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February 25, 2024

In 2013, my wife Michelle and I published Debt-Free Living in a Debt-Filled World.  Since we’re more than a decade removed from that publishing, and as we are now a quarter of a century into our debt-free journey, we thought it was time to share an update.

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Michelle and I were married in January of 1998 and a little over a year later began our journey of living debt-free as a calling.  Our intention was always to be a witness to the world of the truth of God’s Word on all matters, but especially to be a witness to what God has to say about money and finances.

To briefly recap, after marrying in early 1998, and after Michelle fully grasped just how broke and in debt I was, she became anxious about our financial situation.  Prior to marriage, we had agreed to live on a formal (written) budget (maintained to this day).  Before our honeymoon even ended, Michelle had begun to formulate a plan for getting us out of debt.  I quickly agreed, and we began paying off our debts, using the “snowball” method taught by the late, great Larry Burkett.

At the time of our marriage, Michelle was a full-time employee at the financial ministry Larry founded, Christian Financial Concepts (CFC).  Most everything we learned about money, debt, and other biblical financial principles came via Larry’s teachings at CFC (now Crown Financial Ministries).  These sound, biblical financial principles are still at work in our lives today.

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Sometime in 1999, while living in our one-bedroom apartment, and after getting out of debt (we had a total debt of about $25K), Michelle began encouraging me to build/buy a home without a mortgage — in other words, completely debt free.

I immediately bristled at the notion, thinking there was no such path to that dream.  I was a teacher of mathematics (still am to this day), and she was an employee at a Christian ministry.  In other words, we were not in high-salary jobs.  (Throughout our 26-plus years of marriage, our total annual income has almost always been between $75K and $100K.)  Also, our parents were not wealthy — by American standards — and thus, I saw no way we could get into a home within a reasonable amount of time without borrowing money.

Michelle persisted, and then God took it even farther.  In His “still, small voice,” God revealed to me that, to be a witness to the world, He desired for us to live a completely debt-free lifestyle.  In order to get into a home (easily the largest expense for the vast majority of us), our plan was to live in as low-rent a situation as possible, save every dime we could, and build on a small approximately one-acre lot that we owned (it was part of the debt we paid off early in our marriage).

After saving around $40K, we broke ground in the spring of 2000.  Acting as our own contractors, and with tremendous help from several generous and handy family members, we partially finished our home in the late summer of 2001.  We were able to move in to our 1,000-square-foot basement at that time.  Approximately two years later, doing things in stages as we could afford them, we completed the rest of our home.


Our snow-covered North Georgia home from a few years ago.

Michelle continued to work full-time at CFC until our first child, Caleb, was born in the spring of 2002.  After Caleb was born, Michelle became a stay-at-home mom.  This was always our plan, and our debt-free lifestyle made this a much easier transition.  Michelle has remained a stay-at-home, homeschooling mom until this day.  She has been able to work part-time, mostly from home, through the years to bring in some income.

As was her desire long before even marrying, Michelle has homeschooled each of our four children throughout their K–12 education.  Again, our debt-free status made this much more doable.  What’s more, homeschooling has allowed us to take full advantage of the dual-enrollment options our home state of Georgia offers.