In need of some encouragement?
Getting out of debt is hard work! I’d be lying if I said it wasn’t. There are days I find myself struggling and feeling frustrated with the entire process. On days like these, it would be super easy to throw in the towel and say the heck with it. But I won’t! Doing so would do absolutely nothing to help our situation. What I will do is look for some encouragement!
One of the first places I look is in our budget binder. Seeing that we are paying our bills without taking on more debt is truly inspiring. Before getting on a written budget, we played the bill shuffling game for far too long. Anyone who has ever been in debt sadly knows this game all too well. It isn’t any fun, and I don’t ever want to play it again!
Another place I look for encouragement is our debt thermometer. Not only does it show me our starting point, but it also shows me where we currently stand and exactly how much we have paid off. Having dumped almost $5,700 worth of debt since starting our journey on Jan 1st, I can’t help but feel amazed at our progress. Why stop now! If $5,700 feels this awesome, reaching the $10,00 milestone is only going to feel even better!
Our savings accounts are another great place to seek motivation. When we drew our final line in the sand, there wasn’t much of anything to show. Now we have a buffer against Murphy visits and are building up a sinking fund for variable expenses. I again get excited to keep our momentum going!
YouTube is another of my favorite sources of motivation. Sometimes it is to seek out videos of others who have succeeded and other times it is to have Dave Ramsey give me a swift kick in the rear to keep going! When it comes to watching success stories, admittedly, I find the stories of individuals in my age bracket or older the most inspiring. The bulk of the success stories tends to be those in the younger crowd. My gut feeling, however, is that there are a lot of stories of us “older folks” that simply haven’t been told. Admitting to having debt at any age is bad enough, let alone at our age. I hope when time comes for my hubby and me to do our debt free scream I’m brave enough to air our shame publically. I may just need to take my friend Rhitter over at Planet Debt Free to go with us for added support! Our debt loads are similar, and I know how badly she wants to do her debt free scream too! Kim from Out my Window and several others I know who are also digging their way out of debt are invited too! Hmm, maybe Dave would agree to have a “50s day” for us older folks!
I couldn’t end this post without sharing a little of what I did watch today on YouTube. The first one is a story of a couple in their 60s who succeeded and the second one is a famous Dave rant. Enjoy and get inspired! 🙂
I am thrilled that you have paid off so much debt in 4.5 mos. I am not sure how far you have to go, but you are making good progress to me. I am encouraging you to stick with it. It is so worth it. We are a similar age, and i appreciate you sharing the other blogs, I will check them out. Another one that I really love is Frugality, Finacial Independence and the Middle Class. I have been reading the blogs this author writes since 2008 and she has been a real inspiration to me. Very down to earth, and for a long time was the only Baby Boomer author of a blog I could find that I identified with.
Our big push now is that I want to get our house paid off before my husband turns 60 in 2 years. We are working hard to pay extra and achieve this goal. Keep up your good work, I am pulling for you.
Thank you! That really means a lot. I’ll be checking out the Frugality blog and appreciate you passing it along. The lack of other blogs for people our age is one of the very reasons I started this one. Hard to identify with the younger crowd who have the advantage of time.
I am thrilled for you being so close to having everything paid off! You have obviously worked VERY hard! Will you do a debt free scream when that time comes? We will still have a mortgage for several more years, but once our consumer debt is paid we will be working extra hard to knock that out too. Wouldn’t it be a blast for us to fill Dave Ramsey’s studio with people our age who have achieved financial freedom? It truly is never too late!
It is hard, but we have to keep going. Think about our really old age( like next year) do we want to be broke? Do we want to be worried? Do we want to be robbing Peter to pay Paul. I don’t.
I’m with you, there! Being in debt is no fun.
Girl – I say let’s even if we don’t get to do a debt free scream, we just go to their and proclaim it!!
Heck yeah!