I remember the day I decided to get out of debt. Though I had flirted with the idea for a long time, I could never bring myself to take action on anything. I always thought we’d never have enough money to get out of all the $120,000 in debt my husband and I had accumulated.
We were living on one income and seemed barely able to make ends meet as it was. How would we ever get rid of the soul-crushing debt that seemed to dictate our every move? I thought it was impossible, so I never did much about it.
Deciding to get rid of debt
All that changed when I had my first child. I knew, almost immediately, that I wanted to stay home with her instead of putting her in daycare.
However, having so much debt made it difficult to make this decision. There didn’t seem to be enough money to cover both our regular household expenses and debt payments without two incomes.
Finding a solution and a plan to pay off debt
Not long after thinking about this money problem, I stumbled upon a man by the name of Dave Ramsey. I listened to his radio show as he ranted for at least a half hour about becoming debt-free. Not only did he talk about becoming debt-free but he also talked about staying debt-free.
The most fascinating part of the whole ordeal was that he seemed to give these “talks” every day. In fact, he had an entire radio show dedicated to helping people get out of and stay out of debt. It wasn’t long after this that I purchased his book, Total Money Makeover, and read it in just a few hours.
Once I did, I told my husband all about the plan to get rid of all of our debt. At first, he was very skeptical. Like me, he probably thought we really didn’t have enough money to tackle so much debt in any reasonable amount of time.
Truthfully, he was right. We were technically living on one income and stretching it to the limit.
However, a small flicker of hope remained. Even though it seemed like we would never have enough money to fix this problem, my husband agreed to start the process with small steps.
We started off just by cutting back on things like cable and eating out. Then, we found ways to save money on groceries. Once we found that extra money from saving and budgeting, we put it towards our debt.
Then came the side hustling. I started selling things on Craigslist and eBay. Again, any excess cash was put towards our debt. Fortunately, the income from my side hustles began to grow and we were able to put more money on our debt as time went on.
Moving to a home with bullet holes
Up next, our moment of truth came. A relative of ours had inherited a home in the inner city of Chicago. Like us, they had lived in the suburbs for a very long time and had no desires to live in the city.
They offered the house to us. There would be no mortgage or rent to pay if we took it. We only had to make some fixes to the place and clean it out to make it suitable for our family.
At first, my husband and I said no. We really didn’t see the value of moving to the inner city — not even to save money. However, the thought still stuck in our minds.
A few weeks after the proposition, my husband brought up a valid point, “We did say that we wanted to get out of debt and that we didn’t ever want to go into debt for a house, didn’t we? This could be that opportunity!”
I didn’t want to admit it but he was right.
We thought on it some more and eventually accepted the house. When we moved in, it still had bullet holes in the back door!
The first night we stayed there, the urban soundscape was unsettling. The sirens, the dogs barking and later on, the arguing and occasional sounds of gunshots would be overwhelming for suburbanites like us. Eventually, we did get used to it. (No worries — we were always totally safe!)
Mission dump debt (and much more) accomplished!
What I described sounds pretty scary but it turned out to be one of the best decisions that we ever made. About three years after moving in, we were able to pay off all our debt. It was an exhilarating feeling.
Committing to a debt-free lifestyle has lowered our cost of living and enabled us to homeschool our children. I’ve also been able to support them in their acting and entertainment careers. They’ve got more than enough saved for college and possibly even their first home — all because we took a huge risk — moving to the city and becoming debt free.
As for the neighborhood, it turned out pretty well for us. We’ve lived there for many years without incident and even purchased another property with cash around the corner.
The nice thing about living in a neighborhood where you have to fight and advocate for basic civic amenities and services is that you really get involved to help build up your community.
In fact, quite a bit of development and high-end commercial retail has come to the neighborhood as things continue to improve there. We recently got a Whole Foods, Starbucks, Chipotle, new community college, and new hospital as the neighborhood has become even safer and more walkable. All in all, it turns out that we stumbled upon a great investment opportunity in our pursuit of financial stability.
Not only do we get to leave a debt-free legacy to our children but we also get to leave a legacy in our community. We came because of money but we stayed because we felt like we could make a difference.
The great news is that we aren’t the only ones here. There are plenty of other families who are also coming into the community and being the good that they want to see in their own communities.
Though you may not move to the inner city to get rid of your debt, I encourage you to examine something drastic and possibly even “scary” that you could do to better yourself financially. That might be getting out of debt, learning to invest, or accelerating your savings to be prepared for profitable opportunities.
Practical tips on getting out of debt
If you do feel like getting out of debt is something you like to achieve here are some quick tips that will help you get started and finish strong:
- Write the vision. Capture your “why” and keep it handy throughout the pay-off process. You will need it!
- Get a plan. We used Dave Ramsey’s Total Money Makeover.
- Start an emergency fund. It will help you avoid adding more debt to your credit cards.
- Start a side hustle. It might be making an extra $500 or $1,000 a month or finding a legit side hustle from home. Do what works for you and your family.
- Create a budget. Understand the benefits of budgeting, then stick to the spending plan you create with it
Aja McClanahan is a speaker and writer who recently authored the book, Manage Your Money to Become Debt Free. She also writes regularly on her blog, Principles of Increase on topics pertaining to personal finance, entrepreneurship and building wealth.