I’m enroute to Georgia. It’s almost wedding time!!
The hearing aids have been ordered. Actually, I have a couple of pairs ordered, going to try some cheaper ones out along with the ones prescribed by the ENT. As a result of their cost, September and October are light on debt payments and money moving into savings accounts. I’m using a borrowed pair now to make it through the weeks of my wedding trip travel. (They are on loan by ENT office.)
Debt Update
I had planned to get my debt update out this past week, but it seems like every time I try to access the student loan site, it’s down or inaccessible. Not sure what’s going on.
So I don’t have my debt number, but I can tell you that I paid exactly $307 toward my students loan last month.
Savings Update
While I’ve continued to move $50 per week into my high interest savings account and $70 per week into my investment account through the month of September, I’ve made no additional big moves to savings.
Essentially holding onto all the cash I can in preparation for my hearing aid purchase.
As of today, I have $8,323 in my Ally account, $1,000 in my local EF, and $1,978 in my investment accounts (includes my ROTH IRA).
Plan
I mentioned in a previous post that my goal is to get $10,000 in my Ally account and then focus solely on paying off my remaining student loans. I hope to get back to that plan late in October or early in November as soon as I’ve paid for my hearing aids. They should be in around the middle of October when I return from Georgia.
But for the next couple of weeks…I’m going to enjoy a meandering road trip to and from Georgia, and a week in town with my girls around the wedding.
I just had my ten year anniversary at work and it hit me – I remember blogging when I was first offered my position! That means I have been blogging here for over 10 years, too!
It’s a wild thing to consider. On the one hand I’m like, “Dang, 10 years of debt repayment and I’m still here. Still not finished!” On the other hand, I’m so proud of how far I’ve come and all I’ve accomplished in that time.
So today I thought it would be fun to take a trip down “memory lane.” For newer readers, it’s also a little context into where I started and how far I’ve come!
Quick caveat – at one point the blog ownership changed hands and some of my old posts are no longer available. When available, I’ll link directly to the articles in case you want to read more. My apologies that some of the earliest ones are gone.
2014 – Where It All Began
I “interviewed” for a Blogger position here by writing My Debt Story back in February 2014. By March, I’d been selected as one of the bloggers. (That original post isn’t available anymore, but I talk about starting my Debt-Reduction Mission in this old post, circa 2015)
When I first started blogging, I had nearly $150,000 in debt – the vast majority (just over $100k) in student loans. This blog and its readers were a great accountability network for me! I ended up paying off over $10,000 in credit card debt in just my first 3 months as a blogger!
Then things stalled. It felt like one step forward, two steps back in terms of debt reduction. I didn’t share it at the time, but my then-husband and I were struggling in our marriage. Money was a big source of conflict.
We separated in 2018 and for a while I couldn’t make progress at all. Between legal costs and being financially responsible for two homes (my rental and our marital home), debt continued to increase.
Eventually, I had to step away. I focused on my kids and cleaning up my life and returned to blogging in 2022.
So Much Life Has Happened Since I’ve Been Blogging!
I landed my full-time job in 2015!
I separated (and later divorced) in 2018.
I developed Chronic Kidney stones and subsequently was diagnosed with Kidney Disease in 2019 (one particularly bad case of kidney stones left me hospitalized with sepsis!)
I suffered some major losses – my Dad was diagnosed with Frontal Temporal Degeneration (Bruce Willis’ disease) in 2015, dying just this year (2025), and my brother unexpectedly passed away in 2021. This all caused me to change my view of the debt payoff process.
I continued to set strong financial goals – especially the desire to pay off my new-to-me car (which I’d bought during my time away from blogging), but I became more focused on savings than on paying off my student loans.
I paid off my car, officially becoming consumer debt free (again) in October 2023!
There have been some tough times, but I’ve been so, so blessed as well.
Thank you to everyone who’s cheered me on, offered advice, or given tough love in the comments over the years. I know I’m still about a year away from being fully debt-free (my original target debt-free date was 2018 – ooof!). But I’ve lived so much life in these past ten years, and I’ve come to understand the importance of balance and of changing courses when necessary.
This may be a little sappy or “woo woo” for some, but I really believe we each have lessons we are supposed to learn in life that are specific to us alone. One of mine has been that it’s okay to let go of some dreams in order to make room for others. My personality is such that I will try repeatedly to jam that square peg into a round hole and WILL NOT GIVE UP!
With age and maturity, I’ve learned that it’s not a sign of weakness or lack of character to let these things go. Instead, it may be a mark of courage, and wisdom, and growth.
What about you? Looking back over the past decade, what’s one financial decision (big or small) that changed your life the most?
