Tackling $121,323.07 of Debt in 2019

I've restarted this post about 5 times now, and what I've come to realize is that it doesn't matter which way I flip it....the coin still isn't mine because we are in some massive debt.

$121,323.07 to be exact.

You think that number is big? That isn't even our highest. At one point, we were $134,000.00 in debt with a $150,000.00 mortgage to pile on top of that. We sold our house and began renting when we moved to California, which did help make the number shrink, but I digress.

Here we are at $121,323.07.

Over the years, we've had phases where we've aggressively chiseled away at the mountain of despair that we owe.

We've also had some phases where the payoff wasn't really our priority, so we passively made the minimum payments.

I'd say more recently, we've been taking the passive approach, and trying to ignore the fact that, well, we are majorly in the hole.

But here's the truth: Whether we ignore it or not, it consumes us.

The main reason we go to work is to make payments to companies we owe.

The main reason our savings is ridiculously small is that the debt payments get first priority.

The main reason we have a decent salary and nothing to show for it is because of our debt.

The main reason we have no assets is because of a combination of the above.

Worst of all, our debt is the main reason we live a reactive life rather than a proactive one.

Can you even imagine having a savings account plentiful enough that when your air conditioning breaks and you have to pay $3,000 to fix it, you're not maxing out your credit card again for the third time in 6 months?

How about having money set aside for Christmas, and not having to charge it and pay interest? That would make the holidays a lot more enjoyable.

Or better yet, think of the dollar amount of payments you make toward debt each month. Seriously, just think about it for a minute. Now take that number, and imagine being able to keep it for yourself rather than paying it to some company that's getting rich off of you.

That'll seriously be the day.

Yuck. Debt. 

It's an invisible burden, and I know here in The Adkins Household we are ready to get rid of it once and for all.

Now I know that there are many, many approaches to take when paying off debt, but we're not going to get into that on this post. We do plan on sharing our goals as well as our plan of attack in future posts, but for now we just want to let you know that we are taking a proactive approach to become debt free, and we'd like to invite you to join us. 

Our plan is to give:

-A monthly plan of attack that includes resources, goals, and approaches

-A monthly challenge that we can all do together 

-Monthly updates on our debt tally. Yes, that's right. We are going to share our progress, what worked and what didn't, and hopefully the result will be that obnoxious number decreasing each month.

And by December of 2021 at the very latest, we hope to owe not a single penny to anyone.

Listen, I know there are hundreds of posts out there of people who have already done this and I'm not telling you to disregard them, but we are inviting you to do it with us this time. If you are reading this, you're in the right place at the right time because our journey is happening, and we can do it in community.

Don't let this pass you by.

$121,323.07 is an amazing number that we can't wait to shout from the rooftops when it's gone, but what would be even better is if we could tally up all of our numbers to see what we were able to pay off as a community. 

Don't put it off, otherwise you'll be kicking yourself in 2021. 

Let's do this together!

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Stay tuned for some freebies and our monthly challenges as we tackle our debt one dollar at a time.