Living Debt Free

Debt is something no one wants to talk about or they feel really awkward talking about. I wanted to bring it up because I’m actually quite an awkward person. Or I can be. I wanted to document my journey through no debt, to debt, to no debt again. And also document why I did what I did, how I went into debt and then how I managed to get out of it. It was a lot of hard work, to say the least but I did it with the support and kindness of people around me.

I was debt free for a long time until I started going to school to get an associates, then a bachelors, and lastly a masters degree. My family was concerned for me, and asked me ‘why go to school in the USA when you can go to school in Canada and get much cheaper tuition costs?’. They were definitely right about that, but I still chose to stay in Seattle because Canada was too cold for me. Hindsight is 20/20 but even if I could go back and do it again I really don’t think I would. My education in the US had a much different potential than what I would of had in Toronto, Canada. But while going through all three of my degrees I went into ~ $70k in debt. That was the cost of getting an associates from a local community college, getting a bachelor’s and master’s degree from a university in the state. I had residency of the state, was paying in state tuition and I still managed to rack up a lot of debt. Looking back on it, $70k is frightening and when I thought the loans would not begin to accrue interest until 6 months after I graduated from my grad degree, boy was I wrong! They accrued interest but I didn’t have to pay them off right away…it almost feels like a scam.

While going to school I was living in my dad’s place with him which was rent free, so I can say he definitely gave me support. He paid for one of my quarters in community college as well which was really helpful. The rest of the money for school, I had to find and use to pay off my debt. This meant that I took out state loans to fund my education. I’m really not a fan of taking money that isn’t mine, I don’t think anyone really is a fan of that? Especially when interest is added in, it feels like you are a prisoner of the loan companies. One of the things I did to make it through was always have a job, I took about 9 months off from working while pursuing my bachelors degree but started working again because I felt the need to make money. I felt the need to contribute to the loans, racking up interest ah! It gave me so much anxiety to watch them grow. Always having a job eased my anxiety in the whole situation.

Another huge part of my time was studying for classes and because of this I actually did not have a social life for years. This was helpful, it gave me back the money I would otherwise be spending to put into my loans and I also got quite a bit of studying done in the mean time. I always tried to find low cost things to do, such as studying in the library on campus or studying in a coffee shop. It didn’t usually cost me a lot of money for a black coffee, and then I’d sit there for approximately 8 hours and head home to be with my dad.

Something else that truly helped curb the want and need to spend my money was paying for my loans first. I would put so much into my loan repayment that I barely had anything left over for myself, I had just enough. Around the end of my senior year in college I moved in with Joe and during this time I began paying rent, for groceries, for everything like a normal adult. But what I had coming to me was the master’s degree which cost me most of my debt, it was about $33k for the year I went to school.

Applying for scholarships is a great way to get rid of debt! I am really not one to look into the online articles/portals/websites to find these secret scholarships that appear out of no where but are for really odd things like “women who lived in oil towns” or “for those who have read the LLTR trilogy” etc. I am not a huge fan of those, they also give me this weird anxiety because I want to apply to them all but I also don’t, so I just don’t usually give them the energy and time! What I do is apply for the easy scholarships that my college always said I could easily apply to, and they were right! All I did was apply to a few with a click, add in my information, if I was chosen for one I’d write something up about who I was and where I wanted to go, and then I figured if I was lucky I’d get one. That shaved off my debt as well.

The most important part though is the need and want to get rid of the debt. Now I’m not saying if you want it bad enough you’ll just get it, poof your debt is gone! No, not like that at all. But you have to have a drive that finds new and creative ways to save, you have to have the almost obsessive need to save the money and watch it go back to your debt. When I would pay my loans first after a pay day, I’d really pay them so much that I wouldn’t have much left for myself at all. I’d even sometimes question if I’d be able to live off of such a small amount of money for a given time period, it was such a small amount. It’s helpful that throughout my time in school I wasn’t a parent, I didn’t buy a lot of things, and I didn’t have any other type of expense to pay. But $70k was a lot of money to pay, regardless of all those things.

So now maybe you’re thinking ‘hmmm kim thanks for that but you’ve given me no actionable items here and that’s a bummer’ well let me think of a few. When you’re at Starbucks or any coffee shop and you have to order a drink so you can sit there for a while and study or read etc, do not get the fancy drinks! They cost a large amount, get the drip coffee instead. Better yet, don’t go to Starbucks, buy the coffee from the store and have it at home. Secondly, don’t buy things! Don’t do it, you don’t need extra things or clothes or makeup etc. Use what you have until its torn and used up. Use what you already have available to you, and then maybe go buy some more of it once you’re absolutely done with it. Third, limit the social outings, those always cost so much money to go to lunch/dinner and have a meal! Have a coffee instead, don’t go out for a meal, eat one in and tell friends to bring some of the ingredients. Fourthly (is this a word?), if you can get around without a vehicle, then do it. The cost of buying and maintaining a vehicle is so so much, I say that here in Seattle because even having a parking space costs money. Don’t do it. We got rid of our car, saved on the parking spot, on gas, insurance, and repairs! Just don’t get one and if you can use the bus or bike places then do that instead! Fifth, sell old items that you may not need or want any more, there are plenty of apps for this now and you can have garage sales and neighborhood swaps. Just get rid of the things you don’t use. Lastly, question what kind of subscriptions you have that you can get rid of. I used this one a lot, I had subscriptions to everything and some where things I didn’t even know I had access to. I checked my bank statements and realized $30 here and $30 there was going out for this thing I thought I cancelled two years ago and on and on. It was helpful to catch them and eliminate them for good! Once you have done these and you have sold things, or saved money then put all that money towards your loans. Not towards anything but loans. Just towards your loans. Can I say loans too much? Loans loans loans. Put it towards them and then one day you won’t have them any more!

Last but not least, you’re probably thinking ‘oh thanks kim, appreciate the tips! but why did you use that photo as the photo for this post?’ what a great question. That had no relevance to this post because I had no clue what to put on this post…so I just did what I thought would be fun and that was it! And I will finish this post and write another one soon :)