I was at work a couple weeks ago when I pulled up the Mint app on my iPhone and saw that, according to Mint, I was no longer in debt, but actually had a net worth of $54. Considering my net worth usually has a negative sign in front of it and also lights up in the color red, this was pretty exciting to me.
But, unless I fell asleep the night before and woke up in January, I knew it wasn’t right. I saw the problem right away; it was reporting my Capital One Visa with a $0 balance when it should have shown something around $9,000. Normally when Mint is having trouble accessing the right information in an account, it will tell you, but this time it looked quite certain that there was no balance on the card.
In the time it took me to pull up my account on the Capital One website and see that my debt was exactly where I thought it was, my mind cycled through some fantasy scenarios. They were all ridiculous and they all went along the lines of, what if somehow my debt was wiped clean whether by a fairy, my Dad, or Capital One? What if today, I was out of debt?
Now, I’m sure I could get used to the idea, but my first reaction was, No. It’s just that this has been such an important experience for me and I want to see it to the end. I want to earn it. If someone were to rescue me now, it would take away from that. This fight is mine and I’m winning it.
I advocate getting out of debt the hard way, not only because I think it’s the kind of experience that can change your life, but because it’s also the most effective way. I’ve read a lot of stories about people borrowing money, transferring balances in circles, and looking for an easy way out (like I did for years). Sometimes they make progress, but usually they just push their debt around. Some actually get out of debt, but then go straight back into it, because they haven’t learned anything. Do the smart thing, by all means, but remember that the smart thing is the one that keeps you out of debt for life.
I’ve said before that my life was changed the minute I decided to get out of debt, and it’s true that my thinking about money was instantly transformed, but I’m still learning something through all of these months of hard work, and I’m not done yet.
{ 5 comments }
I know exactly what you mean. It’s such a good feeling to accomplish something on your own .
Even though I have never really been in debt (luckily, we don’t have to take out student loans in Germany, where I got most of my education), I know what it feels like to “pay something off”, and at the end, when you hand over the last pennies, it’s a damn good feeling.
My parents have been kind enough to loan me money over the course of my college career, to pay for everything from car repairs to a new computer (when my old one died). I still owe them, but (woohoo!) at 0% interest.
As of next Friday, barring any major setbacks, I’m going to be out of debt with them.
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I’ll still have student loans when I graduate, but still… the prospect of this happening is amazing to me.
I love the idea of treating your debt almost like it’s a symptom of something, and paying off the debt is the process of not just reducing it, but also working through dealing with what got you into debt in the first place.
Also, I can’t wait to see the party that the internet will throw for you when the debt is gone, it’s going to be wild
You are sooo close! By the way, I’m about half-way through your novel. I’m really angry with the main character (in the concerned teacher way) but I’m definitely intrigued and curious as to what will happen. Your novel would work so well for the YA crowd. It’s really well-done Ashley!
This is exactly the question I was wondering about and it’s funny to see that you feel the same way about it I do. My sister told me recently to tell her if I needed a hand and she’d see what she could do (most people I know do know I’m in debt but not how much). I was trying to explain to her that that would just make it feel like I hadn’t managed to get out of debt by myself and would take away from the whole thing. Of course, then she changed tack to saying that she only meant if I needed help paying for a flight to go and see her (she lives in NZ). Flights to the other side of the world are expensive though and it would be like giving up on being able to afford my own life.
Of course, in my bizarre and not terribly sensible head, winning the lotto would be okay and would not in any way take away from me if I was able to clear my debt that way. On the other hand, I rarely have the money to play lotto anymore so it could be I’m okay with the idea because I know it’s never going to happen!
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