State Your Intentions How many times have you thought about doing something and made a resolve to do it, but then the excitement wore off and you never followed through? I sure hope that I am not alone in this. My wife Christine and I have learned over the years that if we truly want to make something happen, we need to develop a plan, write it down and constantly be reminded of the steps needed to get there. When we decided to truly get mad about our debt load, we developed a plan. That plan by the way is called a budget, and it is simply telling your money where to go each and every month. Without a budget in place we wandered around trying to pay off everything all at once while trying to save for a home purchase, build and emergency fund, and max out our retirement funds at the same time. We wandered around in debt for about 4 years while paying off about $45,000. While that number may seem like a lot of progress to some people, we are not the type to settle for average. $45,000 was only half of our debt and we certainly did not want to spend 4 more years on the same road. We were ready to be done! When it comes time to change, there is no one who can make you do it. You have to decide that enough is enough and you have to make the decision to do something else. The twelve step programs define insanity as doing the same thing over and over while expecting different results. While our income was merely average at the time, we decided to see if we could pay off our remaining $45,000 (everything but our home) in just one year. Keep in mind that most things sound great in your mind, but appear to be a little harder when you put them in writing. This is an extremely important step however! You must develop a written plan! While we thought this was hard step on paper, it became even harder in reality. We decided to cut expenses and raise our income at the same time. We sold everything we could, including the lawn mower. If you are not mad enough about your debt to spend a summer trimming the lawn with a pair of hedge shears, then it might take you a bit longer. (We do not have a very big yard, but I really did this!) We had a brand new baby at the time, but I don't remember much of her first year. There were days when I left home and headed to work before Christine and Ava woke up. After my fist job I drove to the next and sometimes even one more after that. I would get home after they were already in bed and it would break my heart. Why did I do this? For one, our plan freed up my wife from having to work outside the home, but when it comes down to it, we were just sick. We were sick of paying bills, sick of not saving enough for retirement, sick of not being able to pay for things with cash, and sick of living like everyone else in North America. We did not want to put any more kids through the same mess. It was time for a change! So, while we spent 4 years paying off our first $45,000 in debt, we spent just 1 year and 3 hours paying off the second $45,000 of debt, without landing a big raise. If you are willing to make the sacrifice and do what needs to be done for you and your family, then start today by putting your plan on paper and making it happen. What have you got to lose?
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