Not just Debt, but the whole money strapped feeling that weighs me down. It has been years now that I have lived paycheck to paycheck, years in which I was wondering when I would get paid next so that I could go get groceries again. During university there were months on months that I wouldn’t go to the infamous North American malls because it would be a temptation to spend money. It was better for me to just not go, or if I did go I would take only my driver’s licence along so that I wouldn’t be able to spend anything. It was terribly hard and I hated it. I then graduated university, with a lot of debt. I had this lofty goal that I wrote down - to be done paying off my debt by June 2018 - 2.5 years after the official ‘repayment time’ started. It is now December 2017 and I am far from paying off my debt.
It is now December 17. I make good money and I enjoy my job. I like getting paid and I still like spending. I still have debit card (and a very small credit limit on a credit card I only use when I buy flights). That debit card is the most dangerous item in my wallet. It’s one of those tap and pay things. You don’t even have to do anything but tap the card and you’ve paid. I don’t even know how much I spend on things. In September I moved to the heart of a city in the Netherlands; it’s cute and cozy and it has lots of neat boutiques and shops. Everytime I walk out my front door I see shoes on sale, great discounts, and baskets outside the shops with fantastic deals. I live within walking distance of neat stores and also several excellent grocery stores. Some days I walk through my street with a 2 item shopping list for one store; say apples and yogurt. An hour later I come home with a bag full of groceries and arms loaded with other items. Where in the world did I go to spend all that money? Half the time I don’t even know. It’s those small purchases, 3 Euros here, 5 there, 9 there. Within a short time I’ve spent more than I thought possible in one hour…
Having moved across the world recently - and bringing only 2 suitcases full - I started here as minimalist. I still believe in minimalism. I want minimalism in my life because I don’t like stuff, don’t want to be tied down to things, don’t like the weight it adds in my life and the chaos it causes in my mind. (Plus it often means you’ve got to clean more and pack+move a lot - which I do relatively frequently.) Last year, before moving here I purged a lot, and it was fantastic to live a minimalist life in the 1 bedroom that I occupied in Canada. I had a small wardrobe and minimal space to store things so I couldn’t have a lot of things… Now I have my own little place and I had to purchase things to allow life to happen here - I have to live somehow. Much in my house was given to by friends and family, and I still stand amazed how few things I had to purchase in order to furnish this house. It is incredible how small purchases add up. I can’t blame the stores, it’s me who can’t keep that debit card at home. But the debt… it’s not going away, just an amount slowly decreasing in value but still with many digits. It sometimes makes me sad and gives me anxiety. Those numbers looming overhead, I know I need to pay it back and it seems to take forever! Therefore, I have been reading up on a lot of debt/financial/saving money blogs, columnists and advice as well as watching videos by money people like Dave Ramsey. I have done that several times already, but this time I am serious. Last winter I paid off the debt of two credit cards and cut them both up; then I got a little credit card so that I could still book flights but solely use it for that. It’s too bad that in Canada there is this ‘you gotta have a credit card’ idea floating around. (Can you do without one?) In the Netherlands, where I live now, hardly anyone my age has a credit card, so they also don’t have credit card debt. I no longer have credit card debt (praise the Lord!), but I do have a lot of student debt.
I started my first job when I was 14 and right away started an RESP that same year. We had immigrated from the Netherlands just before that so I couldn’t have started earlier. Four years later I graduated from High School and enrolled in college where I spent the $18,000 that I had saved in those four years. When I decided to go back to university after I worked for some time I depended on student loans and the few thousand dollars I made during the Summer months. Going to a private university out of province cost a lot! I don’t regret choosing private education and I don’t regret going out of province for my education. In fact, those were four years that shaped me and made me for who I am today, and gave me two bachelor degrees. However, that second round of post-secondary studies made me go deeper and deeper into debt; all the money I made during university were thrown right back at tuition or debt payments. It’s hard when you get paychecks and you see nothing of it. Even today, most of it goes to debt payment.
For Dutch people the debt I have is incomprehensible as most of them had a maximum debt of about 3000 to 5000 euros. (I also can’t wrap my mind around the grand number of dollars I still have to pay off... ) My payments per month are ridiculous and it makes that I live on a minimal amount of money each month. What I have meant to do for quite some time now is make a budget. I recently read a lot about budgets, including making a Bare-Bones Budget (https://www.thesimpledollar.com/how-to-create-a-bare-bones-budget/), and I have known about the envelope system (https://www.daveramsey.com/blog/envelope-system-explained ) for a long time. So here goes - budgeting and using only cash from now on! Let’s get debt out of the way as soon as possible!
I will need to set some goals, makes some realistic decisions and do a lot of documenting to keep myself disciplined, but I need to get this weight off and be financially responsible. No more silly 3 or 10 dollar purchases, but smart choices and wise money spending. I will be needing discipline and focus.
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