Tips like these helped us pay off $127K in debt. You can read our story in Slaying the Debt Dragon: How One Family Conquered Their Money Monster and Found an Inspired Happily Ever After.
Not too long ago, I sat down with Peter Dunn (a.k.a. Pete the Planner), a personal finance author and radio personality to chat over coffee. With numerous books and a demanding speaking schedule, both locally and nationally, he’s kind of a big deal. He took a break from his very busy schedule to meet with me and I peppered him questions about the pursuit of helping others to manage their money well. In the middle of our conversation, he paused to ask me a question that I’ve wrestled with for two months.
“Do you consider yourself a personal finance expert?”
I quickly answered no. Because as much as I’ve learned about paying off debt and saving money, I realize there are plenty of people who are incredibly more intelligent and financially savvy than I am.
“I guess I’m a money saving expert?”
I replied in an unconvincing tone. I’m not sure if I was trying to convince myself or him.
A couple of weeks ago, I realized how I should have responded to the question, “Are you a personal finance expert?” If I could go back in time, I would have much more confidently replied,
“I am a personal finance failure.”
As much as I’m thrilled that we found a way out of over $127K in debt, I frequently remind myself that we were the people who acquired that much debt to begin with. There were so many mistakes, so many unwise choices, and so much inattention to our finances. Ours is a story of financial failure as much as it is one of success. Three years after paying off all of our debt, I’ve come to a realization.
I’m ok with being a failure.
These are big words (both literally and metaphorically). I’m not one to quickly admit my faults (however, I’m very good at pointing them out in the lives of others, Double #FAIL). Financial failure taught me more about my life, faith, gifts (and lack thereof) than any success could have ever produced.
Don’t hear me wrong. If you’ve made mistakes with your money, then it’s not a free pass to sit and wallow in your poor decisions. It doesn’t mean you cash in your chips and give up the fight. And you certainly shouldn’t blame others for your own choices.
However, if you have failed and then clawed your way back to success again, you discover something amazing. You will never go back to the unwise behaviors of the past. Like a child who burns herself after touching the stove, you realize that it hurts to fail. You will do anything to avoid that pain again.
Why get-rich-quick, pay-off-debt-fast schemes fail
I can’t tell you the number of times I’ve met someone who wants to get rich quickly. Sometimes their notions are for noble causes. After all, they just want to pay off all of their debt or be incredibly generous. However, when you quickly obtain money or work a strategy that prevents you from experiencing the pain of failing, you will return to borrowing.
You’ve probably witnessed this truth in action in the news report of a lottery winner going completely broke. We all scratch our heads and wonder “Why in the world did this happen?” However, it’s really no surprise. If you’ve never walked a journey that caused sacrifice, you are much more likely to end up right back where you began.
Paying off debt isn’t complex. It’s just not easy.
If you’ve read my book, our plan to pay off debt wasn’t an economic treatise. It wasn’t highfalutin or complicated. While there were hundreds of choices (many which are outlined in the book), the bottom line is that we worked more hours and spent less money. Fairly simple, right? Maybe not.
Daily, you make choices. Daily you determine where your money will go. Daily you can choose to return to pain and put your fingers on the stove or daily you can remember, “Ouch. That hurt. Let’s not do that again.”
I hope you . . . embrace your failure.
Maybe it’s not as poetic as a Leann Womack song, I really hope you embrace your fail. Learn from it. Come out stronger and smarter and better equipped to handle your money. Just because you have made mistakes, it doesn’t mean you’ve been issued a toe tag or been taken out of the game.
It does mean you have to change.
But don’t you want to leave a better heritage to your children? Don’t you want a more healthy marriage? Don’t you want to be able to provide both the wants and the needs of your family? Don’t you want to be able to give and change the world?
The pain is worth the change, debt slayers.
Be brave enough to fail.
My book is now available: Slaying the Debt Dragon: How One Family Conquered Their Money Monster and Found an Inspired Happily Ever After. You can also check out Inspiration to Pay Off Debt: 30 Days of Encouragement from the Queen of Free
This post contains an affiliate link. That means when you get a great deal or maybe even something for free, you also help our family pay off our mortgage early. And for that, we royally thank you!
