Realize this is a Long Journey
This is a guest post from Steve at Money Infant, a site he created to share his story of debt repayment, lifestyle change and financial freedom. Why not stop by and say hello, he is very friendly and welcoming to new visitors!
Long journeys could lead to cool places...http://www.flickr.com/photos/styrheim/
If you have gotten yourself into large amounts of debt it can seem like there is no way out. Even after beginning the process of cutting your expenses and trying to increase you income progress is too slow. You are burning to get out of debt, but just can’t seem to make any headway. Does this sound familiar? Have you been in this place or are you there now?
My advice is for you to take a deep breath and have a logical look at your debt accumulation as well as your strategy for paying that debt off as quickly as possible. Notice that I said “quickly as possible”. I understand that we, more than any other generation, are apt to want things immediately. We are used to on demand TV programming, instant responses via chat, IM and SMS, quick service food, car washes and deliveries. Let’s face it, we don’t have the greatest attention span, nor is patience one of our strong suits.
Debt Denial
If you stop for a second and look at the origin of you debt you will find that it didn’t happen overnight. Just like gaining weight, it is a slow, inexorable and mostly unnoticed problem. It creeps up on you until you finally say, “Holy crap how did I get $20k in debt/add 20 pounds! Where did that come from”? We unconsciously avoid acceptance of the progress of our debt until it becomes so large that it can no longer be ignored. For some this comes at $10k and for others it might not come until $100k. Some can even rationalize it away for some time as they continue to add more debt.
“Oh, I’ll be getting a big bonus this year and will pay it off then. My stocks are doing so well I’ll soon have plenty of money. I get a huge raise every year and can keep up with the payments to service my debt”.
Does any of that sound familiar to you?
Debt Acceptance
Eventually you come to realize that this isn’t the way to live. Maybe you’ve been shuffling money around, opening additional lines of credit and borrowing to pay the minimum payments on your already huge debt burden. The day comes when you realize you have to do something different and you somehow make yourself spend less and start paying down that mountain of debt. But it is just…so…frustratingly…slow.
You have to realize that paying off your debt is going to be a long journey, just as losing weight is often a long journey. You didn’t amass all that debt in 6 months so why would you expect to pay it off in 6 months? The road into debt is a long and winding one and while the road back out may be more straight and narrow, it is made longer by the interest that keeps piling up and pushing you back 2 steps for every 3 that you take forward. Understand that this is a long journey, but one that is necessary and more importantly one that does have an end. The end might not currently be in sight, but it is there as proven by the many others who were once in your place and have come back from debtville on the long path of repayments.
Rest Stops on the Road Out of Debt
Because this is a long road you have to get yourself into the proper mindset and provide rest stops to regroup. In the beginning it can be helpful to make these more frequent to help you gain stamina. Focus on getting just from point A (your current debt) to point B (the first debt to pay off). Don’t frustrate your efforts and make them seem harder by focusing on Point Z (debt free) just yet. And make point B as close as possible. Start with your lowest balance debt. When you pay it off you will get a boost and a feeling of “Yes, I can do this.” As you move forward each debt will become easier as your cash flow becomes more positive. Each trip from point to point will become faster and you will find that you don’t need the constant positive reinforcement because you’ve come to realize that even though you are on a long road, it is one that has an end.
Debt repayment sucks and it isn’t a fun road to travel. It is a necessary road though if you want to have the peace of mind that comes from being debt free and back in control of your own finances. What might you do if you didn’t have to worry about those debts? You will open a whole world of opportunities when you aren’t stuck in a rut of debt repayments and interest payments. So take a moment to remind yourself that the road doesn’t last forever, there is an end (even if it isn’t currently in sight) and that this is a long journey, but also one that will make you stronger, smarter about your money and in the end give you more freedom to make your own choices.
Let us know what your journey has been like and just how long it’s been. For me personally, I’ve been serious about repayment for 9 months and I’ve had a few setbacks (mostly last summer), but I’m still on track. I promise the February debt update is coming soon!
Steve, you’ve been one busy dude. Everywhere I look there is a guest post from you! lol.
My get out of debt journey has taken forever, but that’s only because we started with a mountain of it.
I’ve been diligently working on getting out of debt for the past 5 years. Over that time we’ve paid off $60,000 worth of debt and have another $50,000 to go (maybe $40k if my in-laws won’t accept money that we believe we owe them).
Our income has gone from $30k to $120k back down to $70k over that period of time. My hope is that my income will go up substantially this year and my dream is to have all of my debt finished by the end of 2012 (and at worst by the end of 2013).
