How I went from $30,000 in debt to debt free in 36 months

Three years ago he was $30,000 in debt.

I had $15,000 in consumer debt (credit cards and a car loan) and owed my mom $15,000. I felt like she was swimming in an ocean of debt with no sign of shore.

My income as a real estate agent was around $35,000 a year. Scary, huh?

I got into this problem the same way most people get into financial trouble…bad decisions based on taking the path of easy, instant gratification.

Today, I am debt free except for my mortgage, which I consider to be “good” debt.

I’ll tell you how I got out of debt. These ideas are a bit difficult to put into writing, but if you read this article carefully, my experiences and suggestions can help you achieve the debt-free life you dream of.

What has worked for me can work for you if you are willing to follow a more difficult life path than the one you are on right now. The decisions I made, in order to get out of debt, only worked for me because I was willing to do “whatever it took” to get out of debt. This “whatever it takes” philosophy was very important to my success and will be very important to your success as well.

Sell ​​your “future self” as a slave:

Most people, including me, prefer to take the easy way out in life; “Buy now, pay later.” We do this, not realizing that we are putting our “future selves” into bondage for the debt we create today. Whatever you buy on credit today, your “future self” will have to try to pay back when your future self (you) receives your credit card statements.

When you think about it, why would you do that to yourself? You wouldn’t do that to a friend. You wouldn’t do that to your grandmother. Why do it yourself? You have to learn to love yourself enough not to create this future bondage. You have a choice. You can look forward to a future full of freedom and prosperity, or a future of bondage to your debt.

Do not intentionally give up your freedom. Your choices can create a future heaven or a future hell for you.

When I realized this important truth, I completely changed my way of looking at life. I realized that, “If I am tough on myself today, my future self will have a kinder, more prosperous life full of exciting choices.”

With that truth firmly in mind, I began to make the most difficult decisions. Delayed gratification options. Options to get out of “debt slavery”. I started down the most challenging path out of debt.

How I broke free from debt bondage:

Easy Choice #1: I stopped creating more debt. Period.

Tough Choice #1: I sold my house and bought a small condo. He lived alone and he didn’t need such a big house, and he didn’t need that big mortgage payment. I moved out of my 1400 sf. foot home on a 420 sq. foot Department. My mortgage payments were cut in half. The money I freed up by moving houses was used to help pay off debt.

Hard Choice #2: I got a second job. In my case I created a window cleaning business. Window cleaning is cheap to start with and quite lucrative… I made an average of $24/hour washing windows. I could set my own hours to fit my real estate business. I still do this business part time. This extra income was used to pay off my debt, and now that I’m debt free, it’s now being saved so I can buy a new car with cash.

Hard Option #3: While I was working to pay off my debt, the real estate market went haywire. Real estate agents, including me, made two or three times their regular income. In our area this boom lasted for about 24 months. Most of the agents were buying bigger and newer houses and nice new luxury cars. I do not. I was busy paying off my debt. I admitted that I would look longingly at the new cars in our office parking lot, but I knew that the good times would, in due course, end and those easy payments would start to get hard to make.

Easy Option #2: By the end of the “hot” real estate market I had about $30,000 of equity in my small condo. I sold it and moved into a slightly larger condo (800 sf vs. 420 sf). My mortgage payments were higher, but I used some of the proceeds to pay my mom. The rest was used to buy my new condo. At that point, my debt was down to about $9,000.

The good, the bad and the end of my debt:

I received an inheritance this year, part of which I used to pay off the rest of my debt. This inheritance was given to me by Betty, a woman I was dating. My girlfriend, Betty, died of cancer in December 2005 and left me some money from her estate. Even though she wanted me to have the money, she would gladly have given her back everything and everything she owned just to get her back. The ability to pay off my debt with this money was truly bittersweet. As long as she was alive, Betty enjoyed debt-free prosperity and she knew how important it was for me to be debt-free as well. She left me one last blessing: freedom.

In the end I received an unexpected blessing that helped me get out of debt faster. I feel strongly that if I had not been willing to do “whatever it takes” to get out of debt, I may never have received that final blessing. I believe that life gives us what we want, if we are willing to pay the price. We may not have to pay the full price to be debt free, but we do have to prove that we are willing to pay the full price, before the universe helps us.

Up to you. You may get rid of your debts by being hard on yourself. Make the toughest decisions. Take the hard way. Don’t sell yourself into debt slavery. If you do these things, your financial life will become smoother and easier as time goes by. This concept works. Try it, I dare you. So tell me about your success!