Hey fellow debt eliminators,
I just want to encourage you to continue to be weird. Even if family/friends don’t understand your commitment, you must remember you are on the right track. Your financial peace of mind is worth it. I will share with you, my journey and lessons along the way.
My road towards financial freedom is one of daily affirmations. When I experience setbacks, I have to remind myself that it took years to create this mess, so it will take time to clean it up. Financial literacy was not deliberately taught while I was growing up, and let’s not forget to mention societal norms. Whew! Make Money. Spend it. Make some more. Saving was not long-term. That is what my financial education consisted of.
Small wins count! I’m on Baby Step 2 (BS2). As a broke college student, I had around 25 credit cards (CCs): $35,000. CC companies targeted college students on campus and I was easy prey. Using the debt snowball method, I finally paid them off.
Next step is to tackle my student loans (SL) and mortgage. I used to feel hopeless about being able to pay off these balances in my lifetime. Utilizing the debt snowball, my SL balance has decreased from $156,000 to $96,500 and my mortgage has decreased from $130,000 to $99,999. Now that both are under $100K, the gazelle intensity focus has been (re)activated.
My income has fluctuated during this process and there were times I had to pause take Baby Steps due to unemployment, health issues and other emergencies. At the start of this process, I have stopped frivolous spending and have purged my house of needless clutter. If I can do it, you can too. Recommit yourself to the process every day. It really is mind over matter.
CQ76
