How We Paid Off $20k of Debt in 18 Months

This is a story about how being $20k in consumer debt taught me a valuable lesson about money.

After my first year of marriage, my husband and I found ourselves in about $20k worth of consumer debt, and living on one income — and no it wasn’t wedding debt, we paid that in cash! More about this in a future post. 

Like most people our debt didn’t start off that high; it started off with little things that we needed. Then it was a few bigger purchases. Next thing we knew we had $20k of debt spread out between two credit cards and a line of credit.

Well during this time we acted as though the debt that was accumulating wasn’t a big deal because we would pay above the minimum payment every month. Have you ever gotten so far in a hole that you acted like nothing was wrong...well let’s just say that as we planned for our vacation that summer, and took a look at our finances, we got a much needed reality check, when we saw how much debt we actually had.

Mistakes we made:

1. Spending above our means
2. Not paying off our credit card debt at the end of each billing period
3. Ignoring the debt

How many of you have made some of these mistakes? I’m sure I’m not alone! This is how we turned things around.

How we fixed our mistakes:

1. Created a budget and stuck to it
2. Created a debt repayment plan that worked for us (Debt Avalanche Method)
3. Held each other accountable by having a family business meeting once a month to look over how much we spent that month and what we could do better the next month.

Lesson learned: Do not ignore your debt, it will come back to bite you!

These are just some general things we did to get back on track. And by no means was it easy, trust me!

Join me on my journey as I share my tips on how to create a sustainable budget, pay off debts, save, and invest. Make sure to subscribe to the email list and follow me on Instagram to learn more details of how you too can “Level Up Your Wealth!”