If you follow me on Facebook or Twitter you’ve probably already heard this incredibly exciting news, but I’d like to go into a little more detail.

When my bro/sis-in-law asked us about possibly joining Dave Ramsey’s Financial Peace University class, we weren’t sure. Mostly because it cost $100 and we didn’t have $100. But after some prodding and worrying (from me. Would they scrutinize our finances and check up on us all the time? No.) we agreed to take it. We missed the first week (and have actually missed a couple more) but this class has literally changed our lives. We think about money in a completely new way. Instead of instantly satisfying ourselves by buying groceries or going out to eat we think of all the ways we could use that money instead. Granted, Jason has always been frugal and in a way so have I and we weren’t splurging on anything and everything, so this class wasn’t that much of a stretch for us. But we didn’t have hope. We were living paycheck to paycheck like most of the US population. We were lost and didn’t know how to organize our money.

But this class is disciplining and conditioning us to think about our futures for retirement, kids, their college fund, and most of all it is giving us hope. Hope for our futures. We don’t have to be poor and working at Lowe’s in our 60s. We can be MILLIONAIRES (and we will be) and can live a comfortable life by giving to others and enjoying God’s earth.

I remember just after getting married I started to ask questions about retirement. How do we save? What’s social security? How do we pay for our children’s college education? All of these questions, and TONS more, have been thoroughly answered thus far and we aren’t even done with the class. We have three more weeks.

So this leads me to our big announcement:

WE. ARE. DEBT. FREE.

We don’t owe a single penny to anyone. (Besides insurance and cell phones, of course.) We wrote a big fat $2500 check to the bank our car was financed with and said good riddance. We paid the last two installments of my tuition and said see ya later. (Thank you tax refund!) When I wrote those last checks this morning I didn’t know what to feel. But for the rest of the day I gradually felt that burden lighten and realized that we don’t have to budget for those things anymore.  We have a hunk of money free each month now. To SAVE! To build our retirements. To buy a dishwasher. (HALLELUJAH AMEN!) To finally chuck this old iPhone 3G and upgrade (eventually) to the iPhone 5.

It’s crazy to think that before this class I didn’t really know that being debt free was possible. I never paid a great deal to my financial future. Now I we do. (I love being married.)

We have hope. We finally, finally have financial peace!