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Part of how I got out of debt last time was to be frank with myself and others about my finances. For the first 10 years we were together, James and I had zero debt, and it took some pushing past shame to admit we'd accumulated $10K+ in consumer debt, but admitting it was the first step to eliminate it. This time, the debt is even higher (but it was important, she says with some shame, to fix our teeth and our car, and and and...) but it's not any different: the key to getting rid of it for me is facing it. Well, facing it and having a plan.

Facing it, having a plan, and an almost fanatical devotion to the Pope.

Another thing I have to face is that I can't afford to go part-time yet. Not until either James gets the job he applied for or I get more editing work. I'm a little sad about that, but it's okay -- I can do this for a year while we knock out debt, and then I can decide what to do after that happens. When we don't have debt, we have SO MUCH FREEDOM. I just need to keep that in mind.

In completely other news, I don't get a "Least Complicated" earworm often, in day-to-day life, but something about getting to the "Music" box on the DW posting page brings it to mind; it's my most frequent "Music" entry, and it seems to just be a conditioned response to seeing the input box. Weird.
serene: mailbox (Default)
After a couple years of austerity, we* got out of debt last year. Then we had thousands of dollars in dental bills, thousands of dollars in car repairs, and, I will confess, thousands of dollars in aid to students that I put on credit cards. So. Back to it, then.

As of yesterday, I had a balance of $21,348.62 on all cards (I'm not counting student loan debt). As of today, I've paid off 3.2% of that. With any luck (a.k.a. hard work and continued employment), along with the snowball effect of paying off higher-interest cards first, I'm hoping to make short work of this. I make ~$50K a year, so it won't be easy, but the sooner we get debt-free, the sooner I can quit my job and go back to editing full-time.

Onward.


*I say "we" advisedly; I make all the money, but James definitely participates in the cost-cutting work.

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serene

March 2022

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