Focus and Dedication are an Amazing Combination When Used Together

This story describes a wonderful journey that may be of interest to all readers.

I was wandering in a desert of debt like you wouldn’t believe. It will take me until the end of this year and all of next year until I am completely debt free. But, what I have accomplished thus far is amazing and is no small feat.

This journey began in 2015 when my wife told me I was broke. I bucked and hehed and hahaed! “What are you talking about,” I exclaimed to her. “I have never missed a payment; you have never missed a meal (and I wasn’t hinting at her waistline); our child has everything he could possibly want. I am not broke!”

For the past six years, I have always reflected on that conversation. She was on to something. I currently earn a hefty salary and I was maxing out my retirement plan. But I had very little cash on hand. If I had experienced a financial emergency, I would have been demolished.

I am thankful each day because my wife opened my eyes. All this debt was mine and I had plenty of money to support the family, but I was supporting debtors as well. And so my journey began. But it was an exercise in failure. No matter how I tried, I couldn’t break the cycle.

I tried the old balance transfer system. You know, you get one credit card with a zero interest rate for 18 months. The idea was to transfer the balance from the higher credit card to the zero interest rate credit card. With time, I learned that was a failed strategy. I would borrow from one account to pay down another one. That just didn’t work.

There had to be a way to break the cycle

Even to this day I still don’t remember how I learned about Dave Ramsey, but he talked about living debt free and of course, he caught my attention. What really made me hone in on what his show was broadcasting was listening to people who made less than I did, but who had paid off significant amounts of debt in two or three years. I had been in my debt spiral for more than five years. After listening to the Debt Free Screams, I was all in.

A tremendous challenge for me was reducing the percentage of my pay that was being contributed to my retirement account to focus on paying off my debt. But after several months of contemplating whether this was a good move, I finally reduced my contribution amount from 15% to 5% so that I could continue to receive the matching funds from my employer, but would be able to divert the rest toward debt reduction.

In July of 2019, I started fumbling around with programs to help me budget. I learned about Undebt.it and it was a godsend.

When I started budgeting, tracking every dollar that came into the household and identifying exactly where it was spent, it seemed as though I found money I never knew I had. It was amazing.

I made goals within goals. I had purchased a ring for my wife with zero interest, but if it wasn’t paid off in 12 months, the super high interest would have been grandfathered to the beginning of the loan and I would owe back interest. So while I was focused on paying debt, I keyed in on that debt first.

I lined my debts up from smallest to largest. With the exception of the ring, I ignored the interest rate. The ring interest rate was so drastic, I was highly motivated to avoid those interest charges. So, from smallest to largest, paying every minimum payment on time, like I always did. But this time, I paid every extra dollar on that first goal debt.

That was my first success. Along the way, I’ve had many financial successes, but the second big one was sending in the last payment on a high balance credit card that at one point was $2K away from being maxed out.

I started with 12 accounts that had balances on them. Today, I have four left to go. I’m pretty excited about having my entire paycheck to myself in just a little over a year. When it’s all said and done, I will have paid off more than $300,285. (The above figures don’t include two loans that are paid automatically out of my income.)

Each One Teach One

Years ago, I wrote a letter to myself describing what I would say to the 18-year-old me if I could travel back in time. One of the most important things I would have shared is what to do with money right then. I would have planted the seeds of debt avoidance. I would have told myself to start investing now, at an early age to be able to rest assured that future finances would never be a problem.

I don’t think we realize how easy it is to amass a fortune if we start early. That’s why so many of us never do it. In America, systems are in place that allow the most common among us to ascend to uncommon heights. This is a message I wish to share with my family and all others interested in changing the course of their financial lives.

I am teaching my family how to avoid debt and enjoy their paychecks. When you are debt free, no matter how much you earn, it goes a heck of a lot further if you don’t have to send a portion of it to creditors.

If you could benefit from having your entire paycheck to yourself, send me a note. I am happy to share with you the process I have discovered in using what I have to keep what I earn. I will travel with you through your journey.

About the author

Julius Evans has a Master of Arts degree in National Security and Strategic Studies from the U.S. Naval War College, Newport, RI; a Master of Arts degree in Strategic Communication and Leadership from Seton Hall University, South Orange, NJ; a Bachelor of Science degree in Mass Communication and Journalism from City University, Bellevue, WA and an Associate of Arts degree in Liberal Studies from Central Texas College, Killeen, Texas.

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