Homestead objectives (part III)

The third objective we have is to live debt free.

Yeah, we could do this where ever we might live, whether homesteading or not. In fact, that would be a good idea, and it’s what we would be doing, I believe.

I grew up in a family that was monetarily poor (we were rich in many other things and ways). Out of necessity, my parents had to manage their money carefully and well. Without even knowing it, I learned some things about money from them. I’ve not been one to go deeply into debt at any time, but I have utilized credit at different times. I worked my way through my first four years of college, graduating without any student loan debt. Anne and I were married shortly after I graduated, and we did accumulate a certain amount of credit card debt and used a personal loan to buy a used car. There were no student loans for my years in graduate school either, thankfully. But, we still seemed to carry a bit of credit card debt through the years.

In 1999 we obtained a 100% mortgage in order to buy a house. Shortly after that we began to get really serious about paying off all of our debts and to pay off our mortgage as quickly as possible. We formulated a 10-year plan in which to be completely out of debt, including our mortgage. At the end of that time, we were going to buy some property using our equity and begin our homesteading adventure. God had other ideas. He modified our plan, and it became a four year plan.

Buying our 57 acres was the beginning of truly having no debt. We were able to pay for the property completely with the equity we got out of our house in Illinois and with what we had saved. We had figured early on that one way to be able to homestead involved limiting our expenses. One of the biggest ones oftentimes is a mortgage. So, we didn’t even consider property that was beyond our means which would require borrowed money. Almost six years down the road, we take living without a mortgage for granted.

Debt isn’t even an option. We don’t have any credit cards. We did for a while, paying them off every month. We decided that we didn’t need them. If we want to buy something online or pay at the pump to fill up a vehicle, we can use our debit card. If we don’t have the money, we don’t try to get it from the bank, and we don’t put it on a card.

Debt seems to be a way of life for people all around us. How much of that borrowed money is spent on consumable items that don’t produce anything? Living beyond our means puts us into slavery; we owe part of our lives to the lender until its paid off. There are times when there are not many other options, I will admit, but as a way of life, it is not sustainable. Non-sustainability is a contrary goal to a homesteading objective.

When I walk on our place, I’m walking on my own dirt. I paid for it. Yeah, I have to pay property tax which is like paying rent to the government to “own” my own place, but that’s another issue. I count it a blessing to live debt free, and I thank God for leading us to see debt as slavery and to get out of it. It is much better and more peaceful to be free.