It's awesome to see how far I've come....

For whatever reason, I decided to check out my blog today.  And to my surprise, today is the 1 year anniversary of this blog.  One year ago I wrote my first post titled "My Last Christmas With Debt".  Reading through that was awesome.  It made me think about "the place" I was in just a year ago...how I was feeling....where I lived....what I just went through....how I wanted to change my life for the better.  It made me think of the amount of debt I started with on this journey.  It made me remember how difficult it was to really get started on the journey.  I can still remember the overwhelming feeling that I seemed to always feel when I thought of my financial situation.  I remember feeling trapped, like there was no way I'll be able to follow my dreams or achieve my goals or at the very least.....exit the rat race.  There was a time that I thought to myself that the way I was living just had to stay the same....that it was what most people go through and that I was just another person working hard to barely get by.  I didn't see a light at the end of the tunnel for retirement.  I remember thinking that I would have to continue working till I just physically couldn't work anymore.  For some time before I started this blog and before I started my debt free journey, I was just another guy trying his hardest to provide for his family and doing what everyone else does to make that happen.

Thank God for this journey.  What a difference a year makes.  I live in a nicer home where my kids can run around freely.  I don't have that same stress around how to pay the bills and still afford to buy some gifts for my family.  I don't have anymore credit card debt!  I have an emergency fund.  And because we've made so much progress on our journey, doors have been opened that at one point in time I thought could never open again.  It's the feeling of freedom...the simple thing of having options....it's a wonderful thing.

This blog has been a blessing.  I can look back and see just how far I've come.  I think it's very important for me to remember where I came from...how big of a hole I had to climb out of.  I never want to get back to those days, when I felt trapped and thought freedom from debt was just a pipe dream.  I like where I'm at right now....and it will only get better from here.  I hope to look at this post a year from now and think.....wow, I really liked life back then.....but I'm lovin life now! 

Thankful for....

At Thanksgiving dinner the other day, someone commented that I don't blog anymore.  So, that prompted me to pull up the blog and read a few of the older posts.  I realized that my first blog was almost a year ago from today (about 11 months actually)....I also noticed that I haven't posted anything for several months.  The first thing I thought was that it was cool that people still reference my blog even though I haven't been active on it for awhile.  And after reading a few of my old posts, I was inspired again to share more of my stories.....

Given that it's right after Thanksgiving, a pretty obvious post topic would be to list all the things I'm thankful for.  I thought about that for a minute and realized that I truly have so much to be thankful for in my life....probably too much to type about.  But I do want to share the things I'm thankful for as it relates to my debt free journey.

First and foremost, I am so very thankful for my wife and kids.  As I've mentioned several times in this blog, the debt free journey is not easy.  There are sacrifices, bad habits that need to be broken, total mindset shifts, and more sacrifices.  It's so easy to get back to old ways....it's like any other addiction.  And this one is being demonstrated all around you....by everyone.  Heck, all of the advertisements/TV commercials/etc....tell you it's ok to be in debt.....or at least entices you to get into more debt.  Can you imagine a commercial that pushes for people to do cocaine....making it look so easy to get it done....well, that's what these car dealerships try to do with their 0% financing isn't it?  Get back to being in debt....we'll make it so easy and painless for you....  Anyway, throughout this entire journey, my wife and I have supported each other.  It really helped to have someone go through this journey with.  It's such a tough life change that you need constant reminding of the importance of the mission and you need empathy when your mind starts to head down old ways.  As for my kids, they have followed us on the journey and I hope that they learn enough that they never have to go through this again as adults.

I can't emphasize enough how much support I've had by so many people throughout this journey.  And for all of them, I'm thankful.  The support has come from extended family members to old friends to acquaintences that have sent positive comments through this blog.  It's a combination of all their support that keeps me driven each day to keep chugging along the journey.

Passion IS Key!

Well, after 6 months after starting this blog, it seems like I've lost interest.  I just looked at my last post and it was several weeks ago.  My goal of doing 4 posts a month (i.e. one a week) has not been met.  I find it a chore or extra work to start typing on this blog.  I don't "make time" for this blog, it just doesn't seem like I'm very interested anymore.  So, what happened.  I remember when I first created this thing in December of last year.  It was part of my New Year's resolution and I was stoked about it.  I wanted to tell the world my story and help others achieve what I have and bring people on the journey with me so that they can see for themselves that anyone can do it.

