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| 35% paid! Holey Moley! |
This year
has truly been transformational for me. Can you believe that a year ago,
I began this incredible challenge to reduce nearly $40,000 worth of debt down
to nothing? Admittedly, I was very skeptical about the outcome of this
challenge and there were a few cynical responses from friends and family when I
first started. But those responses were certainly justified if you look back at
the way I was spending money. Right after finishing university and racking up a
bunch of student debt, I quickly turned to my credit to start racking up my
consumer debt. It was so easy to do, and it felt completely justifiable because
I was no longer a student, so why worry about paying off debt, I was making so
much more money!
Before I
started out on this adventure, I never imagined that I would get this far ahead
in my debt repayment and I really felt kind of hopeless about the whole
situation. My debt left me feeling really stressed out and I was always living
paycheck to paycheck. I don’t think I really remembered what it was like to not
have to wait every two weeks for a check to come in, and now, I can go days
after I receive my paychecks before dipping in and taking out some money from
my chequing account. I often found myself frustrated that I wasn’t getting
anywhere and that my debt was constantly climbing even though I wasn’t using my
credit card. But this really shouldn’t have come as a surprise because I never
even opened my bills! My debt was making me being to feel hopeless and uncertain
about my future because I had nothing in my savings account and didn’t seem to
be anyway for things to turn around for me.
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| Gail's loving every moment! |
Then along
came Gail Vaz-Oxlade. I know that I talk about her a lot in my blog, but it was
thanks to her book, Debt Free Forever, that I was able to actually get this
process in motion. My budget became the key to my success and it has made it
simple for me to see what it is that I need to do to get ahead and be happy.
Not only did Gail teach me about making a budget, she taught me the importance
of setting goals. Do you remember a time when you were a child and you had to
save up for something you wanted? Whether it was an album or clothes, or maybe
a toy or something? It was always so rewarding once you finally got to have it.
It’s the exact same principle now, but on a different and grander scale. Things
that we want now are going to cost us a lot more money (e.g. school, car,
house) so it’s important to try and make realistic goals for when we will pay
these things off and reduce the amount of money we waste on interest charges.
Holding
myself accountable to you all has also been a tremendous success for me. If I
mess up, you guys know about it, and now I can look back on the past year and
know where I have been spending my money and when I spent it. Improving on my
communication with my friends and family has worked exponentially well because
they now understand the situation that I am in and understand when I say, I
can’t go out for dinner tonight, or I can only go to one concert this month
because I don’t have the cash to go out that often. It took a bit of training
for some of my friends, but once everyone realized how serious I was, it got
better and better, and even they got on track to being as nifty and thrifty as me.
You know,
you never going to be able to get aggressive on paying down debt until you are
able to acknowledge the things that you spend you money on and find ways to cut
back where it’s possible. My gym membership was one of the first things to get
kicked to the curb, and I began to start cooking more meals at home, and that
saved me a fortune. Can you believe I was spending about $2,000 a year just on
eating lunches? That seems like a bit much since that much money would pay for
about 20 weeks of meals now. I had to
cut out other toxins in my life also. Drinking was something I did excessively
almost every weekend, but now cut back and don’t go to bars near as much as I
did (which is great because I like house parties more). Now that I don’t use my
MasterCard and my debit card as much too, I am able to save all the money I
wasted on bank fees.
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| The Amazing Seane Corn |
Without a
doubt though, I have to say that volunteering my time at a yoga studio has been
a great way to keep me healthy and keep me from spending so much. I have been
really fortunate to find this opportunity and I really feel as though the
studio is karmic in the sense that I am getting everything that I put into in
back out in the form of less stress and more focus. This weekend I was
incredibly fortunate to participate in a workshop by the fabulous Seane Corn, a
renowned yoga instructor who gave an amazing detoxifying workshop. I was able
to physically and mentally drain my system and really get a clear focus for the
path ahead and it left me feeling incredibly humbled and appreciative that I
get to enjoy the luxury of living where I do and having what I have. I really
hope that one day I will be able to give back all that I have learned to others
in order for them to find ways out of the debt dungeon.
All this to
be said, my actions certainly were instrumental in getting my finances in
order, but there are other elements that I needed to make this function; first
of all, you need to be disciplined. My will power is tested around the clock
and I know better than anyone that we are creatures of habit. It is so easy to
get into the routine of buying a coffee on the way to work, or picking up a
lunch down at the food court, stopping by the mall once a week to buy something
that you want, but the reality is that those habits are what can get us into
situations like $40,000 of debt in the first place. The key was to identify the
things that were holding me down and make a conscious decision to change. It is
so easy for us to get into the habit of being miserable or lazy, but it takes a
realization that sometimes we need to light a fire under us and do something
about it. If you feel like you are stuck in a rut, ask yourself why you’re
putting yourself in that rut. All the information you need to succeed and get
onto your life path is available for the taking, you just have to want to go
and get it. But this isn’t always something that you can take on all by
yourself, which is why I strongly encourage people to talk about your change
with your friends and family and they will be there to support you along the
way. Sometimes your choices will actually end up influencing their decisions
and in the end, your relationships with these people can only get stronger.
Truly, I
can say that I see change in my relationships. I spend less time hiding behind
my stuff and I feel more like myself again, and I think that has been evident
to my friends. Money is still the centre of my life right now, but it is
positive now, because I know that I can tackle this challenge. I now have more
than 35% of my debt paid off, which means that I am ahead of the goal and there
is a very good chance I will have all my debt paid off in less than 3 years,
which feels so incredible. I can even say that now I have a savings account
with more than just a couple of bucks in it, so I can use that money to pay for
trips home, or help me out in times of need, like when my computer died during
the last time I wrote this entry!
Happy and
healthy, this year has been so good! Can you believe that through all of this I
have flown home three times and had a vacation in Las Vegas
Xoxo
John
