I’ve been thinking about finances a lot lately. How to get rid of debt. How to increase income. How to retire by the age of 40 with what zero money I have, etc. I use to keep a pristine checking account. I knew where every dollar and penny was spent. Then while I moved up in the retail management world, I increased my debt and increased my debt. I was making enough money to pay it, but when my district manager said he was going to move me to higher volume store, make me drive another 30 minutes in my already 45 minute drive, and not increase my pay, I stood up for myself and quit 2 days later. I don’t regret quitting my job. I was unhappy and being mistreated. I was liberated from a job that made me miserable. We (my job and myself) didn’t have a healthy relationship. When I quit, I didn’t have a fallback job. I was unemployed for 6 months or so. I drained my entire savings account trying to keep my head above water. I got a part time job but it wasn’t paying what I needed and by the time I got a full time job, it was already too late. The repo man had confiscated my car and I had drowned in my own debt and was floating lifelessly at the bottom of the ocean. I filed for bankruptcy. I was embarrassed and felt like I was pond scum. I had let myself down, but filing for bankruptcy was one of the best things I ever did for myself. Yes, my credit was ruined and yes, I was going to have higher finance charges, but it taught me once again how to hold a pristine check book and to know where my money was going. It gave me a sense of self worth and how much I had once been shackled to money and the appearance of money.
Though this is year is the year of Do It and I said I have learned that life is too short. I would rather be broke having lived out all of my dreams than have money and not lived any of my dreams. So as long as I am alive, I will do everything in my power to do everything I have ever dreamed of doing. I do want to pay off my debt. I don’t have a gajillion dollars worth of debt. THANK GOODNESS! People who know me, know I love my job and the perks are awesome but sadly, I don’t make the killing they think I do. I live paycheck to paycheck and sometimes it’s feed the dog or feed myself. The dog always wins over me.
I don’t want to do that anymore. So though I’m breaking up with my debt, I will still do what I dream but I will do it without credit cards.
So if my plans go right, I will hopefully be credit card debt free in 6 months. One year from that, I hope to have a loan paid off and my car paid off. DEBT FREE!!
So what am I going to do? I’ve tried just about everything and read every book on the market but nothing clicked with me and then today, while looking on CNN, I discovered And Then She Saved and I was inspired and motivated to do something. For once, I felt that if someone else could do it, then I could do. So here am…sharing my broke ass story to the world. I want my friends to hold me accountable. I want my family to hold me accountable.
June 13th starts my spending fast and July 1st starts my spending diet. I will continue to save up for my trip to Key West and Australia where I will not use a credit card unless I’m in the hospital for a blue bottle sting.
I’m excited and I’m scared to fail and let myself down, but it’s baby steps for now and I’m taking it one day at a time. I’ll figure out slowly but I’m through with debt.