Blogging Away Debt

Do You Struggle with Knowing Your Worth?

I have written a couple of times about how much my business has grown in the last 6 or so months. It’s to the point where I can’t keep up anymore. And I have to make some hard decisions. In addition, a client has made me a very lucrative offer to once again step into the corporate world.

On My Own

I have really maxed out my capacity to support clients and support them well. And letting my customer support and responsive slide is not something I want to happen. My options are:

Hire some help. Something I have always said I didn’t want to do. I don’t want to become an agency or be responsible for other’s livelihoods, not to mention the overhead change when you expand from the solopreneur type platform. Right now, I sell myself, my time, my experience and I know my capabilities and limits. Having workers changes that tremendously.
Cut back a bit. Or push out. Right now, I turn projects around very quickly. I work crazy hours. But the results are great and my delivery times are super fast. My clients love that. I could either start saying ‘no’ to projects and requests or saying ‘yes’ but giving significantly extended delivery schedules.

I struggle with this. We have been in “famine” mode for so long that I have lots of mental blocks when it comes to turning down work. Lots!

Back to Corporate

A client who has been with me since this summer is really pushing to bring me on full time as an employee. This is a large corporation and she is equivalent to VP in her position and has been with them for 7 years. I have never been as “woo’d” (is that a word?) by a company before. Creating a new position and title to entice me. Offering me all sorts of benefits and a very generous salary. (We are actually at the point of discussing a real salary that blows my mind.)

Those who have been reading BAD for some time know that I dipped my toes back into corporate in March, 2017. It was 9 months of misery for me and ended pretty badly. And it’s taken me all this time to rebuild my freelance business.

I have been very open and upfront about my experience and hesitations and she continues to woo me. And if I’m honest, the idea of steady and very good compensation, paid time off, health benefits, etc. is enticing. Not to mention, their company culture is amazing.

If COVID hadn’t happened, we wouldn’t be having this conversation. They were office based, in a big city and would never have considered a remote person for this role. But she assures me that even post-COVID they will not return to the office. And at most she would ask me to come to town a couple of times a year. And she is willing to put it in writing.

Decision Looming

I am completely torn. And scared. It took everything I had to sit down and commit to salary talks.

The thought of shuttering my business and going back to corporate is pretty scary. Thankfully, working for this client and the team I would be managing gives me more comfort than considering it cold. That’s probably the only reason I am considering it.

If anything happens I imagine it will be finalized by the end of the year with some transition time early next year as I wrap things up with existing clients and refer them elsewhere.

But my final thought on this has been…whichever way it goes, I’m in a good place. I’m making more than a liveable wage, I’m paying off my debt and work has been steady and increasing. I am so grateful for this place I am in. But it is really hard to not doubt myself and be scared for the future.

Sara’s December Debt Update

by Sara S

Time for another debt update. There’s one thing that’s been on my mind since our fourteenth anniversary a few weeks ago: from our wedding in 2006 to now, we’ve only known one year of being debt free. ONE year.

During our first honeymoon months, we were paying off the student loans from my undergrad. We got those done quick, so then we had one free year of bliss where I was working full-time and he was a student working part-time. We owned our old cars, had no credit card debt, and had no mortgage. We sure didn’t have much, but we were in a good place.

But then he started grad school in 2008 and that alllll went away. We took loans out that first semester, and then it went deeply downhill from there. So, so deep.

Current Numbers for Our Debt Update

So where are we now? We’ve gained some momentum since my last debt update in September. In November our debt principal got down below $275,000.

That means in 2020 so far we’ve paid off
– $17.635.28 of principal
– $11,879.83 of interest

We wanted to pay off at least $30,000 of debt principal in 2020, but I guess sometimes pandemics happen. I would love to get to $20,000 by the end of the year, but I don’t see how we can pay off $2,361.98 of principal alone this month.We’ll at least pay $500 extra, but over $2,000 is a pipe dream.

That’s only a 6% change to our principal for 2020 so far, and in 2019 we had a 12% change. Friggin’ COVID. However, for a very long time we had a 0% principal change, so I guess 6% is something. And looking back, in November of 2019, our debt principal was $294,000 and in November 2018 it was $334,810. Baby steps.

Making Extra Payments

I’ve been able to pay some extra lately thanks to a small tax refund (as a result of our business audit), an insurance rebate, and my side hustles. Unfortunately, one of my freelance jobs just ended, and it will be hard to replace. The people were great to work with, it didn’t require a lot of time, and it was really rewarding.

Fortunately, my husband will get to work at his side hustle again next week. He hasn’t done that since the beginning of the year because of the Coronavirus, so it will be nice to have that extra again.

Another additional increase comes from the Ally savings account we set up in October. We’ve already yielded $17 in interest! It’s easy to think “$17… woop-di-do!” but considering our normal savings account was giving us cents at a time, that’s an amazing increase in just two months. Why didn’t I do a high yield savings account sooner??

But I do wonder if we should just keep those yields in the Ally account so they keep accruing, or if we should put it towards our debt payments from time to time. Any thoughts?

So the gist of our December debt update is slow but steady change. Despite having 13/14 years of our marriage be debt-oriented, we are digging ourselves out of the hole. We even managed to shave off 7 months of our debt payoff timeline, even during this insane year.

So I’m hoping to end 2020 strong. Strong-ish. As strong as 2020 allows. 😉