On September 5th…My husband and I will officially be DEBT FREE!!!!! We will celebrate making our final & last payment …completely paying off all of our credit card debt!! This is something we have wanted and have been working on for years. We aren’t mad at the debt; it served and supported a purpose at the time…
But Having Debt started to feel heavy and no longer aligned with how we wanted to live our lives, so we made the choice to do something about it. We decided to pay it all off…Once and for all!!!!
Because Debt Free = Less bills and overhead
Which for us means MORE:
- FREEDOM
- Time
- Travel
- Abundance
- Living
- Simplicity
Which is what we are all about at this point in our lives!! Our goal is to live as simply as possible so we can work less and have more time to do the things we love most!! That’s what the travel life is all about right:)
As traveler nurses we have this unique opportunity to make more money, live more simply & pay off debts more quickly!! If you get super clear on what you want, set a goal, make a plan & start taking action, anything is possible!
I wanted to share a few tips & the steps we took that really helped us get super clear and organized with our debt, so you can start creating your own plan of action!
Get honest about the bills and debts you currently have.
Just because you don’t look at it, doesn’t mean it just goes away. It might feel overwhelming at first, but it’s the first step towards becoming financially free!
Make a list of all balances owed…from smallest to largest.
Total it all up!! After we did this, we almost fainted …but it put a fire under our booties to pay it down!!
Look at what your normal monthly bills are every single month.
Look at how much money you actually take home each month.
(After taxes…how much money do you actually have in your pocket)
Based off what you have left over…how much can you realistically put away each month to go towards paying off debt.
>>You want to be aggressive but also realistic so it’s sustainable over time.
I.e. you may have to cut back in some areas of your life in order to reach your goals. But you still want to have some room in your budget to do the things you enjoy each week. Or you won’t be able to stick with your plan long term.
Break that number down into paychecks
How much do you have to put aside each paycheck to reach that monthly goal.
(Example: if your monthly goal is to put $500 towards paying down your debt…how much do you need to put aside each paycheck to make that happen?)
Every paycheck… pay the amount you have available right away towards the debt…NO EXCUSES!
Pro Tip: Don’t leave it in your account until the end of the month or your probably spend it. Get it out as quickly as possible!!
>>Treat this payment…like a BILL…it’s a mandatory payment you make every month…no matter what.
Based off the amount you can put towards your debt each month…vs. how much debt you actually have…
Look at a calendar and get an idea of how many months it’s going to take to pay it all off.
>>It doesn’t matter how long it will take…you have to start somewhere & just having a plan in place…that will help to take the overwhelm and pressure off!
Write the pay off date on your calendar
This way you can see it every day!! This will keep you focused and motivated…because your reminding yourself of what you’re working towards.
CELEBRATE every time you make that payment.
Get excited about what you’re doing and the freedom your creating for yourself!!
Pro Tip to help you stay on track: We went back and forth about this, but we decided to pay off each account starting with the smallest balance first. Because we could pay those off faster…and it felt so good to see the balance reach ZERO…it fueled our momentum and kept us going.
Reaching any goal takes hard work and discipline. Sometimes you have to put off certain things in the short term in order to reach your long-term goals. Remember what you’re working towards. Remember how good it will feel to reach that goal, and what that kind of freedom will open up for you in your life!!
Cheers to living a Simple, Debt Free life, filled with so much FREEDOM, Tons of Adventures & Lots & Lots of Travel!!! We did an entire episode on our podcast about debt and we share about how we’ve been able to pay off over 30K…. in just a couple of months.
Head over to the Freedom In Scrubs Podcast and check out episode #7 Click here to check out our podcast.
