Hey. Let’s have a talk.
You know my friend Ernie? The self-employed musician? The dude can hustle. As I’ve grown closer and closer to the Halters, he’s started sharing his financial advice with me. And I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about how smart he is with money and how inspiring that is….
and I decided that I want to be debt free.
Ernie and I were texting the other day. And I told him how I used to think the whole point of getting money was to spend it, and now I see that the point of money is to utilize it. I had this moment where I was looking at a big dentist bill and I thought “I wish I made enough money to take care of this,” and I realized… I DO make enough money to take care of it, the problem is that my money is tied up or spent elsewhere. In my life money tends to be spent instead of utilized.
I’ve spent the past few months reading about debt repayment and passive income. and I’ve decided that I want to embark on the debt free journey and I want to drag all of you along with me. That means I’m going to have to be honest and accountable, right?
I am currently $23,983 in debt, divided 3 different ways:
$20,775 is my car.
$1,809 is my dental credit line.
$1,399 is my credit card.
One big debt and two smaller debts. I know that according to the whole Dave Ramsey thing, I should be paying off the credit card first (hi Travis!!) but the dental credit line has an interest rate of 20%! Yikes! I want to get rid of that ASAP because that is kiiillllliiiinnnnggggg me.
Each month, I’ll post an income report – what I made, where I spent it, and my finance goals for the next month. Since this is my first one, here are my very gracious May budget goals because you have to start somewhere.Â
May Goals
Debt Repayment:
Put $150 of my income towards my dental credit ($75/paycheck).
Budget Limits:
Spend no more than $20 at Target, with the exception of gifts.
Spend no more than $40 on birthday/graduation gifts.
Spend no more than $80 on coffee (summer = iced coffee = buying coffee.. shh)
Side hustle goals:
Try to make $40 on the side to put towards my dental credit.
Part of me is so sad it’s taken me so long to get serious about paying off debt and being wise with my money.. but at the same time, I’m just glad something finally clicked and I have people who are wise with their money to look to.
Are any of you on a debt repayment journey? How has it been going? Any tips/pointers/etc you want to pass on?
