I've had times in my life that I lived paycheck to paycheck. However...
I've never missed a payment.
I always took pride in making my payments. Over the years, I've had a few friends that would receive phone calls from collection agencies during the few hours that we were spending time together. Sometimes multiple calls. I remember thinking how fortunate I was to never have been in that position. That stress and feeling of disappointment would be hard to deal with.
However, I've made a lot of minimum payments on my debt accounts over the years.
One dominating thought I have heading in to this debt repayment journey is the overwhelming amount of time the process will take. Right now, I have a three phase plan that I'll outline in future posts. I estimate that the first two phases, at best, will take two years. If life happens (if??), it could bleed into that third year. The third phase, paying off the mortgage, is a goal I'll keep on the back burner for now. I estimate that will take an additional 3-6 years.
In contrast, when I consider the amount of time I've carried my debt, it seems like it's flown by. When I look at my budget spreadsheet, I have that common thought of, "How did I let it get to this point?".
The truth is, living a lifestyle of making minimum payments most of the time (and NOT CONTROLLING SPENDING) comes with an extreme cost. I may not have been getting collections calls, but I was severely hurting myself financially.
And here is where I give a glimpse towards how much work I have to do, and will explain the title of thisblog journal.
In 2017 I paid $6,262 in interest on my non-mortgage debt.
It wasn't until I totaled this that I recognized the negative effect of my debt as a whole. It's not that I didn't know I was paying interest on these accounts. It's not that I didn't know that making minimum payments was exactly what credit card companies wanted me doing (while continuing to use credit from time to time). I didn't realize, as part of ignoring this problem as a whole, was the absolute total I spent on interest on a yearly basis.
To again tease a subject of future posts, I've become a minimalist in my older age. Since this transition, when I consider what I now spend my money on, I often think of those dollars spent as how much of my time I'm "mortgaging" at work to earn that amount. How many hours did I spend at work to pay these various banks that amount of interest? This thought experiment makes me sick, and provides the most motivation to tackle debt aggressively as I move forward.
Sixty-Two Sixty-Two.
I've never missed a payment.
I always took pride in making my payments. Over the years, I've had a few friends that would receive phone calls from collection agencies during the few hours that we were spending time together. Sometimes multiple calls. I remember thinking how fortunate I was to never have been in that position. That stress and feeling of disappointment would be hard to deal with.
However, I've made a lot of minimum payments on my debt accounts over the years.
One dominating thought I have heading in to this debt repayment journey is the overwhelming amount of time the process will take. Right now, I have a three phase plan that I'll outline in future posts. I estimate that the first two phases, at best, will take two years. If life happens (if??), it could bleed into that third year. The third phase, paying off the mortgage, is a goal I'll keep on the back burner for now. I estimate that will take an additional 3-6 years.
In contrast, when I consider the amount of time I've carried my debt, it seems like it's flown by. When I look at my budget spreadsheet, I have that common thought of, "How did I let it get to this point?".
The truth is, living a lifestyle of making minimum payments most of the time (and NOT CONTROLLING SPENDING) comes with an extreme cost. I may not have been getting collections calls, but I was severely hurting myself financially.
And here is where I give a glimpse towards how much work I have to do, and will explain the title of this
In 2017 I paid $6,262 in interest on my non-mortgage debt.
It wasn't until I totaled this that I recognized the negative effect of my debt as a whole. It's not that I didn't know I was paying interest on these accounts. It's not that I didn't know that making minimum payments was exactly what credit card companies wanted me doing (while continuing to use credit from time to time). I didn't realize, as part of ignoring this problem as a whole, was the absolute total I spent on interest on a yearly basis.
To again tease a subject of future posts, I've become a minimalist in my older age. Since this transition, when I consider what I now spend my money on, I often think of those dollars spent as how much of my time I'm "mortgaging" at work to earn that amount. How many hours did I spend at work to pay these various banks that amount of interest? This thought experiment makes me sick, and provides the most motivation to tackle debt aggressively as I move forward.
Sixty-Two Sixty-Two.
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