We certainly reward ourselves for the hard work every once in awhile. It’s impossible to only focus on debt for years on end. Over the past 5 years we’ve paid cash for 3 vacations (honeymoon included), our wedding, 2 cars, and a few other things along the way.
If you’ve paid off $60k in 5 years then you are a debt slaying beast! Sounds like you have a very balanced outlook to spending and saving, which I think is very good for the long run. Good luck finishing the debt off this year!
Steve, Everytime I read one of your posts it is like you are writing about my life, both financially and weight wise.
Last year I finally sorted out my life long weight issue. It took 7 months.
This year we began addressing our debt issues. It may take 7 years, but at least we aren’t ignoring it any longer. Your advice is extremely helpful! Thanks!
Steve, are you stalking me? I go to any site and there you are. Just kidding.
Slightly over two years ago I was told (yep, I didn’t even know how much I earn at the time) that we have about a ton of debt (I prefer to refer to it as ‘negative wealth’) – so I know where you are coming from existentially. I remember that the stages of acceptance of debt were very similar to the stages of acceptance of debt: denial, anger, bargaining, depression and, finally, acceptance. After acceptance comes ACTION.
We have already paid over 60% of a rather large amount. It is going down and going down fast. Once it is gone we’ll continue building our wealth.
I do agree that in order to pay down debt or stop debt from increasing, you have to recognize it first. I been watching the tv show “Til Debt Do Us Apart” and the common theme of all the episodes is that the victim really doesn’t recognize that they have a spending problem. Once they recognize it, they get on their way to making changes to reduce debt.
I went through denial, then acceptance as well. I got serious about paying off debt and occasionally ended up falling off the plan. But I always new I needed to get out of debt and kept focusing on how great it would feel to not have to make another credit card payment and to not have the bills come in the mail any longer.
It is a long, hard journey. You just have to remember you didn’t get into credit card debt overnight and you aren’t going to get out of credit card debt overnight.
@Tackling Our Debt – That’s great to hear you sorted out your weight issue AND are now on the road to be debt free. Both are difficult journeys and you should be heartily congratulated for embarking on them. I hope you tell yourself that every day!
@Maria – I don’t like to call it stalking, that’s such an ugly word. I like to think of it as looking after my readers
So many go through life not knowing. Not just about their money, but in regards to relationships, health and other things as well. I’m glad you have opened your eyes and are living a life that is more examined. And I’m sure if you are over half way through the debt it is decreasing at a heady pace now.
@Charles – Debt is almost like an addiction in that respect. There is definitely a denial going on for most people and until they break through that their debt just continues to get worse.
Haha! Yep, I think Steve is officially the king of the internet… Love the debt destruction story, too. Good to see you’re on track even with a few setbacks.
You know it was meant as a joke, right? In retrospect, probably not a very good one.
Knowing, is an interesting thing but what I find interesting is not the fact that people ‘don’t know’. Most of them do most of the time; their knowledge, however, is very slective and their ability for self-delusion almost unlimited.
@Maria – I know it was a joke, so was my response, hence the
Very good point about self-delusion. We as a race do seem to have an unlimited capacity for hiding the truth from ourselves.
My wife and I are 32 months into a 5 year journey (via a Debt Management Plan) to eliminate our credit card debt. It hasn’t been easy by any stretch of the imagination, but we know it’s something we have to do. We lived *way* beyond our means for the first 13 years of our marriage, and it took being at the edge of a total financial crisis to force us to do something about it. We’ve learned so much about what is really important to us, and what really makes us happy over the last 32 months. We may be making a huge payment towards our debt every month (in turn making our budget pretty tight), but we’re happier than ever traveling this road together.
I love these comments. I know I certainly took comfort in “not knowing” or keeping myself in the dark. How quickly $10K in debt will grow to $20K when you continue in that pattern!
@Travis: You guys keep me motivated. 5 years is incredibly long, you are the marathon runners of debt repayment. If I stay focused I KNOW I can be debt free by 2013. And the fact that your relationship is stronger because you are doing it together, well, that just makes it even better!
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I have seen many people who have accumulated debt up to 100k often are quick to file bankruptcy… do you think bankruptcy is an option at any point? Or should we still strive to pay back our debt?
@love2keeponTask: I’m still striving to pay it back even though I would have liked to have seen more than $6K paid off in the last nine months. $100K is a lot but it depends on the situation, if you look at Travis in the comments above (DebtChronicles), I believe he was $110K in debt at the start and they have paid off just about half of that. Now obviously if they were unemployed or making $10/hour, that might not have been possible. And it’s still tough!! So I know if your debt exceeds your monthly income and you have no hope of increasing your income, bankruptcy might be an option.
What do you think Steve?