really love the way that you wrote it down and made it official. I particularly like how you both outlined the problems that debt was causing you and listed concrete steps that you will take to get out of debt.
Best of luck to you in your war against debt. Personally, I’m pretty optimistic about your chances of winning.
SaveBuyLive’s last blog post..51% of Americans are now committed to either spending less or saving more
haha…you never cease to amaze me with your creative brain over there. God bless freedom of the press!
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Nice use of “shall”!
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@BAKER! I love your war declaration so much, I want to declare it on my site too. Might I?
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I remember when I first started following you when you launched the blog. Now I’m taking time to go back and really review where you were vs. where you are now. Man, you all rock! I’m determined to live financially free and encourage other single moms along the way. I did pay off the credit cards in 2009 and am determined to tackle the car loan in 2010. My mantra “No Child Support! No Excuses! I’m determined to live financially Free!”
This seems to be a good psychological thing to do. In many cases there is a war against debt. The important thing as well is to remain debt-free when you get rid of your debt.
I’m late to the battle… but hot damn, I’m a soldier, too. I’ve ignored my debt for too long, assuming my 21k of student loan to be “good debt” (a total oxymoron) and that my “minimum payments of $300 monthly isn’t SO bad.”
Time to wage some war/jihad/holy crusade/blitzkrieg. It’s ON.
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I sign it!