Hi! We’re the Bargerons, and we’re building a life we love, not a lifestyle we can’t afford.
8 years ago, we started becoming really intentional about how we used our money. Spoiler: it really did change our lives.
Disclaimer:
The point of sharing this is not a humble brag to say “look at how awesome we are,” but rather “it really is amazing what eight years of thoughtful purpose can create.” And one thing about me is that if it’s significant, it’s going to be written down. I am who I am.
When we first got married in 2011, we lived on very little and saved what and where we could. We lived some of our best days in this season, too, by choosing low-cost memories. We saved a portion of our tax return every year, and we, also, gave 10% of what we earned to our church every pay period, even when that amount could have really helped us.
Looking back, we were never careless with money because we could never afford to be. 2018 was the first year we had “extra money,” and what we did with it set us on the trajectory we are still on today.
Then came August 20, 2018: the day we paid off our 2013 Honda Odyssey early, making us consumer debt free! This was the money move that kickstarted everything, and we vowed that we would try to never again pay for a decision we made in the past. We decided on this day that we would no longer borrow our way into the life we wanted anymore. If we wanted something, we would save for it; and if we wanted something we could not pay for, we would choose something else to want.
We didn’t suddenly start making more money after that day, but we did start to develop systems that would help us track and use our money better. We budgeted. We saved. We gave. We made plans. We readjusted those plans when needed.
Once we built our Emergency Fund, we started dreaming. Having the peace of knowing that an emergency would no longer devastate us financially enabled us to then open Roth IRAs and 529s, make a plan to pay our mortgage off early, update some things at home, increase our giving, and book a few trips.
Our Main Motivation
These two were only this big when we officially started this money journey, and giving them both abundant opportunities to thrive was our biggest “why.” We opened Roth IRAs in-part so that they would never have to feel the burden of having to meet our financial needs. We opened 529s so we could help them with college expenses without hurting ourselves. We started saving for our first trip to Disney (that we took in August 2020) because we wanted them to have good travel memories to look back on. And one of the reasons we increased our giving was because so many people had given to us on our journey to parenthood.
Not everything has been sentimental, though, and we do a lot of things that you probably don’t consider particularly glamorous...
-Spreadsheets to track spending, saving, and goals
-Eating meals at home most of the time
-Shopping at Aldi and Walmart for most things
-Skipping many things we can technically afford (aka avoiding lifestyle creep)
TJ and I are just two grown ups who decided that “Where did all our money go??” was not the best way to live anymore. We found that we could enjoy each other more without the invisible-but-heavy money stress lingering around and between us, too, even when life got really hard. We, also, loved how it felt to have a plan for our money and for our spending to reflect what we value.
One of our values is seeing the world together
We’ve been able to make travel a priority mainly by 1) saving with travel goals in mind, and 2) earning and redeeming credit card points to offset travel costs. These adventures make it easy to say “no” to lesser things, and we are so very grateful for all we have been able to do and see together in recent years. I pray we are far from done exploring.
Another one of our values is serving together
By living on less than we make and being conscious of our spending, I am personally able to devote time to doing something that means a lot to me: volunteering. We all serve together when my husband and kids are not working or in school, too, because our financial security allows margin for us to give and not only take.
Two things I want to mention in the spirit of transparency and reflection...
First, our household income has not increased in four years. In 2022, we made the most money we ever made before and we used most of the increase to stay out of major medical debt. Then our income took a big dip in 2023 when I stepped back from work, and we have been slowly inching our way back up. That has complicated our finances at times, but we have continued to have what we need and more by living on less than we earn. Our overall strategy since 2018 has been to live off of a percentage of TJ’s income and save/invest/give all of mine, and we still mostly abide to that. As TJ’s commitment load has increased, though, mine has decreased, and we have adjusted as needed.
Second, we have not done this alone. We have been enormously blessed by friends and family along the way, and their generosity has moved us to tears more than a few times. Anytime we are recipients of a gift, we try to steward it well and honor the giver. When we are given more than we need, we view it as an opportunity to give more and move closer to our well-defined vision for our lives.
We, also, give all glory to the Giver of every good thing. Our faith and belief in Christ and His Word has been a lighthouse to us on our journey in all of life, including financial stability.
Eight years of being money conscious and debt free has given us more than paid-off balances. It has given us...
confidence when life gets expensive,
freedom to be generous,
room to breathe and dream,
the ability to maximize the present,
a foundation for our future.
And perhaps most importantly, the opportunity to choose what matters to us.
We’re still saying “no” to some things now so we can say yes to other things later.
Still budgeting.
Still saving.
Still giving.
Still avoiding lifestyle inflation.
Still traveling.
Still dreaming.
Still so incredibly awed and grateful.
But we are saying “yes” more than ever before, too, because this was never about having the most. It was about building a life we love with what we’ve been given.
It was always about stewarding what is entrusted to us and living well.
We have a direction for our lives that we are proud of, and we are learning that flexibility and humility will be what actually get us to where we want to go.
Cheers to 8 years of rooting and growing!
And as Ina Garten says and has so beautifully lived,
“I concentrate on what’s in front of me, and work hard, because I love what I do, and I have fun doing it; and then I leave the door open, so I’ll be ready when the luck happens.”