After thinking about it for a little bit, I figured out what the problem was.  I really lost my way.  I forgot what my original purpose of this blog was.  It was supposed to be an outlet for me to share my thoughts, struggles, accomplishments, etc....with no holds barred.  I was going to really tell the details of my journey and what it meant to me, my family, my friends, my acquaintances, etc...  It was supposed to be my life on a blog and through my life experiences, hopefully people could learn or be inspired or at least walk away with a smile/laugh after reading what I wrote.  And I was gung ho about it.  I wrote diligently everyday.....for a month.  Then things changed....and now I know what went wrong.

Back in January, I started to get all this feedback from different people.  There were people who I knew would read it (since I practically forced my family to read it by continuously telling them to....:)  But then there were other people who read it and gave encouraging feedback.  Since I posted it on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn to expand my audience, I was getting people who I haven't heard from in years or old colleagues who could ping me or e-mail me and let me know what they thought of my posts and how it either inspired them to go on a journey or just made them feel happy for me that I've begun mine and accomplished quite a bit.  I had people tell me that they would wait up at night till the next post came as it was a part of their daily routine.  I had people tell me that they were debt free and loving it and were glad that I decided to go down that path....they gave me encouragement and re-assurance that the path is the right one for me and my family. The blog even became the topic of discussion at family parties, and (coolest of all) it was awesome when I would meet someone or see someone that I haven't seen in awhile and the first thing they would say to me was....I read your blog and it's good stuff....keep it coming.

After all those experiences, why is this the first blog post in weeks and how come I haven't been writing consistently?  At first, I blamed it on time.  I blamed my day job or my desire to spend all the rest of the hours with my family.  Then I blamed it on the topic....I said to myself that I've basically figured out how to be debt free, I don't think I have much more to say on the topic....maybe I should write about different things, like building wealth or how to start a business or anything else.  But now I know the root cause and it has to do with passion.  I lost it...for this blog.  Because this blog's purpose had changed without me fully realizing it.  As I mentioned, this blog was originally supposed to convey my message and my life experiences, specifically around my debt journey.  Well, along the way, this blog morphed into a "how to" on becoming debt free.  It became a place where people read various ways to change their mindset on money and perform steps that could get them out of debt and into financial freedom.  In a nutshell, this blog wasn't driven by my passion to tell my story anymore.  Instead, this blog turned into a place where I "taught" people "how to" be debt free and "how to" become financially free and "how to" be smarter with their money.  Well, it turns out I don't have passion around being a personal finance guru.  I don't have passion around being an amazing writer (in fact, I really don't like writing at all).  And I definitely don't have passion around teaching structured subjects (i.e. the "how to's" of personal finance).

And what I've found is that without passion, the "thing" (whatever the thing is)....dies!  It gets put on the back burner, it never gets prioritized, you'll forget about it, it'll become a weight on your shoulders.  That's what this blog became to me.  I started over-thinking the posts I should write because they had to be perfect for people to want to read them and follow me.  There are several posts in "draft" that I just didn't think were good enough to be posted.  And because I over-thought the posts, they took longer to write.  I was scrutinizing them for grammatical errors, formal writing rules (like did the post come full circle or was the message clearly articulated, stuff like that) and I even wanted to make sure that I wasn't repeating topics and shared new lessons each time.  The other thing that killed me is that I started reading other blogs and I wanted to be different than them and didn't want to repeat their messages.  I also wanted to become a better "blogger" so I started to incorporate hyperlinks and boldings/underlines to my posts....as opposed to just writing away.  In essence, it became a full-time thought process to get a post done and I didn't have the desire to spend that much time on something I specifically didn't have massive passion around.

Whew, I'm glad I got that out.  So, now I can move on.  I remember what my original intention was for this blog and I intend to go back to it.  I think there's a lot of value in getting my message out and I feel/know that it can help others.  So, I'll tell my stories and hope people will get something out of them.

Salary vs. Total Income

The further I go down my debt free journey, the more I realize that it's more a mentality shift as opposed to a numbers game.  Don't get me wrong, at the end of the day, the numbers tell you whether or not you're succeeding in your goal towards financial freedom.  But "how" you get there is the hard part.  I've read through some of my previous posts and I've discovered that I have several themes.  I talk about: motivation, going against the grain, changing the way you think.  I haven't really discussed the specific actions associated with money.  In other words, I haven't talked about "how to make more money", "how to invest your money", "how to spend less money", etc...  And now I'm starting to realize why I haven't focused on those topics.  At least for me, my debt free journey was much less about the money tasks.  It had everything to do with getting my mind wrapped around the concept of being debt free and modifying my lifestyle to comply with the concept.


