Lacking a Nail

Like many personal finance journeys mine started with a debt free journey. Unlike most, I don’t know how much debt I paid off. I know it was definitely over $110,000 logic makes me think it may have been as much as $150,000. But the specifics I can’t tell you. Why? Because the specifics were too much to handle and if I looked at the total number I would get overwhelmed, crazy stressed, decide it was outright impossible, so on and so forth.

How did I manage to pay off 6-figures of debt without seeing the big number? Do you know those survivor stories that involve someone grievously injured or near death? The survivor says something along the lines of I kept telling myself I just needed to take one more step. Then I’d tell myself I just needed to take one more step. Then I’d tell myself I just needed to take one more step. I did that for the majority of my debts. I didn’t need to pay off 20 different debts, I needed to pay off one debt. Until I got to the last two then it just all went out the window, then a relative died.

When the forest is too vast, focus on the trees. I found out about Dave Ramsey, got reacquainted with the concept of the snowball method. I floundered for a while trying to figure out the best way to keep track of my debts. I even made a paper chain where each link was $100. Then threw it away almost immediately. What would I do when I didn’t pay off precisely $100? What would I do to account for interest that wasn’t divisible by $100? I didn’t want to be adding and subtracting paper chain links every time a payment was made and interest was added.

Then I found a free fundraiser thermometer online. I printed one for every single debt I had. I put who I owed, and how much at the top. For the first two or three debts I even put the total owed at every 10% mark. I quickly realized this wasted time because interest exists. I took my white out to all of the fundraiser thermometers and removed the amount owed. Now the only one that had specifics was the one I was working on. That was the only one that mattered. Other than minimum payments all other debts were out of sight, out of mind.

Have you ever played the game where you beat your GPS and arrive before the initial estimated arrival time? I started doing that with debts. If it was something that would take more than a couple months I would put the estimated pay off date. It gives you a little dopamine hit when you pay it off sooner.

Then, as I paid off the debts I would tape them up behind my desk. It was my little trophy wall. I was blasting through them. I even started putting in big savings goals. We paid off cars, a slew of student loans, credit cards, cash flowed a masters degree. It was all sunshine until . . .

All the “little” debts were gone and we had the two big ones left. I had consolidated school loans for one degree and owed $60,000 on it. We had a mortgage with $50,000 on it. Yes, I owed less on my house then I did on my school loans. I actually owed the same on my student loans as when I had graduated about a decade earlier. Talk about disheartening. You want me to say we buckled down and overcame the obstacle. Nope.

We ran amok for a couple years. It was literally approximately two years. Not really saving. Not putting money toward retirement. Not paying down debts. On the bright side we weren’t racking up crazy amounts of debt either. We’d go a little over on the credit card, spend a month or two paying it off. Not much better of a cycle.

Then I did a 180 on my views of having children and we decided to add to our family. The out of control spending gave way to savings. Saving up for supplies and furnishings for a small person. Saving up for income that would be lost during maternity/paternity. And a new found resolve that in the coming year we would buckle down and pay off those last two debts. You know, do right by our offspring.

Then a there was a death in the family. We didn’t really have contact with this person, due to negligence on our end. I was pregnant. I was a little sad that this relative didn’t even know about our expected child. To our surprise, despite being completely absent in their life, they included me as a beneficiary. To our even further surprise we were left a tidy sum. That is how we paid off our last two big debts. It helped bring our emergency fund to six months. It polished off the maternity/paternity leave fund. It changed our lives. My debt free journey is like the joke of the man who made his millions because he worked hard. Then married a millionaires daughter. We worked hard, we paid off a lot. Then we received an inheritance that leapfrogged us into a position that would have taken years, possibly even a decade, to achieve on our own.

P.S. If this was useful my one-page Sinking Funds Tracker is in the shop, or you can tip on Ko-fi or PayPal. One tiny move is progress.

This post reflects my personal experience and opinions. I share our real-life money – rounded numbers, personal choices, (tiny) next steps. It is not financial advice. I’m not a financial advisor. Budgeting and money topics are shared for education and entertainment only. Your situation is unique; verify details before acting. Small steps count.

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