The past 3 years have been a tad rough medically on my wife and myself. We both had minor surgeries and horrible insurance to help with the bills. Early this year, we were both sued by the hospital for the bills. After all this, I even went as far as running our credit reports to find out every debt we have in collection right now (they stopped sending bills).

So, we both put our minds to it that we were going to get these bills paid off ASAP (faster than the suit required). Well, after 12 months of penny-pinching, I sent out a check for the last bill today. We are now 100% officially free of every single medical bill. We sent out a bit over $12,000 to doctors, hospitals, specialists, lawyers, etc.

Now it's time to focus on our 3 remaining bills. We even decided to use our income tax refund and my 5-gallon jar of change to put towards those once it comes in. If all goes well, we should be down to a single debt this time next year, which is my student loan. That one's a low-interest loan, so it's not as bad.

 

Malaki:

Best of luck to you and your wife and have a Merry CHRISTMAS!!!

 

Congratulations bro! Knowing you'll be out of debt is a great feeling... we have a bit over 8k in debt including our car and we'll have it all paid off by summer (minus student loan bills for my wife and I... I consider those life bills). It takes alot of sacrifice and planning to actually make it out of debt but from what I hear the payoff is worth it.

 

CONGRATS!!! Being debt free is a great feeling, I bought a book from Dave Ramsy and did his simple plan. No secret mumbo jumbo, no soft ware to buy, you don't send $$$ to any one (other than the one's you owe) He tells how to deal with bill collectors and settle on old debts. Check out his web site , his books are probably on sale for christmas ($10?) and well worth it.

 

Or you can just live with-in your means, Credit is nice to have but not really needed, we have 3 credit cards one kept in a drawer for emergency purposes we have had it two years and it has only been used once. We have another low rate card 7.9% that we use for our gas expense and the wife to get her nails done this card is paid off every month or two, right now the balence on it is $125. Hospital bills suck it seems that you get billed by everyone who crosses your path during your visit, so all you can do is work to get them paid off, congrats on doing just that.
Its just a point of putting the money where it belongs and planning, I started 529's for both my kids at their birth, and had almost enough for my oldest to finish a 4 year progam at a state school however she tried school met a boy and dropped out, so what she did not use went into the youngest girls 529 and now she has enough to do a 4 yr degree plus. my point is I never missed the money it went directly from my bank to the plan just as my IRA has for the last 24 years. For those of you who are military I highly recommend getting involved with USAA Federal Savings bank and the many other programs and help they offer, I am coming up on my 25 year point with USAA and can honestly say I would not be where I am at today financialy without their help and guidance and of course my parents as well

Timberwolf