Wednesday, May 9, 2012

Another One Bites the Dust

Suck it Line of Credit! 
I can't help but feel an immense sense of pride when I get to enter the word PAID next to another one of my debts! Despite going on a major spending spree in Montreal for my 4 year maniversary, I have managed to completely eliminate my line of credit and raised my total percent paid off to almost 60%! At this point I was only expecting to have half my debt eliminated, so for me to be 10% ahead of the game makes me feel pretty darn special.

Lately however, I have been feeling the other kind of "special" and doing silly and forgetful things. Maybe it's something to do with the season? After locking myself out of my apartment for an hour and a half yesterday, I finally got around to doing my income taxes and (yay) I am getting a $1,000 refund! That's going to go right to my debt repayment for sure (pay attention people). This year, I was able to do my taxes much faster than most other years because I finally have some stable employment and an employer who actually takes off all the right amounts of deductions. Filled with excitement that I wasn't going to have to pay more income tax like I did last year, I put all of my receipts, T4s and whatever other forms and receipts I had and then I sealed my envelope. Now lucky for me (depending on how you feel about it) I have a tax forms drop box down the street from where I work so I opened the mail slot and dropped my envelope in the box. At that moment, something hit me - I didn't sign the freaking forms. I really hope that they will come back to me soon, although I am not too concerned since the money is all going right to debt repayment anyway. Sure I could netfile or call someone to see if I can fix this error and get my refund quicker, but the reality is that I just don't give a $hit.

This is what has dawned on me; my "aha" moment, if you will. I am finally in a place financially where a delay on a cheque for $1,000 dollars doesn't even make me blink an eye. I am truly getting to the point where I can be comfortable with what I have in my bank account enough so that I don't need to be worried about this. When I was at the beginning of this process, the things I would do with that $1,000 were numerous and I would be so thrilled to get that money to buy a new computer or take a little trip somewhere, but now it's not even important.

My perspective has really been changed over the course of this past year and a half. A couple of weekends ago, I spent a day relaxing at a spa that cost $50 for a day of relaxing in their mineral baths and I thought, "if I were to have done this when I had my first job, I would have had to work 10 hours to afford my entry into the spa". I cannot help but feel incredibly fortunate for everything that I have right here and now. I am constantly learning that I truly can have anything I put my mind to if I keep a positive attitude and include the people I love in my journey.

Happy Maniversary Baby!