Summary

Shaunta Grimes is a writer committed to blogging daily to pay off a substantial debt of $70,000, not including her mortgage and student loans, with the goal of becoming debt-free and altering her financial mindset to prevent future debt accumulation.

Abstract

Shaunta Grimes, along with her husband, previously paid off their consumer debt but found themselves in a cycle of debt again due to unforeseen circumstances such as family illness, COVID-19's impact on their business, and the misstep of consolidating debt without changing their spending habits. With a current total debt of $270,000, including their mortgage and Grimes' student loans, they have devised a plan to eliminate their credit card debt by blogging daily. Grimes, who has a history of income through blogging, intends to use her writing skills to generate additional monthly income, ranging from$ 500 to $1000, to expedite the repayment process. By maintaining their current monthly minimum payments and applying the minimum from paid-off debts to the remaining debts, they aim to be debt-free in seven and a half years, with potential to reduce this timeline to five and a half years if they can add$ 1000 monthly from blogging income.

Opinions

The author expresses embarrassment and disappointment in having to address their debt situation publicly.
Grimes acknowledges personal and her husband's limitations with credit card use, attributing it to her ADHD and seasonal affective disorder, and his long-standing habit of credit card usage.
There is a sense of urgency and determination to change their financial situation and avoid a lifetime of debt servitude.
The author believes in the power of consistent writing to generate income, leveraging her past success in blogging to tackle the current financial challenge.
Grimes is optimistic about the possibility of not only becoming debt-free but also saving for retirement, envisioning a future with a mortgage-free house and substantial savings.
The author emphasizes the importance of changing their mindset towards debt to prevent recurring financial issues.

Blogging Everyday Until My Debt is Paid Off

I can’t believe I have to do this again.

In 2017, my husband and I paid off all of our consumer debt. Every penny of it. It gave us relief in a way that I can’t even describe. For a few years.

Then Kevin’s parents got sick enough with Alzheimer’s that he had to quit working to care for them.

And COVID happened.

And we had to use credit cards to keep our business afloat.

And we opened a shop last summer and used credit cards for that, too.

And. And. And. We built back up credit card debt.

Then we made a colossal mistake.

We took out a loan to consolidate that debt — to pay off the credit cards again. It made sense at the time. The loan would be paid of in five years, instead of the decades it would take to pay off the credit cards with their minimum payments.

The problem is that we did that without figuring out our financial situation enough to live without credit cards.

So, after a while, we had that big loan to pay off and credit card debt.

None of this is easy to admit to. I hate it. Just typing it all up makes me feel like a huge failure at life. It’s embarrassing.

But, we got the message.

We are not able to have credit cards and not use them. That’s all there is to it. If we have access to them, we use them.

I have ADHD and seasonal affective disorder — both of which are dopamine receptor problems. And shopping is my biggest dopamine source.

Kevin has had credit cards since high school and he has relatively simple tastes. He’s used to just having what he wants, when he wants it. If he wanted fancy things, he would have learned either patience or to resist. But since everything he wants is pretty simple, he never sees a reason not to use a credit card to buy it.

We are not responsible enough to have a bunch of credit cards that we don’t use. And that’s okay. We just have to be aware of our limitations and then act accordingly.

Right now, we’re $70,000 in debt. That includes credit cards and that big personal loan. It doesn’t include our mortgage or my student loans.

If we add those in, we’re about $270,000 in debt.

I want to be debt free again. And I want to stay that way. So, I have a plan.

I’m going to blog everyday until our credit cards are paid off. Again.

Neither of us have the time for more jobs. Or the energy or bandwidth, to be honest. We’re working as hard as we can, just to stay afloat.

But, I’m a writer. And I have a history of earning an income through blogging. It doesn’t take me more than an hour or so to write a post and I think if I blog everyday, I can pretty easily bring in $500 to $1000 extra a month.

I found a calculator online that told me it would take us a hundred years to pay off all our debt, including my students loans and our mortgage, if we just paid the minimums.

One. Hundred. Years. I am not okay with that.

We are working full time, just for our debt, and we will be for the rest of our lives at this rate.

But if all we do is continue to pay our current minimums and roll the minimum for each paid off debt into an extra payment amount, that one hundred years reduces to seven years and six months.

Um. Wow?

We’re already paying $3660 a month in minimums to service our debt — credit cards, a car loan, that big personal loan, our mortgage, and my student loans.

If all we do is keep that amount steady, we’ll be out of debt in 2032 instead of 2124.

That means that if we pay off a credit card with a $100 minimum payment, that minimum rolls into paying down the next debt faster. And so on. By the end, we’ll be chunking $3660 a month to my student debt, which will be the last to be paid off.

And if we add $500 a month, that reduces to six years and four months. Now we’re out of debt in 2030.

If we can add $1000 a month, now our debt is completely paid off — including all of my student loans and our mortgage — in five years and six months. We’ll be out of debt in 2029.

And — if we save that $4660 every month for ten more years, we’ll have more than $500,000. Even with no interest at all. Plus a mortgage-free house and low monthly expenses.

I’m 52 and my husband is 55. In fifteen years, I’ll be 67 and he’ll be 70. We can be that old with a mountain of debt looming over us and no plan at all for retirement.

Or we can start right now to do something about it. Not only paying off our debt, but doing the work required to change our mindset around debt so that this doesn’t happen again.

So — I’m blogging everyday until we’re debt free. Let’s see what happens.

Shaunta Grimes is a writer and teacher. She is an out-of-place Nevadan living in Northwestern PA with her husband, three superstar kids, King Louie Baloo the dog, and Ollie Wilbur the cat. She is the author of Viral Nation, Rebel Nation, The Astonishing Maybe, Center of Gravity and Here I Am. She is the original Ninja Writer.