THE BIG PAYOFF

Ethan Green can say the exact amount without hesitating: $44,086.55.

That’s how much debt he and his wife, Lindsay, had accumulated since marrying in July 2007. Most of it was student loans — the couple met at Clearwater Christian College and together owed $34,000. They were also paying off credit card debt and an automobile loan.

During the fi rst few years of their marriage, they never gave much consideration to their fi nancial situation. After all, they rented a small mobile home and had no mortgage payment. They assumed their debt was normal for a couple in their mid-20s. “We have friends in their 50s who are still paying their student loans, so we assumed we’d be paying off our loans forever,” says Lindsay, a teacher at Liberty Christian Prep School in Tavares. “We never realized the severity of our situation.”

That quickly changed in January 2010 when the Mount Dora couple attended a Dave Ramsey Financial Peace class at

Liberty Baptist Church in Tavares. Realizing they could utilize a more efficient system to manage their fi nances and pay off debt, they immediately applied the principles they learned in class: careful budgeting, cutting up their credit card, paying for everything in cash, and putting money into different envelopes dedicated to various types of expenses.

Their fi rst step was establishing a $1,000 emergency fund. They then paid off their smallest debt —Lindsay’s $3,000 student loan — and began using the leftover money to pay off their next smallest debt, their automobile loan. By December 2012, Ethan’s student loan was paid off, and the Greens found themselves debt free.

This was a remarkable feat, especially considering they spent 35 months consistently living within their means and budgeting every penny. The couple went without cable television, rarely ate at restaurants, and had basic cellphone packages.

Moreover, they never once dipped into their emergency fund, which has since increased to $16,000.

“Doing this is not easy and it takes lots of discipline,” says Ethan, a part-time police officer with the Mount Dora Police Department. “At one time I was working four different jobs. However, when you realize sacrifice is for a reason, you do not feel like it’s a sacrifice. We are trading the niceties of now for a fi nancially stable future.”

Today, Ethan, 29, and Lindsay, 28, remain on the fi nancial straight and narrow. They now have an 18-month-old son, Cooper, and are saving to purchase a home next year. Any leftover money in a given month automatically goes into a savings account.

“Budgeting is the most important step, so I let Ethan do the budget, and then I approve it,” Lindsay says and laughs. “We want to set a good example for Cooper because we don’t want him going through the same thing we did after graduating college.”

“Why People Get Goose Bumps,” Today Found Out. J an. 14, 2011. www.todayifoundout.com/index.php/2011/01/why-people-get-goose-bumps/ (Accessed Nov. 25, 2013)