My Addiction Wrecked Me Financially

I am absolutely broke. I don’t mind admitting it. There’s no shame in it, life is tough and we’re all struggling.

It’s not very uncommon for an alcoholic to be broke, I mean I had a hundred-dollar-a-day habit, what would you expect?

I even sold my car and spent every dollar on alcohol just to survive long enough to get into rehab.

That’s the insanity of addiction.

It was better than drinking and driving it I guess. That was why I sold it because I had no control over myself and didn’t know what I’d do.

Luckily, I never drank and drove because I never left my house when I was using.

Anyways…

Though I may be broke, I’m not poor.

What I mean by that is I have food, shelter, and family, and I’ll be able to pay my bills.

I’m grateful for this, it makes it a lot easier to start over.

So here I am, with seventy dollars in my bank account, no savings, and twenty thousand dollars in debt.

It is what it is and I’m working on it.

I don’t know why, but I can joke about it, I just don’t care, it’s all out of my hands now.

All I can do is focus on paying it off.

I got my debt consolidated into a loan with automatic bi-weekly payments so I have to pay on it no matter what.

Loans are better than revolving credit for people like me.

A loan is like a one-time payment that you receive, and you pay some sort of regular payment on it until it’s paid off.

Revolving credit is like credit cards or a line of credit where you can make payments and still use the credit.

If you are overwhelmed with revolving credit debt, try to get it consolidated into a loan.

Talk to someone at the bank, they don’t judge, they’ll set you up with the right loan.

It’s the only way I make any progress on my debt. I’ve paid down ten thousand dollars on my twenty thousand dollar loan while my credit cards are still maxed, so you decide what worked better.

But now I’m almost thirty-four, it’s time to get my finances under control and take the steps to slowly get myself into better financial shape.

The first thing I’m doing is putting all spending on this prepaid credit card I have. It’s a phone app called Shakepay, and for every purchase, it rounds up the next dollar buys bitcoin, and puts it in a savings account.

I also get one percent of purchases back as bitcoin in that same account. You can also have a “Shakesquad” so when we all use our cards we get a few cents back for each other. My “Shakesquad” consists of my three childhood best friends.

Plus I get to say “Shakesquad!”

Secondly, I’m saving up an emergency fund and paying the minimum on my credit cards. I’ll continue this until I have a thousand dollars available for emergencies.

I also set up a TFSA. I don’t have a job yet, I’m an unemployed stay-at-home son.

However, every cent I make from writing goes into that TFSA, it’ll grow over time.

FYI I am not just a stay-at-home son, although I don’t judge, I was laid off from my job as an accountant for depression so I have a few interviews lined up. Boy would that solve a lot of problems.

Writing doesn’t pay the bills yet, but it helps, I can afford Netflix with ads.

When I’m working, all the money goes to debt until I’m free. That’s priority number one. There’s no point saving when you have debt, you’re just giving away money.

As long as I have that thousand for emergencies every extra cent goes to debt.

I have an investment plan for when I’m ready. It’s just going to be pretty standard. A set amount will go into a TFSA, an RRSP, and small investments that will grow over time.

Even though I am broke I was once upon a time good at making money and I have a lot of knowledge and experience from huge wins to huge failures.

I was also a degenerate gambler.

I once sold a free NFT for two thousand dollars during the crypto casino era, but that was just gambling.

I also took out a line of credit and leverage-traded crypto, so I’m also an idiot, but a smart one.

All my failures taught me so much. It’s all about living below your means and growing your money slowly.

Don’t go for Hail Mary touchdown passes like me, it will rarely work and if it does you’ll blow it anyway.

It turned out the tortoise always does beat the hare.

I’m the hare :(

I’m also going to write about my financial journey.

Writing is healing me in so many ways and making me a better person, it’s like what I was missing my entire life.

It helps me think better and understand why I am the way I am, so I can make positive changes.

So here’s to high-interest credit cards, payday loans, and overdraft fees!

Just kidding, I hate them with a passion.

I think the most important thing about all of this is mindset. I’m not sa about all the money I wasted, I don’t care. I didn’t know better, I was young and dumb. I forgive myself.

So now it’s time to get learning and saving.

Thanks for reading,

Patrick

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