Part 4: Adulting 2.0
Part:3 talks about some pretty dark and ugly times financially for me, but Part:4 is about the light at the end of the tunnel. After that rock bottom period, everything really only looked up from there. Once the momentum was there to pay down debt it became addictive. Now don’t get me wrong, I’m not the kind of person who’ll pour all of their money into a debt strategy and not enjoy life, as I don’t think that’s fair or sustainable. I still took vacations, purchased a puppy, and married the man of my dreams. But we did all of these things within our means and with a debt repayment strategy running in the background. The goal was zero debt by our wedding day and we did it, wedding and honeymoon included. I am just so proud of us! We worked as a family, where no big money decision was made without talking about it first, and establishing support for each other in those big endeavors like career changes or starting a business. The sense of empowerment I felt beating debt helped to keep me grounded with spending, as I never want to go down that debt spiral again.
The big secret to getting on track is to keep that sense of hopelessness at bay by accepting that repairing your finances won’t happen overnight. It’s a one day at a time, bite sized process. Yes you’ll have to make sacrifices, but that doesn’t mean you stop having fun. Marathon runners don’t sprint for over 40km. They pace themselves. They balance. It’s something I learned to do on my journey, and it’s one of the reasons I think I was successful. Most importantly, never give up. It may often feel like two steps forward, one step back, but even when it’s slow going, what’s for certain is that you’re closing in on financial freedom and the huge weight that takes off your shoulders.
I hope you found my story relatable; it has become part of the spirit behind A la Carte Financial. A la Carte believes that every single family is different and deserves a financial strategy that is tailored to their own goals, lifestyle, and way of life. As you can see by my own story, I made many wrongs but eventually landed at the right side of the tracks, I just took my own journey to get there.
If you would like to work together on your financial journey, I encourage you to contact me at Sunny@alacartefinancial.ca , and we can talk about how to make money stress nothing more than a memory.
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