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| How I Went From $30,000 In Debt, To Debt-Free In 36 Months (Part 2) |
When I realized this important truth, I totally changed how I looked at life. If I am tough on myself today, I know that my future self will have a peaceful, more prosperous life filled with exciting choices.
With that truth firmly in mind, I started making the more challenging choices. The delayed gratification choices. The get of debt-slavery options. I started walking the more difficult path towards getting out of debt.
How I freed myself from debt-slavery:
Easy Choice #1: I stopped creating more debt. Period.
Hard choice #1: I sold my home and bought a tiny condominium. I lived alone and didn't need a big house, and I didn't require that big mortgage payment. I moved from my 1400 sq. ft. home into a 420 sq. ft. condo. My mortgage payments were cut in half, and the money I freed up was used to pay off debt.
Hard choice #2: I got a second job. In my case, I created a window cleaning business. Window cleaning is inexpensive to start and relatively lucrative averaged about $24/hour washing windows. I could set my own hours to fit my real estate business. I still do this business on a part-time basis. This extra income went to paying down my debt, and now that I am out of debt, it is now being saved to buy a newer car with cash. By the way, I will be paying money for that car.
Hard choice #3: While working on paying off my debt, the real estate market went crazy. Real Estate agents, including me, were making two or three times their regular incomes. In our area, this boom went on for about 24 months. Most agents were buying themselves new, larger homes and beautiful, new luxury cars. Not me. I was busy paying off my debt. I admit that I would look longingly at the latest cars in our office parking lot, but I knew that the good times would in due course end, and those easy payments would start getting hard to make.
Easy choice #2: Towards the end of the hot real estate market, I had about $30,000 in equity in my little condo. I sold it and moved into a condo that was a little larger (800 sq. ft. vs. 420 sq. ft.) My mortgage payments were more prominent, but I used part of the profit to pay off my Mom, and the rest was used to buy my new condo. Now my debt was down to about $9,000.
The good, the bad, and the end of my debt:
I received an inheritance this year, which I used to pay off the rest of my debt. This inheritance was given to me by Betty, a woman I was dating. My sweetheart, Betty, died of cancer in December of 2005 and left me some money from her estate. Even though she wanted me to have the money, I would gladly have given it all back and everything I owned to have her back. The ability to pay off my debt using this money was genuinely bitter-sweet. While she was alive, Betty enjoyed debt-free prosperity, and she knew how important it was to me to be debt-free too. She left me one last blessing, freedom.
In the end, I received an unexpected blessing that helped me get out of debt faster. I feel strongly that had I not been willing to do whatever it took to get out of debt, I may have never received that final blessing. I think life provides us with what we want if we are willing to pay the price. You may not have to pay the total cost to become debt-free, but you must prove you are ready to pay the full fee before the universe helps you out.
It's up to you. You can become free of your debt by being tough on yourself. Make the more challenging choices. Take the more difficult path. Don't sell yourself into debt slavery. If you do these things, your financial life will become gentler and more manageable as time passes. This concept works. Try it, I dare you. Then let me know about your success!
With that truth firmly in mind, I started making the more challenging choices. The delayed gratification choices. The get of debt-slavery options. I started walking the more difficult path towards getting out of debt.
How I freed myself from debt-slavery:
Easy Choice #1: I stopped creating more debt. Period.
Hard choice #1: I sold my home and bought a tiny condominium. I lived alone and didn't need a big house, and I didn't require that big mortgage payment. I moved from my 1400 sq. ft. home into a 420 sq. ft. condo. My mortgage payments were cut in half, and the money I freed up was used to pay off debt.
Hard choice #2: I got a second job. In my case, I created a window cleaning business. Window cleaning is inexpensive to start and relatively lucrative averaged about $24/hour washing windows. I could set my own hours to fit my real estate business. I still do this business on a part-time basis. This extra income went to paying down my debt, and now that I am out of debt, it is now being saved to buy a newer car with cash. By the way, I will be paying money for that car.
Hard choice #3: While working on paying off my debt, the real estate market went crazy. Real Estate agents, including me, were making two or three times their regular incomes. In our area, this boom went on for about 24 months. Most agents were buying themselves new, larger homes and beautiful, new luxury cars. Not me. I was busy paying off my debt. I admit that I would look longingly at the latest cars in our office parking lot, but I knew that the good times would in due course end, and those easy payments would start getting hard to make.
Easy choice #2: Towards the end of the hot real estate market, I had about $30,000 in equity in my little condo. I sold it and moved into a condo that was a little larger (800 sq. ft. vs. 420 sq. ft.) My mortgage payments were more prominent, but I used part of the profit to pay off my Mom, and the rest was used to buy my new condo. Now my debt was down to about $9,000.
The good, the bad, and the end of my debt:
I received an inheritance this year, which I used to pay off the rest of my debt. This inheritance was given to me by Betty, a woman I was dating. My sweetheart, Betty, died of cancer in December of 2005 and left me some money from her estate. Even though she wanted me to have the money, I would gladly have given it all back and everything I owned to have her back. The ability to pay off my debt using this money was genuinely bitter-sweet. While she was alive, Betty enjoyed debt-free prosperity, and she knew how important it was to me to be debt-free too. She left me one last blessing, freedom.
In the end, I received an unexpected blessing that helped me get out of debt faster. I feel strongly that had I not been willing to do whatever it took to get out of debt, I may have never received that final blessing. I think life provides us with what we want if we are willing to pay the price. You may not have to pay the total cost to become debt-free, but you must prove you are ready to pay the full fee before the universe helps you out.
It's up to you. You can become free of your debt by being tough on yourself. Make the more challenging choices. Take the more difficult path. Don't sell yourself into debt slavery. If you do these things, your financial life will become gentler and more manageable as time passes. This concept works. Try it, I dare you. Then let me know about your success!
Photo: https://pixabay.com
