21. From $220k in Debt to Traveling the World
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Hello, and welcome back to the Money Clarity Podcast. I am your host, Lindsey Ciarrocca, and I am so happy to be back here with you.
So the day this episode will be released is actually also the day of my business anniversary. So October 1st, 2020 was the day I registered my LLC for The Exuberant Elephant. So that's gonna be six years. It's wild to think that it's already been that long. And I actually started in financial services in 2016, so I've been in the industry for 10 years altogether.
And because I'm thinking about these milestones today, I wanted to share a little bit more about the early years on my own budgeting journey, which coming up next year is really about 10 years. That's when my now husband and I met. We had a pretty whirlwind relationship, and things moved pretty quickly between us. And so pretty much by the end of the year, I think it was, we were living together and sharing finances and doing life completely together. So that's when we really realized we need to get our stuff together.
And I'm saying this because I know how hard it can be to keep plugging away each day, especially when things get tough. But trust me, getting to the other side is so worth it.
And a little spoiler alert, I'm not actually completely to the other side. But still, this place compared to where we were 10 years ago There's just not even words for it.
Okay, so let me tell you a little story. When my husband and I first started out on our money journey, we were drowning in debt, and it wasn't just a little bit either.
We were looking at over $60,000 in credit card debt, more than $50,000 of student loans, a $95,000 mortgage, and two car loans totaling another 15,000. I actually added this up recently, and the number still shocks me and is awful to look at. But that total was $220,000 in debt. $220,000.
That's insane.
Plus, we were just starting our business together, and we were self-employed, so that meant no regular paychecks were coming in. So my husband and I were actually both working second jobs just to make ends meet.
Let me tell you, it was stressful.
But we were also committed.
Our motto was, "Get the fudge out of debt." Like, yes, literally fudge, because I don't really swear that much.
So I made up a tracker, and I... At the top it said, "Get the fudge out of debt," and I posted it on our bathroom mirror.
Because our dreams were so much bigger than our debt, and we knew that paying $1,500 per month towards debt wasn't sustainable, and that we needed to destroy those balances if we wanted to work towards those bigger dreams.
So we did. We worked the extra jobs. We watched our spending. We cut things out that didn't align with our goals because we knew this was short term.
We knew it wasn't forever. We knew we wanted to get to a better place.
And slowly we began to see progress. We paid off a car loan here and a personal loan there.
And like I said, I'm not gonna sit here and tell you that we are debt free today, because we are not. We still have some of my husband's student loans, just a little under $12,000, which I actually paid another one off last month, again, still feels awesome, as well as our mortgage.
But you know what? The difference in how it feels today from how it felt nearly 10 years ago, again, is insane.
Plus, we've done so many extra things that probably wouldn't be considered needs by most financial standards. Just this year, for example, we've traveled somewhere nearly every single month. Some of those were shorter trips for the weekend to Philly, but one was... Actually, two of those trips were out of the country. One in, was a big trip to Ecuador for my 40th birthday earlier this year. We've been to Canada, down to Virginia Beach, and a bunch of other little places in between.
Plus, we've also replaced all of the windows in our house over the last several years. I think that one might have been around 2019 or so. And we paid those off before the interest-free period was up. And the biggest one is we even had to replace our deck and shed two years ago, and that was to the tune of $26,000, and I made the final payment on that just this past August.
So my point is, it's so easy to look at the highlight reels on social media and feel like you are alone in your money struggles.
But I'm here to tell you, you are not. We are all on a journey. Yes, even me. But we are all also at different parts of our journey.
So instead of letting that hinder us, we can use it to our advantage.
We can help each other out, motivate each other when things get hard, because they will, and lean in and celebrate all the wins. Because when we do this together, we realize we are not on an island, but rather we are in, all in this crazy ocean together, and by working together, we can lift each other up so that these ripples of positive change can spread, not only throughout our communities, but to the world beyond our front door.
And that's what I want for you with your money. I hope my story inspires you to keep going, keep fighting towards your own debt-free goals, because I believe you can do it.
And if you need a little help, that's totally okay, and I'd love to see you inside my community, The Empowered Money Circle. You can learn more at theexuberantelephant.com/emc. I will leave that link for you in the description below, of course.
All right. Thanks so much for listening. Welcome back to the podcast, and I will talk to you next time!
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YNAB Disclosure: I am a YNAB Certified Coach, which means that I have been trained to coach people on using YNAB software and the YNAB budgeting method. I have met select requirements of You Need a Budget LLC in order to receive this certification, which means that I have the ability to competently coach YNAB to others. I am not an employee of YNAB, and all non-YNAB related opinions and recommendations are my own. My views do not reflect the views of YNAB and its employees or affiliates.
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