Debt.
It's a four letter word to be sure.
R and I have been in debt before. I came into the marriage with $10K in credit card debt. I fell into the typical trap in college when everyone was offering me credit cards. Never mind I worked 4 hours a day making $5 an hour. R had no debt. He even owned a house and was making extra mortgage payments because he had several renters. But he had an investment deal he just couldn't pass by. $8K for untold fortunes in the future. So we took out a home equity loan. Then we needed replacement vehicles. Pretty soon we had $30K. We would pay some down and then buy some more. Finally we sold our house and paid off the debt with equity.
After that we were pretty much as anti-debt as you can be. I remember feeling so proud when we refinanced and the loan officer could not believe that we had zero debts. No car payments, no credit cards. It felt so good.
Even when I quit my decent paying job and we survived on R's small earnings the first year he sold real estate, we had no debt. Then he was doing really well and we had money in savings. Quite a bit.
And then another investment opportunity. This time it was a smart investment. This time I was as excited as he was and felt elated that we had the money set aside. Plus I was sure that we would have our savings back up in no time. I'm still glad we invested the money.
But I didn't count on R not earning as much for the next year. We are the typical house poor Americans. Our house payment is way too much of our monthly expenses. But I still think our house is a great investment as well. It just puts us in an area where we see the Jones' way out ahead of us, and sometimes that is hard. Sometimes I get the wants really bad. And somehow we ended up in debt again.
Debt complicates your life. Debt makes you second guess going to the doctor when you think your child might have strep. Debt makes going out to dinner on your 10th anniversary bitter sweet because you know you should be putting that money toward paying down the damn credit cards. Debt makes your husband mentally calculate every dime you spend while your family is in Disneyland. Debt sells your future and taints your present. Debt is hell.
I am proud to say that Ris working hard and doing great for our family. Yesterday we paid off a BIG chunk. Feels sooo good. Good-bye Citibank. Good-bye American Express. Hello light at the end of the tunnel.
We have big dreams for our future. They include a lot of time in Costa Rica. They cars that aren't breaking down every other month. They include investments and passive income. They include a large cushion for security. They include college funds for the monkeys. They don't include being owned by credit card companies. They don't include debt.

So I've been thinking about simplifying for A LONG TIME! But I am finally there and ready to start breaking it down. I like to soak and think in the tub and this morning I had a moment of clarity. I am re-reading Elaine St. James Simplicity Reader for the billionth time and one chapter talks about figuring out what really makes your life complicated. And I finally boiled it down to 3 major things: 1) Disorganized home 2) Unhappy with my body 3) Debt. That pretty much sums it up. Now it's time to figure out how to simplify these things!