#52. Pay Back Dad Money I Still Owe Him from College

Our debt-load is once again a little lighter!  (I didn't have a picture to go with this post, so I had to put something on here.  I never like reading blogs without pictures, so I just can't post without SOME sort of picture.) 

When we went up to Nebraska for the New Year, we surprised Dad with a repayment of our 0.00% APR student loan.  I think Dad went ahead and paid over-and-above the amount each of us girls got for college during the semester I went to Greece.   I was determined to pay Dad back when we began our Dave Ramsey plan, but Dad told us to enjoy the 0% interest and get our other loans paid off first.  We told Dad we were going to pay him back after off our car was paid off in February 2009, but as you can see we did this ahead of schedule in October 2008! We knocked out one more student loan in November and then made it our goal to pay back Dad's loan in December. 

We were really excited at the end of the year to look back on our progress in 2008.  I hesitate to share the actual numbers since it's kind of personal, but I always am motivated by reading other people's accomplishments when paying off debts.  Maybe this will motivate you that it can be done!  Just an FYI - none of this was credit card debt - just student loans, a car loan, and a 0% mattress loan.  I always feel like I have to preface that we didn't do anything irresponsible...we just went to a private college!  We began the Dave Ramsey plan in January of 2007.  You can tell we got a little bit more serious in 2008!  Here are the stats of our debt payoff (not including mortgage).  Yes, I did pull these amounts from an Excel spreadsheet - I am a true accountant!:

Amount of Debt Paid Off in 2008:	$22,297.44
Amount of Debt Paid Off in 2007:	$15,833.27
Total Loans Paid Off Since We Started	$38,130.71

I can't believe we paid off that much money in two years!  It feels like you are getting nowhere at first, but once you get the debt snowball going, it really does pick up speed! 

I lied.  I am going to post some pictures.  I'll leave you with a few pictures of Trevor and I during our semester in Greece. 

(Side note- These pictures aren't from my camera.  I did not even have a digital camera in Greece in 2003.  Actually, only a couple people had digital cameras at that time.  That makes me feel so old for some reason.  I can just hear my kids saying some day, "You didn't EVEN have a digital camera!  Wow, you're really OLD!  How did you take pictures?  What is this stuff you call 'film'?")

In front of the Parthenon

Right after our Engagement...

On this Island....

During this Sunset! 

I think it was so TOTALLY worth having some loans for this experience....

Thanks Dad!