My Financial Journey

I left college with about $18,000 in debt and that’s nothing when compared to the average American student loan debt. Even with the little student student loan debt that I have, I was drowning in credit card debt. I was over $20k in credit card debt because I had no support from my parents and I lacked financial education.

Despite my college education, I accumulated credit card debt throughout my college years and continue to do so almost a year after graduating at the time. Summer 2017 after graduating from college my spending soared to new heights. I was partying every weekend and going out to dinners an other entertainment activities with friends. I even occasionally during the week spend late nights at bars with friends.

This summer, I also considered that life was good because I had my first job after college and used that as a excuse to just keep piling on the spending habits. I definitely consider myself as stupid and a failure when I looked back at the spending decisions that I made during and after college. However, I think I am hard on myself for saying and thinking like that. Despite what happened during those years I have learned from it and have better decisions when it comes to spending especially with credit cards.

My debt free journey before the end of this summer, 2017. I wanted to rent an apartment and I couldn’t afford it because of my nasty spending habits. As a result, I started to listen to several podcasts as well as started to read personal finance books. Think and Grow rich by Napoleon Hill as well as Rich Dad Poor Dad by Robert Kiyosaki & Sharon Lechter are just the names of few books that have helped me and put me on a path to better money habits. To this day I refer to these books to keep me on track as I try to achieve my financial goals.

In the beginning, it was very difficult to stick with the saving habits such as cutting back on buying lunch. I have had weeks where I relapse and it did felt like I was an addict. Despite these sets backs, I didn’t give up. One thing that really changed and helped me to pay off my debt quicker was by leaving my credit cards at home and take lunch to the office. It was a bold move and at first it felt weird or very poor because all of a sudden I turned down having lunch with my co workers as well as not even hanging out after work for happy hour. It was a risk that don’t regret taking because I don’t think I would have paid off my credit within a year and a half.

Besides leaving my credit card at home, I started a side hustle with Amazon Mturk and sold unwanted items on both eBay and on Amazon. These things helped me to successfully snow ball the debts. As I was successfully able to get out my debt the journey was difficult and I am happy that I was able develop and stick to good habits that helped. For example, when I have the urge to used my used my credit card I would instead read a book or listen to music.

My methods of getting out of credit card debts are unconventional methods to most people and might not work for everyone but I do think that if you want to get out of credit debt, changing your habits or finding a good substitute will help you on your financial journey. Lastly, the mistakes that I have made in the past have shaped me into a better person.