The concept of living off of your salary and not your total income is not new.  Some people reference it as "living below your means".  But the first thing I ask when I hear this is, "what comprises of your total income?". I've read many personal finance books/magazines/blogs and a recurring theme is the concept of passive income.  Passive income is basically extra money that you make which doesn't require too much of your time and effort to maintain.  Popular examples of this are: income from rental properties you own, income from side businesses, dividends and interest from investments, etc...  So, my very next question is, "how can you afford to obtain passive income?"  This is something I've struggled with for a very long time.  I'm sure you've heard the saying, "it take money to make money".  Well, to a certain extent, that's true.  So, I used to think that I would really start my road to financial freedom when I can start my passive income endeavors.  That used to be my focus.  I used to stay awake at night thinking of how I could get to the point when I could finally live below my means.  Because at the time, I was dead focused on figuring out how to get all this passive income so that I could start living freely off of my day job's salary.  If only I could get lucky and find an awesome rental property or if I could just launch one of my many money-making business ideas or hit the jackpot with a hot stock, than at that point I would really be on the right track towards debt/financial freedom.

But little did I know that I was sitting on the answer to living below my means the entire time.  You don't need to make more means to start living below them.  You don't need to own real estate or side businesses or a huge investment portfolio in order to gain passive income.  You just need to segregate your primary income into active and passive.  I give all the credit to my wife for this concept since she's the one who had the AHA moment around this.  We were doing our monthly budget awhile ago and we were both elated to see that we have come to the point where we have a substantial amount of money leftover after our budgeted monthly expenses.  This is huge for us since it wasn't that long ago when we had essentially nothing left at the end of the month (the classic living paycheck to paycheck scenario).  At that moment, she said we should classify the money we are using towards monthly expenses as our "salary" and the difference between that number and our overall take home pay as our "investment/business money".  It was such a little/subtle change in the way I thought of our income, but it makes the world of difference.  By living off of our "self-defined" salary, we have conditioned ourselves to target that salary for our lifestyle.  Also, we are able to obtain our "self-defined" passive income each month without having to put in the extra effort of starting up a new business or going into more debt to purchase an investment property.  It's basically a new definition of passive income: income that is obtained with absolutely no additional effort above and beyond your primary income.


To illustrate this concept with numbers, this is how I see it:

• If your total household income is $100,000/year and your self-defined salary is $75,000/year
• Then you automatically have $25,000/year in self-defined passive income

Once the concept makes sense, the more difficult part is executing it.  We are in the process of radiating the concept throughout our lives.  Using the above numbers, it means that we HAVE to live off of $75,000/year.  In other words, we need to train ourselves to think that that's all we have and we can't go over.  This pertains to all income levels...if you made $50,000 and you tried to convince yourself that you only made $40,000, it would be the same difficulty in terms of not wanting to tap into the extra $10,000 that you know in the back of your mind that you have.  But first thing's first, you need to define the salary that you will be living off of, then you need to start truly living off of that targeted salary.  I can do a whole other post on how to live off the targeted salary (and I probably will) but I wanted to first introduce the concept that has kept us on the right path during our debt free journey.

6 Figure Income...and not living large!

I read this article the other day and it really hit home.  How to go Broke on $100,000 a year

This really details out in black and white just how people with six figure incomes can easily get into debt without even really living extravagantly.  After seeing this, two main thoughts come to mind:

1) There are many more people that are in the same situation I was in.  If nothing else, this article validated the fact that I wasn't the only one with very decent income that fell into debt.  I really didn't think I was alone but this demonstrates just how easy it is to go down the debt path.  Debt is definitely not associated with lower income households...it's linked with people from all income levels.

2) This article really hit me with the reality that "making 6 figures" isn't equivalent to living luxuriously.  I guess it might have meant that in previous generations but it sounds like 6 figures just doesn't go as far as it used to.  I remember growing up thinking that if I made 6 figures, I would be filthy rich.  I'm talking MTV-type lifestyle :)  Heck, I was amazed at the thought of making even half that.  But that just isn't the case.  Don't get me wrong, people/households that make 6 figures should not be "complaining".  There are many more people that make much, much less.  And you should totally be able to live comfortably with a 6 figure income.  I'm just saying that the high priced toys and expensive adventures need to be put on hold.  On hold till you become debt free and have accumulated crazy wealth!  :)

The AHA Moment!

