This was an email that I shared a few weeks back with my subscribers and so many readers responded that this was the motivation that they needed to either start the debt-free journey or to keep going. So, hopefully this will motivate you as well because becoming debt-free isn’t easy but it’s 100% doable.
If you’ve been following my blog for a while, you know that when I was 21 years old, I was nearly bankrupt. I had just over $11,000 in credit card debt alone and a nice brand new fancy sports car living in an apartment well above my pay grade.
It took years to pay off that debt – in fact, we made the last payment on that debt the month before our oldest child was born. But, there’s one tragic flaw here. You see, even though that struggle made me realize that I needed to manage my money better, it didn’t change my perception of debt.
You see, while working our tails off to pay off my enormous credit card debt, we were still using debt. We were taking out car loans, student loans, a mortgage, and we each even had a credit card.
The problem is that since our perceptions of debt had not changed, all we did was go further into debt. In March of 2013, we had just over $55,000 of debt not including our mortgage. And in many respects, we were managing our debt responsibly.
We each only had one credit card, we had one car loan, and we had my student loans. That’s it, but the problem is those debts still had to be paid. We learned that lesson the hard way when my husband was injured at work and those bills still required a payment each month.
So, if you want to truly become debt-free, you have to change your mindset. That was the pivotal change for us this go ‘round. We stopped believing that you have to have debt. We stopped believing in “smart debt” and started believing that all debt is bad.
We started seeing that debt is a vicious cycle that starts at age 18 – you have to get a credit card in order to establish good credit in order to get a car loan, student loans, and eventually a mortgage loan.
We literally are told that in order to have a life we must borrow to fund that life when in fact, if we are diligent with our money we can just pay cash for everything and never have to worry about a bill showing up in our mailbox demanding to be paid.
If being completely debt-free is something that you truly want, you must change your perceptions about debt or else temptation will pull you back in – or at least that’s been my experience. And if you haven’t read the book, The Total Money Makeover by Dave Ramsey I encourage you to. It’ll help further motivate you down the road to true financial freedom.
What motivation can you offer up to someone looking to become debt-free?
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For me, it was finding my “why”. Knowing what being debt free and having financial freedom really means to me and my future. Since that moment, I’ve been on a mission to make it happen and it has changed my life.
I’ve recently become much more motivated and empowered, and I attribute that to two things. One, I’ve been listening to more financial independence podcasts – I’m currently in love with the MONEY show with J.$ and Paula Pant. The other is that I started using Personal Capital, which does a better job of showing our complete financial picture in one place than my various spreadsheets did. Tracking our net worth helps me visualize how our behavior impacts it in both positive and negative ways.
For me, having no debt has meant that when my job went sour in a really big, huge way, I was able to walk away. I didn’t have to keep working, doing something that was morally and legally questionable at best, because we had bills to pay. My employer was asking me to do something that could’ve landed me in jail; it could’ve seen us lose our home and financial security. At the same time it was just legal enough that he was within his rights to ask me to do it. Because we are financially secure I was able to leave. It was still not an easy decision to make; but it was made easier for me because we are in a good place, financially.
I do think some things are worth going into debt for. However, when it comes to once-off expenses like a wedding or vacation, or for consumer goods like clothes or toys, debt just isn’t worth it. Call it the Other People Test – If you are going into debt because you’re worried about what Other People think, think twice about going into debt. Unless Other People are going to help you pay for it, it really shouldn’t matter to you what they think.
Thanks for the motivation! Lord knows I needed this right now because my 17 yr old car (Ethel) has a transmission that’s running on prayers and my college tuition payment is going to be due in a few days. Not a week goes by without me telling my husband I just want my fairy godmother to wave her wand over us to make everything alright. Thank Heaven our teens are not “Gucci kids” and screaming for designer stuff- not that we’d buy it!
No it’s not easy, but it is worth it! Sometimes I get really tired of being so frugal, of tracking every penny. I want to go to Target and throw all the crap I don’t need in my cart and say screw it. But I know at the end of the day that will only lead to loathing and will undo the progress we’ve made.
I’m learning to live within and sometimes even below my means to be debt-free for the next couple of months. Wish me luck. lol
Agree 100%. It requires great restraint and self-control to kinda, sorta use credit cards. It’s hard to strike the right balance, evident by % of people who get in trouble with them.
If you want to make lasting change in money management, we have to create “bright red lines.” We cant think that sometimes it’s okay to use debt and sometimes it’s not. If we want to build lasting wealth we have to change from kinda/sorta to “No debt, No Question.”
Dave Ramsey is a very popular resource for this topic. In addition to the book reference, your recommendation for changing mindset can also be essential.
This is so important! As a retired teacher, I wish I had known all of this when I first started my career. I am still trying to get debt free. I would advise you to do it before you retire for sure! If you are single y it can be hard, but it is doable. Keep chunking off that debt, and don’t get the credit cards. Get a loan and put the money in a savings account. Use the loan money to pay off the loan payments, or find other ways to establish your credit where you are not getting yourself into debt.