How Do You Transform While Paying Off Debt

Who are you? What changes you in this journey we call life? The choices we make change us. They help us learn about who we are and what we are capable of. How will you transform while paying off debt?

Value of contentment

As a kid, even into my early college years, I spent a lot of time wishing I had other friend’s everything! I wanted their long hair, I wanted to get the grades they did, get into the same pharmacy organizations, I wanted others to like me as much as they liked my friends, I wanted guys to approach me the same way they approached my friends. I never knew what contentment even was back then. I always wanted more of what others had.

Now, I’m starting to recognize what contentment actually means. You aren’t concerned about what others are saying, doing, or buying. You are living your life, your best life. You are grateful for what you have and for the life you’ll lead after you sacrifice for a short period of time.

You have to be okay with where you are and where you’re going a caller once said on Dave’s podcast. When you have reached this state, that is when you will transform while paying off debt. This resonated with me!

Value of being a good steward of money

God gives more to those that are good stewards of a little! All of this belongs to Him anyway right? To me, being a good steward means managing money well, saving, and giving along the journey. I cannot wait until I can give freely without the shackles of knowing that I owe 6 figures to Sallie Mae. What if I gave $10,000 to my church instead of paying it each year to my loans? What if I paid a single mom’s light bill because she’s just trying to make it the best way she knows how? What if I was a good steward of God’s money? God’s money, not my own!

Patience

I realize I am beyond impatient! I want what I want when I want it, which is right now! It pains me for it to take 18 months to pay off my student loans. I calculate compulsively, putting in what if I do this or pay this or trim this back. Dave says it’s death by a thousand cuts. All our decisions count. We cannot make dumb decisions and go into more debt. All those small decisions, buying the grande or venti coffee or eating at Chipotle or cooking at home. These small decisions can make or break the goals you have for yourself. Slowly, you create a bigger, gaping wound.

Your belief grows

Everyday is a choice. You choose to be intentional and mindful in your life. You focus on the areas of your life you desire to grow in and learn from. Life is a choice, a chance to thrive and be the best version of yourself. Those choices you make everyday create the life you live, good or bad. Choose wisely because you can.

Through this journey, my belief in myself and what I am capable of has grown considerably. Imagine believing you can do anything, you can be anything your heart desires. You start to feel a sense of hope that this thing you are doing can truly happen. That hope will breathe more life in you and you will make even deeper cuts. I started avoiding tolls, getting my hair done less often and scaling back my entertainment budget to just $50. You become so focused that you’ll do anything to reach your goal.

Understand your needs vs. your wants

The number of things we truly need beyond our basic necessities are minimal. You need a place to lay your head and a light to your path since you cannot live in the dark realistically. Of course, you need food on your table, clothes on your children’s backs, and a way to get to work. When those basic needs are taken care of, you can get up and fight and thrive another day.

Our wants are out of line with our financial goals. We want a new high speed internet tv with special remotes, a new $30,000 car, or a wave runner. We want these things, this stuff, but these things do not make or break our families. Buying wants when our money is not in order pushes us further away from our financial goals.

Need for financial education

Dave always says the student doesn’t think she can be a student without student loans. Yes you can, you can pay cash. People don’t know they can do it. We just need to see and feel there is hope. Hope that we can set goals and achieve them. It goes back to getting educated about how to budget, what resources to utilize, following a plan, and making decisions about retirement funds and investing. The list goes on and on about the financial education the world needs.

Importance of keeping things in perspective

You are not alone. Even though many days we feel like we are the only ones that took out loans. Truly, many of us have no idea how we will pay them off. I really think that is why I started to post my debt-free journey on social media. Considering I am a private person, but I wanted to give others hope and inspire them to get up and take control of their financial health. On the days I post a pic of my debt-o-meter, all walks of like, people I know personally and friends of friends like and comment! I do it to show people, “you are not the only one and maybe you have less or maybe you have more, but this is not a death sentence.” You can take control, pay off your debt and start to build wealth.

You gotta get mad

I have heard Dave Ramsey say this on the air time and time again. This is so true and I never understood how getting mad mattered until it happened! I thought, I have always been mad at my debt and that never changed anything. However, it is more than just getting mad, it’s getting even that matters. Hearing Dave say we need to take responsibility, never quit, be persistent and hang on and fight brings me to tears. You gotta run, run, run and fearlessly go after your debt no matter what life stuff tries to get in the way! So, I mean it when I say you gotta get mad, put your shoulders back, write down your goal, commit to it and run, run, run!!

I pray you find solace in knowing the personal and financial transformation you endure while paying off your debt can be life changing. It’s time to start today!Time waits for no one.

How will you transform while paying off debt?

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