South of the South

Paying down debt is a drag - literally. In the same fashion one accumulates debt (spending more than incoming cash), one is expected to pay down debt. A problem arises when expenses are near or at the same level as income. When total expenses are near your total income level, debt can only slowly be paid down over what seems like a lifetime or absolutely not at all due to high interest rates sucking any any principle out of the minimum payments you’re making.

Some people may train their consciences to ignoring their past financial irresponsibility due to the fact that the don’t need to make lifestyle changes to merely maintain their quality of living. I have never done this. However, miscellaneous expenses are quickly becoming priorities, such as a $400 wisdom teeth extraction next Friday (fun), wedding bands (like the diamond ring wasn’t a big enough kick in the proverbial coinpurse), and a 10-day honeymoon to San Francisco and Hawaii.

So what do you I do? How do you I get out of the vicious cycle of debt?

Take drastic measures.

• Cable tv has been disconnected. Over-the-air HD actually looks better, anyway. Internet is retained to have some form of entertainment during financial struggle (and to download the few cable programs i watch).
• Refinance my car. When finalized in the near future, approximately $60 a month will be taken from the grubby hands one creditor to pay off debt from another. This sounds like a catch-22, but the key here is lowering interest rates which will effectively save me about $2,500 over the remainder of my car loan.
• Ditch the $55/mo AT&T cell phone. Bummer, since I just got this phone and I love it. It sucks $15 of the monthly bill is tax and price-gouging text message plans, so I’m going to have to switch to Net10 prepaid for about 6 months. That will save about $25 a month since I rarely use my cell phone anyway. I can keep my basic Facebook/Tumblr mobile functionality since picture messages and status updates are only a $0.10 SMS message.
• STOP. EATING. OUT. This is the hardest, really. And still, by “STOP” I mean “well there is still $1 burger night every Tuesday, which is a deal that just can’t be passed up - friends, food, and all at the price a dinner at home would cost. oh, and Friday night Wendy’s.” Willpower aside, this is a potential debt-breaker for most people I know. I have been doing significantly better in this department, eating lunch at home most weekdays and drinking much less soda. It’s even helping to slim down my gut I’ve put such a big financial investment into.
• No more personal gifts of vinyl and gadgets. As much as I want the dSLR that shoots 1000fps video, that new limited pressing, the 6” touch-screen GPS/video headunit for my car…I can do without them. Until I have the money. It’s a sad day when gadgets and records are only played with in the store and I leave empty handed, but really: does life suck so bad without them? No. I’m over it already. I’m not the type of person who doesn’t appreciate the real things in life, I just enjoy playing with new toys. If I was given a choice right now to skip work to either get that GPS headunit or do something like spend a day at Wekiva Springs with friends on this 82-degree, partly-cloudy day - I’d take the latter.

So that’s it. It’s 5 easy steps that will lead me to financial freedom before I know it, and I’ll never again accumulate such personal debt that isn’t an investment in real estate or business ventures again. 5 easy steps, 5 months of a few hardly-unbearable personal sacrifices and I’ll be starting a new era of my life with no debt, a beautiful wife, and a celebratory vacation/honeymoon for the both.