We did it. We own our own home.

Before I tell that story, let me back up a bit to when I was 15 years old. My parents lost the house we lived in due to financial trouble, and we had to move on to a boat we half-owned. Living on that boat for two years shaped my life. If you think it was glamorous and fun, read that post for a glimpse of the difficulties we faced. Going through high school without a home to call my own or a place to invite friends over to hang out was really tough.

My parents were amazing, wonderful people. They are no longer with us, but I think of them often and am so very thankful for the love they showered on me and my brothers and sister. My dad, like me, was self-employed, but didn't always make the best financial decisions. Thankfully, I ended up marrying an amazing woman whose parents handled money a little differently. That, and working for Dave Ramsey for about 4 years, taught me a lot about how to handle money the right way. I had already seen first-hand the pain and stress of debt.

Years ago, when the interest rates went low, @corinnestokes and I decided to refinance to a 10-year mortgage. We figured, even if we didn't pay anything extra, we'd own the home just as my oldest became a teenager. We'd have no debt on the house before he turned the age I lost my house growing up. If you haven't yet done the math on the difference between a 30-year mortgage and 15 or 10 year one, please, do yourself a favor and look into it now. You can literally save hundreds of thousands of dollars.

In order to create some encouragement towards getting out of debt, in May of 2010, we printed out a piece of paper with a single square for every $1,000 in principle we still owed on the house. We hung it up on our fridge so we'd see it every day. With each monthly payment, Corinne would figure out how much went to principle and color in that amount. Once we moved to the 10-year mortgage, we got even more encouraged to see more squares colored in with each payment.

We worked hard, we saved, and we made the payments. We even paid a little extra whenever we could.

Fast forward to today, January 25th, 2017, and I've got some fantastic news:

We own our house!

Tonight, we colored in all the squares.

My 7-year-old son Devon helped a bit as well.

How did we do it?

At the end of 2013, I had bitcoin fever and wasn't willing to sell any of our bitcoin stash at its all-time-high price. I later regretted it, because I realized I could have paid off my house and then used that mortgage payment money to reinvest into bitcoin at much lower prices to rebuild my stake. Hindsight is always 20/20.

I didn't want to make the same mistake twice. Last year, as the price started rising, we sold some bitcoin and put it right towards the mortgage. Then we sold some more. As the price neared the all-time-high again, we started thinking, "We could pay off the house!" The price kept rising, and we finally decided to do it. Thankfully, we didn't have to sell all the bitcoin, but we sold enough. Today, Corinne got the final payment amount, went to the bank, and sent a wire transfer. Our house is now our house!

I'm so excited and so happy, it's hard to describe. I know peace and security are largely stories we tell ourselves, but this story sure sounds good right now. No matter what happens in the future, I know I've worked hard to position myself and my family on a solid financial foundation. I essentially worked two full-time jobs for four years as I turned my code into a company. I've now been full-time self-employed for over five years and our business is still going strong.

Starting now, each month, my family will have an entire mortgage payment worth of income to save for travel, to give to those in need, to invest in mutual funds beyond just retirement, and (or course) to put into some more cryptocurrencies. Tonight we celebrated with a nice sushi dinner!

Here's a quick video of our celebration dinner:

Financial freedom is something few people have the privilege to enjoy. I'm so very thankful for the experiences I've had which led up to this moment. I'm already thankful for the future.

Thank you for sharing this moment with me.

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Previous #journal entries: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8

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Luke Stokes is a father, husband, business owner, programmer, voluntaryist, and blockchain enthusiast. He wants to help create a world we all want to live in.