Part 1: The Prequel

Why did I title this “The Prequel”? Well every great story has a Beginning, Middle, and End but only the epic ones need a Prequel! Ok maybe that’s not true. It just sounds good to give this Debt payoff journey levels and separate the stupidity of how I got here into it’s own little bubble.

Hi! I’m Ali. I am 30 year old retail Manager! (Those 8 years of schooling really came in handy) with ~$150k in debt. Most being student loans and the rest consumer debt; credit cards and a auto loan.

How did I get into this mess?

Stupidity.

Better word: Ignorance.

I am one of the first generations in my family to go to college. While there, I suffered greatly from Depression and Anxiety. When you are too tired and sad to get out of bed and pass your classes, the bills start adding up. I have amazing supportive parents! Parents that wanted me to succeed so much that instead of telling me. “Hey maybe you should stop”, encouraged me to keep going. Trust me, my bad decisions are NOT their fault, this is just how it happened. So I kept taking out student loans to retake courses and finish with 85k in debt going to a public University.

After school, I was grasping at any instant gratification thing I could to help offset the depression. This included Concerts, vacations, and ALOT of eating out. In comes the credit cards standing today at $21,000.

Finally, a car loan at $6,022k for my small 2014 Ford Focus that has literally had 4 recall letters sent about it.

I know that’s not $150k. My parents took out a Parent Plus Loan for my schooling that is approx. the rest of the balance and soon I will take that bill over.

Alot of Stupidity.

So why did I say “Ignorance” was a better word to describe my situation. Because I happened to find a blog one day called “Afford Anything” while I was desperately searching for a way to see some sort of relief. I thought how can I pay off these bills that are so massive. After asking advice from several people, I had one aunt say “Go into real estate, buy a house, take a loan against the equity and pay off your student loans.” I don’t trust easily so I wanted to know more about real estate. That lead me to “Afford Anything” which lead me to several other financial blogs…the Mad Fientist, Dave Ramsey, Get rich slowly and so on.

Now I see I didn’t have to get myself  into that debt. Also, that there is only one way out: live on less than you make, make more money and then use that gap to pay off your debt.

So here I am. Here’s my journey. I hope my story can help a lot of people, especially students, avoid making these dumb financial mistakes that put me here.