A roller-coaster ride to financial freedom

Like many couples who’ve followed God’s financial principles, Terry and Carol Boutet are now debt free. But unlike many other couples, their journey to this goal involved major upswings and downswings and included alternating periods of over-spending and financial faithfulness.

PART ONE OF TWO

At a young age, Terry Boutet experienced success in the business world. After receiving his master’s degree in architecture and working for three different architectural firms, he was confident that God wanted him to start his own architectural practice in Orlando, Florida, where he specialized in churches and even offered seminars on planning for future growth.

His practice was flying high, and after the first year, he was able to pay off all the debts he had incurred from starting his business. The second year brought even more success. “We naturally had a mortgage payment on our new house, but to this we added a new car payment,” Terry says. “And, of course, I decided it would be a good business decision to obtain a computer, which required another loan to the tune of $20,000. Meanwhile, I was still paying my student loans from college—all three of them—and medical bills that I had acquired while in college.”

Terry and Carol also purchased land in the local area for a future dream house. They made the purchase with cash, but they also purchased two lots in the North Carolina mountains with loans. They were living the American Dream, and the American nightmare—lots of debt!

Terry notes that at this point, his pastor preached a convicting message on finances that “stomped all over” Carol and him. First, the pastor cited Romans 13:8, which says, “Owe no man any thing, but to love one another.” Next, he read from Proverbs 22:7, which says, “The rich ruleth over the poor, and the borrower is servant to the lender.”

“Oh, how convicted we were!” Terry says. “Especially Carol! When we got home that evening after church, she said to me, ‘Terry, this is so right! We have to get out of debt tomorrow!’ ”

Because they hadn’t gone into debt overnight, Terry told Carol that they wouldn’t be able to get out of debt overnight, either—even though he liked that idea. But he did start reviewing their present financial situation and figured that they could probably be out of debt in about two years if they were careful and worked diligently toward that goal.

The couple sat down and planned their strategy. They owned one piece of property debt free—two acres of land in a nice subdivision where they hoped to build their dream house.

Since they now had the goal of building that house debt free, Terry proposed to the architectural board of the subdivision that they would build their garage first, live in it for a while, and then build the rest of the house. The idea didn’t fly with the board, so Terry and Carol had to put the property up for sale.

Next, they learned that the property they had purchased in North Carolina—two beautiful lots where they were going to build summer cottages—had been purchased from an unscrupulous realtor.

“There were legal problems,” Terry says, “but God was working on that for us. We paid off the van as well as my college loans and medical bills. Our plan to get out of debt was working except for one thing: our house, with its 30-year mortgage. I told Carol in October 1992 that we were going to put our house up for sale in February. She asked where we were going, and I just said, ‘I don’t know yet. The Lord will provide.’ ”

On February 7, Carol’s uncle, who was like a grandfather to her, passed away. He and his wife had left their house in Auburndale, Florida to Carol, but it was only 920 square feet, including the front porch, back porch, and laundry room. Living there would be a squeeze.

The Boutets were already running out of space in their 1,250 square foot house, but in late February, they put their house up for sale.

The realtor told them that their house was one of more than 13,000 on the market. They didn’t expect it to sell anytime soon, but by April they had a buyer and closed the sale in June.

They sold the North Carolina land back to the realtor in July and sold their dream house property in August. They owed on only one more thing: the computer, which they paid off the following October. Now, they were truly debt free.

“God started to bless our faithfulness to become debt free,” Terry says. “Work was picking up, and within a year I was having projects from Miami, Florida on up to Anchorage, Alaska as well as some local work. Business was very good. Our stay was only temporary in the little house, and three years later we moved to North Carolina, where we had vacationed for several years.

“Carol had always wanted to live in the mountains, and since we home schooled and I worked from home for a national client, we could live anywhere. We rented a cute fully furnished cottage while we looked for land.”

Since things were going so well for the Boutets and since they loved the area, they put their small house back in Florida up for sale. In the meantime, they found land on which to build their dream house. It was just up the mountain, on the same road where they were living. They paid cash for the property in May 1997 and sold the Florida house in June. They were remaining debt free, and Terry began drawing their house plans.

Between the two of them, the dream house grew larger and larger, with more amenities. Terry designed the structure with a walk-out basement that the couple planned to build first and live in while they finished the rest of the house. They could do this debt free, but family members encouraged them to go ahead and build the entire structure because they “deserved” it.

The day they began excavating the land, Terry learned that he would no longer be on contract with a large corporation that had supplied the vast majority of his business. A new employee had taken over his contact’s position at the corporation and wanted nothing to do with him or his services. She had her favorite architect in California, and the Boutets went from a six-digit income to nothing.

“I was prideful and stubborn,” Terry says. “I continued trying to make contacts in the mountains, and I did make a few. We decided to continue with the house. God would provide, wouldn’t He? I bought the land debt free, didn’t I?”

Work continued progressing on the mountain dream house, and by May, Terry knew that if Carol and he were going to build the entire structure they would need to take out a mortgage. Again, they consulted with Christian family members who advised them to go ahead and borrow.

“They said, ‘Everyone has a mortgage; there’s nothing wrong with it,’ ” Terry recalls. “So, we conveniently placed God’s Word on the back shelf and reasoned that we had received godly counsel.”

As construction proceeded on the house, Terry’s architectural work wasn’t sufficient to support his family’s needs. So, he bought a parcel of land in one of the few subdivisions in his area and began building a spec house.

He was certain that he could find a buyer for this architect-designed and built house. It was a nice two-bedroom, two-bath house with a two-car garage on a creek.

Unfortunately, he had to take out a mortgage out on the spec house, as well. But he reasoned that it would sell quickly once it was built and would be a great income producer. In addition, he could build three or four houses a year and sell them, and Carol and he would be financially set.

The Boutets moved into their beautiful, 5,000-square-foot mountain dream house in October of 1998. Terry finished the spec house, and then the bottom fell out of the market.

There was no buyer for the spec house, and Terry had very little work. The couple decided to rent the spec house while they had it up for sale, but the rent payments did not cover the mortgage they had on the property.

“On top of all this, I was proud of ‘my’ house,” Terry says. “Not just proud, but extremely proud. I probably was worse than a peacock. I loved to show off the house. Why not? I was an architect, wasn’t I? But we have all heard Proverbs 16:18, ‘Pride goeth before destruction, and an haughty spirit before a fall.’ ”

Scripture quotations in this article are from the King James Version of the Bible.

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