In 2019, I was making above the median wage but I was living beyond my means and struggling to pay the bills. I had almost $100,000 debt, while on a single income for a family of three plus animals with no financial savings or means to fall back on. With a lack of good financial habits (hello, poverty mindset and parental guilt), my financial life became really scary and stressful. I actually had been “trying” to get out of debt for years before, but I had a very bad habit of repeatedly taking out a personal loan to consolidate debt; thinking I was going to make it right this time and pay it off now that the consolidated payment fit my budget. Yet again, I would accrue debt and the process would start over.

Thankfully, I learned about FIRE (Financial Independence Retire Later) and that knowledge saved me. I laid out the figures and truth about my finances, asked for help from the FIRE community about the best first steps and then put that info into action that started with a budget. The foundation is easy to understand, but putting the steps into place was tough for me! Because living within my means was no easy feat! I put a lot of heart and soul into the journey and really trust that these good habits were going to work out.

Fortunately, my financial life has really improved because of it.

Well we know what happened next in the world, the pandemic. I am very humbled that I was able to keep my job and learned how to work remotely. My new hobbies became DIY home projects and paying off my debt. Three years later, I paid 2/3rds of my debt and the rest of my Student Loan debt was canceled. (Check out my Debt Free Journey).

I am in no means perfect on my journey (hello, wonky executive function issues), but I am a lot farther than I could have imagined. Now if we could have a bull market so I can hit CoastFI and stop working so much, please.