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The Report from the Three-Year Mark: Joan’s Mid-April Financial Update
Note: This is a post from Joan Otto, Man Vs. Debt community manager. Read more about Joan.
It’s official: I’ve been tracking my debt for exactly three years.
While I didn’t post my first financial update on Man Vs. Debt until a year later, I first sat down and wrote my detailed list of debts – the one you see listed on my Joan’s Finances page – on April 14, 2011.
Taking inventory and facing what I owed was one of the hardest things I’ve ever done, but the effect it’s had since then has been nothing short of amazing.
In exactly three years, we’ve paid off $33,422.83 in debt.
And since I’d figured out our worst-ever total debt (as of January 2011, a few months before I did the detailed debt-by-debt breakdown), we’ve paid off $37,504.24, or 41.82% of our total debt.
Looking back at $33,422.83
On one hand, that’s pretty amazing news. 41% debt-free? That’s a serious number!
On the other hand, this month is hard for me. It’s exactly three years since I started my hardcore debt-repayment plan, true. It also marks the point at which we originally expected to be debt-free. Thanks to setbacks of numerous kinds, many of which I’ve been chronicling here in the interim and some I haven’t been able to share, we’re not even halfway there yet.
That hurts to write.
This journey is hard – much harder than I realized it would be three years ago.
I truly thought that once I started doing the “right” things, the debt would just keep going down, month after month, and … BOOM. Three years later, it’d be gone.
Instead, three years later, I’m looking at three more years – if not longer.
That feels so awful that I’ve been toying with the idea of not writing this post. I’ve done everything I can to stall, to stare off into space, to come up with “important” things I could write about instead, or at least to come up with ways to gloss over the bad parts and then quickly turn the story to the better ones.
I want to do what I’d encourage any Man Vs. Debt reader to do. I want to celebrate the progress I’ve made – and to be clear, there’s much I’m happy about.
But tonight, when I sat here thinking about why I originally started sharing my story, I realized I have to be honest about the rough parts.
Because I don’t write to make myself feel better – well, not really.
When I’m doing what I really am meant to do, I write to connect people. My biggest goal here at Man Vs. Debt is that everything I write makes at least one person think, “Wait, really? I’m not the only one?”
And that means I have to be honest, because I want it to be OK for all of us to feel this way: I’m ANGRY.
I’m angry at a lot of situations in my life that, while outside my control in some ways, have made this journey longer and harder.
I’m angry at myself for not being debt-free by now as planned, obstacles or not.
I’m angry at myself for not being happier about the progress that I have made.
I’m angry at myself for being angry about all of these things, because they’re kinda … dumb.
But you know what else?
I’m not going to quit.
Looking ahead from $33,422.83
We have paid off an average of more than $10,000 a year for three years straight.
We’ve taken our awfulest credit card ever down from more than $36,000 to just over $14,500 – knocking it more than in half.
And while we have $52,181.99 to go – not that I’m counting or anything! – I also have a plan.
I firmly believe that if I could pay off just under half the debt, I have all the tools I need to make it the rest of the way.
It might not be fast, and that might make me angrier than I can say.
But I’m going to make that anger work for me.
That’s the coolest part about tackling things the Man Vs. Debt way – emotional impact matters. That’s our debt tsunami philosophy: Figure out what makes you angry, or sad, or otherwise SUPER emotional. And then use that to stay motivated.
Even when three years doesn’t seem to make a dent. Stay motivated.
Even when crap happens. Stay motivated.
Even when you want nothing more in the world than to give it all up. STAY MOTIVATED.
I might not be thrilled – but I’m ready for what’s next.
Are you in with me – for three more years or more?
And what are you doing to keep yourself motivated for the long haul, even when it’s awful?
I want to hear your stories in the comments.
We’re in this together.
Source: http://manvsdebt.com/joan-finances-april-2014/
i’m glad you wrote about it. what you did is very difficult, but you’ll be glad you did it. from experience you will look at the world differently because you can afford to. others who aren’t where you are won’t really understand. hang in there! in the end it’s not about the money, it’s about personal growth. it’s worth it. p.s. the setbacks are par for the course.