Wow! I can’t believe I was able to type up that title: Loans paid in FULL!!

I just can’t get over the fact that Tom paid off over $150,000 worth of loans in 7 years. They are paid in full!

The payment officially went through this week and we did a bit of celebrating. Sorry for the blurry picture. I’m not the best iPhone selfie photographer. #WorkingOnIt

Tom was a little sad that he paid off a ton of money and only got a confetti GIF.

We didn’t celebrate much because we plan to celebrate BIG this week when we eat out during Naples Restaurant Week. We plan to go to 1500 South, Art Smith’s Naples Restaurant. I’m so excited.

I love all the great things to do in Naples so much that I’m working on a new Naples website that will launch in March of 2017. I can’t wait to share more with you soon. Follow along on Instagram and Facebook!

I’ve already started working on content. Here’s a sneak peak of some amazing food from Catch of the Pelican at Naples Grande. They are part of Naples Restaurant Week too!

So what’s next for us now that we’ve paid off a big chunk of debt?

We will save 

We will pay off the rest of our debts, but we won’t do it as quickly as we did with Tom’s high interest student loans. The rest of our debt is pretty low interest so it makes more sense for us to invest and save for the future at a higher interest rate.

We will travel

We want to continue seeing all that Florida has to offer. We loved Jacksonville and can’t wait to check out other family friendly towns that have great deals.

We want to see the rest of the United States, especially state parks. I’m thinking RV road trip!

As far as traveling abroad, our India trip is coming up in March. We will do England in 2018, and Italy in 2019.

We will eat well

It’s been far too long since Tom and I had regular date nights. One thing I want to do is continue to explore  the Naples food scene. It’s grown so much since we arrived 3 years ago. When we first moved here I hated to eat out because is was all overpriced tourist traps. In 3 short years we have seen so many great chefs open up restaurants here that are actually worth the prices.

We will finally decorate our house

Tom and I went shopping on Black Friday for new furniture. While we didn’t buy, we did get a good idea of what we want in our house. We are leaning towards this couch from Matter Brothers for the living room.

One final note

Tom and I worked really hard to pay off these loans. Though all of this, we have both learned a lot about money, saving, and personal happiness.

We’ve learned that things don’t make us happy. Clothes, make-up, fancy bags, and all the other material possessions can easily be taken away. Memories made through game nights, travels, dinner with good food, drinks, and friends can’t ever be taken away.

Now that we “have the money to spend”, I can assure you that we won’t do it. We won’t start spending money on stupid things just because we can. It doesn’t take a lot of money to have fun with my friends and family so there is no need to start now!

How did you do this week? Did you spend a lot of money? Are you chipping away at debt too? What do you think about spending money on frivolous stuff?