Excited

I'm SO excited!

We've just been invited to attend a special 25th Anniversary Dinner with Liberty Trust.

Wahoo.

In Whakatane.

On a night Munchy baby is away.

Which means that we can actually GO.

Amazing.  Awesome.  Wonderful.  Did I mention that I'm so excited??!  I have RSVPd (the same day we got the invite).  With more than my usual number of exclamation points.  Grin.

Here's the thing, you see.  We've been contributing to Liberty Trust for about six years now, watching our balance slowly edge it's way up, waiting for the day we will get a letter or a phone call from the Trust offering us an interest free loan.  Every month we get their newsletter, and every time I think, "Yes, this is it.  This is a great thing to be doing.  I'm helping other Kiwi families get free of mortgage debt, while getting my family ready to experience the same blessing."  But it's a lonely path.  Most people we talk to don't even know what Liberty Trust is.  Which, incidentally, is really sad.  Of the few who know what it is, even less have been or are currently involved.  So it will be really, really special to be able to go the home town of Liberty Trust and share in a big celebration with a whole bunch of other people, people who are contributing towards a loan too, but also people who have received and paid one back. 

We first started contributing back when we lived in Oz.  When we owned a house.  When we didn't need a loan.  Or so we thought.  Why then did we do it?  Because it's just so RIGHT.  For every $50,000 we borrow through Liberty Trust, we will save at least $40,000 in interest.  At today's relatively low interest rates.  And we're part of something bigger than just ourselves.  We're helping build a capital fund that helps hundreds, even thousands of other families do the same.  Pay off their house in under fifteen years.  Be free of that crippling, monstrous debt.  Be able to do other things instead.

Our loan was only going to be $50,000.  It was more about the principle of the matter, of supporting something I believed in.  I figured if we didn't need it, we'd be sure to find someone who did.  But lo-and-behold, now we do need it.  We're back to zero, starting over.  And our best opportunity to own a home without it crippling us financially is by doing it this way.  By waiting.  We can't save a deposit right now while we study.  It's just not feasible, especially when we'd be looking for $60,000 in today's market.  Student budget and all, we couldn't manage a tenth of that.  BUT we can manage $150 a month.  Not so much, is it?  And we've increased it.  Used to be just $87.  It's a stretch.  But my only regret is that I wish I'd started earlier, and put more in sooner.  Oh well, we are at least doing something.  We are making a difference in our future.  By spreading the cost over a longer time frame, we can manage it.

Wondering what on earth I'm talking about?
Liberty Trust is a Christian organisation that lends to individuals and churches in NZ and Australia.  You don't have to be a Christian to use the trust.  You donate to the trust for an extended time frame (usually 8-10 years).  Then you're offered a loan of five times what you've donated.  You then pay that back in a short time frame (7-15years), without paying interest.  You've already made your contribution to growing the trust.  Once you've paid your loan, it gets passed to someone else, and someone else, and someone else.  Because it's a relatively small organisation, with high ethics, honesty, and relationship, there's flexibility.  You could get a loan in less time by contributing more.  You can pay your loan of over a longer timeframe by waiting a bit longer to get it.  Our current hope is that once we are both out working we might increase what we put in so we can get a full loan with Liberty, but we'll see once we are done with the study first. 

In the meantime, I'm just so excited to be able to go to the Silver Anniversary Dinner.
Happy 25th Birthday, Liberty Trust!

Amy