Ya’ll I have not been doing so well with my debt repayment lately. With major things like car repairs, washing machine repairs, and doctor’s bills, it’s been a tough couple of months.
But after attending FinCon15, I was re-inspired to get back on track with paying off my debt.
Why? Because I am tired of my debt holding me back from things in life that I want to do. I know I’m not the only one who feels this way, but it’s time to change it. For real.
Here are 3 ways that debt is currently holding me back. I plan to milk them for all the motivation they can give me to get this debt paid off!
Travel
I’ve never really done much traveling. After hearing about lots of amazing places and trips from people I talked with at FinCon and in other IRL run-ins lately, I’m ready to travel.
I’ve got the travel bug and I don’t think it’s going away any time soon.
I’ve even thought about selling all my stuff, buying an RV, and traveling the continental U.S. (Kind of like Michelle is doing.)
That said, I’m not going to be doing any big travel, other than for work, until my credit cards and student loans are paid off.
Taking Time Off
Another thing that debt is holding me back from doing is taking more time off from work. Now that I’ve quit my full-time job to work from home on my business, I thought I’d have a lot more “free time”. But the reality is that I still work close to 50-60 hours/week.
My friends can’t believe it when I tell them I’m that busy and I think some of them think I’m making it up.
But I love what I do so I don’t mind working this much most of the time. It would be nice to take more time off to spend with family and friends though. I don’t take much time off because I want to earn as much money as possible to pay my bills and (hopefully) put extra toward debt.
Pursuing Other Interests
Not only do I not have time to pursue many interests other than those related to growing my business, I don’t have the funds to do it either. Pursuing a hobby takes time and money. Even with cheap hobbies, time is money, which means it’s costing me in some way to do them.
Money is something I don’t have a lot of and I probably won’t until I get my debts paid off.
I’m tired of debt holding me back from my friends and family, pursuing new and old, unfinished hobbies, and holding me back from traveling.
When I think about these things I’m missing out on, it helps renew my focus on getting out of debt, building my emergency fund, and living life to the fullest!
I still want to live life in the meantime, but I’m going to try to save money in every way I can. 😉