I had a deep conversation yesterday around what it takes for people to realize the true benefits of financial freedom.  In other words, what is the triggering event that forces people to change their financial lives?  What's that AHA moment?  We came to the conclusion that there isn't just one type of event or moment that makes everyone say.....OHHHH, I get it now!  Also, there's not one specific thing that I can say or do that will make someone else realize what I have realized, no matter how logical my argument could be.  Having said that, there are many life changing events that could prompt someone to re-evaluate their personal financial health:  death, newborn, career change, job loss, major injury, marriage, divorce, etc...  But I hope people don't wait for these extreme situations to make sure their personal financial house is in order.

For me, I can clearly recall my AHA moment.  Don't get me wrong, I have had many, many more lessons learned and self-realizations along the way that have pushed me down the path that I'm on.  But the following event was truly my life changing trigger.

AHA...I really need to start my debt free journey...and I mean really start. 

I remember the meeting so vividly.  My friend referred me to a local financial advisor that practiced Dave Ramsey's Total Money Makeover steps.  Just to back up a bit, this same friend was the one who suggested that I pick up Dave Ramsey's book in the first place.  I read the entire book (which is a major accomplishment for me since there are plenty of books that I've started which I just couldn't make it all the way through).  I thought the book was great, the steps were easy and the success stories referenced in it were absolutely amazing.  So, I proceeded to do what most people do after reading a book like that....I did nothing :(  So, fast forward to this meeting with the financial advisor.  I'm not sure what I was really expecting out of the meeting.  I guess I was thinking he was going to say something like, "stop eating out so much" or "you might want to hold off on a couple vacations for a little bit".  And I guess I was expecting him to have this grand plan laid out for me that would quickly get me out of debt and on track to build wealth like crazy.  I mean, that's what all the success stories in the book did....so why couldn't that happen to me?  I guess I was a bit nervous going into the meeting as I knew I had a lot of debt and I knew I wasn't being very frugal.  But hey, on the flip side, I had an awesome income and all the success stories in the book had crazy amounts of debt....so my situation shouldn't be anything he hasn't seen before and dealt with.

After the first 10 minutes (getting all the get-to-know-you stuff out of the way), it was time to get down to business.  I pulled out my laptop and showed him my spreadsheet that neatly listed all of my income and expenses on a monthly basis.  I felt so proud of how organized I was and how prepared I was for this conversation.  I was thinking inside that he was going to tell me that I knew what I was doing and that my debt problem would probably just fix itself, being that I'm so on top of things.  For the record, he did think I was organized and prepared :)  But more importantly, he was not at all impressed with the contents of my spreadsheet.  What happened next, I wish I could just erase from my memory.  We proceeded to walk through the details of our financial life and it was clear to me that he was truly amazed.  Only it wasn't in a good way!  I remember the summary was something like, so....you take home over $10,000/month and only $500 of that can be put towards paying down debt?  This summary was followed by a long, uncomfortable silence...at least that's what I remember.  I was waiting/hoping/praying he was going to follow it up quickly with...."don't worry, all you have to do is.......".  But nothing...it was like we stumped him....like our situation was something so bad he was a loss for words.  At that very moment, I knew something had to change...and change drastically!

I won't say the guy didn't have any feedback because he certainly had a few comments on what some potential next steps could be.  But he absolutely didn't have a full plan for us and I didn't leave his house feeling warm and fuzzy about my financial future.  In fact, it was flat out depressing.  Although, as hard as it was to recognize the truth of my financial situation, it was probably the best thing that could've happened to me.  My AHA moment served as a wake up call.  I used it as motivation to "fix" the problem and get on the right path.  It opened my eyes to what I really needed to do...it forced me to do things that I wouldn't have considered in the past.  In short, I'm grateful for the AHA moment...as it provided the necessary "push" in the right direction!

As hard to swallow as my AHA moment was, I'm very fortunate that it wasn't a result of a tragedy.  Moreover, I'm very thankful that I was able to do something about it and I'm ecstatic about the position my family and I are in today!  Actually, one of my reasons for sharing my stories with the world is in the hope that others will realize their AHA moment as soon as possible....or at least before their situation gets too out of control!

Excuses Excuses

Wow, I just looked at the date of my last post and it was one month ago from today. Then, I read the content of the last post...it talked about scheduling things you want to prioritize in your life. It went on to talk about how I wanted to make this blog a priority, and that I would start physically scheduling time in my schedule to commit to it. WHOOPS! So, obviously nothing was scheduled, and this blog never made it to the top (or even upper half) of my priority list. Don't get me wrong, I was very productive. I have spent many hours working my day job and spending quality time with my family. But I must admit that I've also had my fair share of "wasted time". It's almost embarrassing to admit how many TV shows I've been sucked into and the endless web sites and blogs that I have perused...instead of working on my own blog.

