My journey to financial freedom is a culmination of a lot of things. I've pretty much always had debt, since I was able to enter into legal agreements, I've had it. Why? I don't know. My parents have always been really smart financially, why I didn't allow that to influence my life, I have no idea. My 20's were a time where I needed to have things to feel worthy and the result of that was not great. So for a long time I just figured it would always be there, so my focus wasn't on getting rid of it, it was on maintaining it.
In the spring Crossroads did a Brave journey and that was a turning point for me. We picked a heading, something God was calling us to that we needed be brave in going for. Mine was financial freedom. I started listening to Dave Ramsey and started hearing stories of people who had more debt than me paying it off in less time than I would imagine possible. I learned about the debt snowball, paying every extra dollar to the smallest balance until it's gone and then throwing every extra dollar to the next smallest in line. Tackling creditors one at a time.
I started my journey in April of 2015. I got real about what I owed. I got real about how intentional I needed to be. I got real about how much I give up on certain things when they're difficult. I got real about vision. I'm not quite sure about sharing the amount. One because I don't want some to say, well I don't have that much so my debt isn't that big of a problem. I don't want others to say, I have way more than that, so hers may be surmountable but mine isn't. Just know it's a lot more than I want it to be. I have credit cards, student loans, a parental loan, a car, and a mortgage. It's a lot. I'll probably share it at some point, I'm just not sure now is the right time.
So I created a budget and a plan. It took a few months to get used to it and a couple months of failing which I'm sure will happen from time to time but this has become a lifestyle change for me. I learned I CAN get out of debt, even when unexpected expenses come my way. Even when I really want that new shiny thing. The not funny part is all these shiny things in my house I want to get rid of, that are weighing me down, that I can't stand to look at anymore, are part of the reason why my debt is where it is. There's a really good chance that I'm still paying for some of the things I want to rid myself of.
I used to hold onto a lot of shame because of that, and I think I always just thought I deserved to be where I was because I did it to myself. I made so many stupid decisions and I just remember not caring in my 20's, at all. I really don't know why. The thing about Jesus is, he wants freedom for us in literally every area of our lives. Every area. He covers shame with love and acceptance. He replaces hopelessness with hope. He takes away discouragement and replaces it with faith. Faith in the seemingly impossible.
This verse has continually encouraged me through this journey. Financial freedom is something that I knew was good and that I should get to, but I didn't particularly want to change my spending habits. So my prayer was that God would change my desires and that He would give me the power to follow through and stay on track.
My desire at the end of this isn't to be able to have more money, it's to be able to be more generous with what God has entrusted to me; to be a good steward. It's to be able to go wherever God calls me without having to feel shackled down by debt. I'm estimating that this will be about a five year journey for me, to have everything paid off, sans the house. I'll share this journey too.
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