OUR DEBT FREE JOURNEY MONTH 13

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Welcome back to another edition of our monthly debt free update.

We're currently in the 13th month of our journey and here's what happened.

A LITTLE SETBACK

We took a break from our Debt Free Journey last December and January and spent a great deal of time traveling on occasion of our 25th year wedding anniversary. I calculated we were going to spend around $10K and would have the same amount coming back to us come tax time to make it a wash.

Well, the numbers came in at -$4K due to us spending about $13K on our trips and only getting around $9K in tax returns.

We were set back a little; and instead of getting ahead from our previous month's total debts of $111,222, we're now at $114,518 for an increase of $3296 in the wrong direction. That's after doing our normal debt repayment of around $2100 and an extra $270 from our budget for the snowball.

THE GOOD NEWS

Moira decided to go back to work to help out and I'm also continuing to work my side hustle and between both of our extra incomes, we plan on plunking down at least an extra $1000/month to catch up. We'll just have to wait and see, but the intention is to aggressively payback what we slacked off in the previous months.

One highlight was that were able to leverage down high-interest credit card debt by refinancing to a better 9% rate from the 25-27% that our credit cards were charging us.

There are lots of providers out there but for us, we chose Best Egg. One suggestion though if you're looking to refinance, it's not necessarily bad but it depends on how large your balance is since the loan carries a $399 upfront processing fee. If you're thinking of refinancing lower balances, it might not be worth it.

In our case, since we refinanced $10K, we actually only received $9,601 and was charged 9% for $10K for a 3-year term with no prepayment penalty.

We figured we would still save at least $1000 in interest payments for the projected 2-year payoff we planned.

Bottomline is, do the math and figure out what the true cost is of the loan is.

Last month I only managed to read one book but it was a really good one. "Unstoppable" by. Cynthia Kersey.

This book is a highlight reel of 45 'Powerful Stories' of mostly ordinary people who overcame extraordinary circumstances and lived up to their potential. It's an inspiring, thought-provoking thesis into the lives of "hard pressed" individuals that would leave you wondering... if they can do it, then what's my excuse?

Along with its heartwarming and inspiring stories, Unstoppable gives you a seven-step action plan that features the tools you'll need to create the life you deserve.

You'll learn:

--How to discover your own unique calling and purpose in life
--The biggest lies that may be stopping you from getting what you want
--The best strategies for turning self-doubt into unstoppable self-confidence
--Seven proven steps to becoming unstoppable in every area of life

It's really a must read and worth every minute of your time 🙂

Of the several goals I set out to do last month, I was able to accomplish the following and ultimately helped grow my readership.

Tailwind subscription - i finally did it and paid the $115/yr subscription for Tailwind. This resulted in doubling my blog traffic from 400 to 976 page views. I'm still trying to get used to it and how to maximize my pins and how to grow traffic even more. But suffice to say, it's been worth my first month so far.

I'm still trying to do more research into which blog course to sign up for, there are a few that are tempting; one of which is Bobby Hoyt's FB side hustle course which I hear is an awesome one. There's also Michelle Schroeder-Gardner's Affiliate Marketing Course which I hear is the top course in affiliate marketing. Again, I'm still testing the waters and saving up for these since they're not cheap, and so when I do decide to take them, i'll make sure to let you all know if they're worth the time and money or not.

Still working on networking with other bloggers but I'm excited to say that I was approached by a well known financial blog and they're interested in featuring one of my blog posts about my weight loss as a result of my debt free journey. I'll keep you all posted to see where that leads 🙂

Every journey has a destination, and it's not how fast or long, but the way you get there that matters; there are lessons to be learned, mistakes to be made, victories to celebrate, and all these make up the journey.

Life is difficult as it is, but having these difficulties and overcoming them helps in building our character and resolve.

If we were just coasting through life without having a care, our inner man might end up weak, flimsy, and worse selfish.

Our character and mental toughness gets built up by adversity, and by resolving to roll up our sleeves, work at it, learn from our mistakes and become a better version of ourselves; we will ensure that whatever else comes at us in the future, we'll be well prepared to deal with and roll past it victoriously having already gained the tools and insights to prevail.

So embrace adversity and welcome change, it's the only way to grow for the better and build up life muscles to be able to continue living the life we always want to lead.

Do you have other tips to help us deal with our life journeys? Do share by leaving a comment or emailing us at thedebtfreejourney@gmail.com.

Until our next post, Peace and Blessings to you All.