I had lunch with my blogging buddy today and I walked away from our chat thinking that I probably used every excuse in the book to try to justify why I had stopped consistently blogging. Fortunately, he was pretty nice about it and didn't really rub in the fact that I was just slacking. It's funny to think of the recap of all the excuses I talked about today:

1. My day job was sucking up a lot of my time, so I didn't have any "extra" time to spend posting.


2. I had to dedicate all the rest of my free time with my family.


3. I had writer's block


4. I lost my passion for the topics on this blog


5. I couldn't think of any new and unique topics to write about


6. And the excuses just kept on rolling....

So, here I am, writing on my blog again...telling myself that the excuses have to stop. And when I started listing all of the excuses I was using to prevent me from achieving one of my current goals (i.e. consistently posting on my blog and sharing my message), it hit me that excuses directly relate to the debt free journey.

I don't know what the exact percentages are, but I'm pretty sure that the overwhelming majority of Americans are in debt. So, you can even say that it's the "norm" in our society to have debt. Thus, to begin a debt free journey and fight your way to financial freedom is crazy hard. You've got everyone/everything around you saying that it's perfectly fine to be in debt. In other words, you have a plethora of excuses at your disposal to prevent you from following through with the journey. And sadly, most people never follow through. This explains all the people at retirement age that can't retire and will need to work till they die. This explains all of the families that "need" to have both parents work full-time just to pay the bills. This explains why so many people stay at jobs they hate and feel like they have no other options. Well, just like I should get past all the excuses I've created that prevented me from following through on this blog, I hope more and more people get past all of the excuses that prevent them from following through on their debt free journey.

Here are some of the excuses I had prior to diving into my journey, I'm assuming most people have similar thoughts when thinking about being debt free and obtaining financial freedom.

1. I can't be debt free because that would ruin my great credit score. Although there might be some truth to that (I'm not entirely sure because I don't really care about credit scores anymore), you need to ask yourself why you need to have a good credit score. For most people, they want that high score to get into more debt (get a good interest rate on mortgage, car loan, etc...)....seems pretty ironic to me. I do know that the credit score is used for other things (i.e. new employers run your credit report and if you are renting/leasing a home, they'll run your credit)...but there are workarounds for those things. Bottom line, I'd much rather be debt free than have a high credit score.


2. I can't be debt free because I need to own high quality things. Although I still believe it's better to buy quality over quantity...I now know that you shouldn't do that if it requires you to go into debt. I know for me personally (who is the unhandiest man alive), I used to convince myself that I had to buy new cars because I couldn't fix them myself and it would cost me way too much to maintain them over the long haul. I also took that same mentality with houses. Of course I had to get new houses....so I didn't have to deal with all the maintenance of an older home. The concept just expanded to all of my purchases. Soon, I was surrounded with high quality items and its associated mountains of debt. Like I said before, you can have and you should want nice, quality things....just make sure you can truly afford them.


3. I can't be debt free because my family has needs. First of all, "needs" has to be delineated from "wants". I would be willing to bet that one of the main reasons why people are in debt in the first place is that they think they "need" a helluva lot more than they really do. I'm all about taking care of my family, and I now know that it's actually much easier to support your family's needs when you are debt free.


4. I can't be debt free because I can't make anymore money. This actually was a big excuse for me. I remember getting so frustrated because I thought I made very decent money but it just seemed to leave my checking account as quickly as it got there. So, if you're like me, this could be one of the biggest reasons why you haven't started your debt free journey. But what I finally realized is that you need to look at both sides of the equation when attempting to be debt free. Of course you can attempt to make more money, but probably more importantly, you need to figure out how to spend less. In fact, we have accomplished the majority of our debt free journey without making a penny more than when we started.


5. I can't be debt free because no one else seems to be able to do it. When I first started my debt free journey, most of my family, friends, and co-workers were in debt. So, this was a very real excuse I used to tell myself. It was normal to just stay in debt and everyone else was in the same boat. But I've come to realize that there are many people out there that are living debt free. I've heard from several people that have read my blog that they are living debt free (people that I had no clue would/could be). And if you don't know anyone that's done it, "find" someone. I've always found that it's beneficial to surround yourself with people that have similar goals/aspirations. This is no different. If nothing else, it's a great supporting cast to have....which you go through your journey with.

Wow, I guess when I sit down and really focus on writing for this blog, it can actually come to fruition. Anyway, no more excuses, I want to continue to share my message and related stories in hopes of inspiring/motivating others to follow their debt free journey. So, next time, it won't be a month in between my posts.