Published January 1, 2020
Or rather, we’re $279,000 in debt.
That’s right. My husband and I, nearing that ever-looming 30 year age mark are just over a quarter of a million dollars in debt. And for the most part, we don’t actually mind it.
No, it’s not student loan debt.
Unlike most of our millennial peers, we didn’t take out loan upon loan to finance our higher education degrees. In fact, we were never able to even pursue them.
My husband and I both came from very similar family and financial backgrounds. We were kids that grew up living paycheck to paycheck and in some periods from food stamp to food stamp. We grew up with parents who never had any real assets and were able to rely on a network of extended family to assist in basic needs when times were especially tough.
Financial aid was extremely limited as that at the time families were only allotted a certain amount per year, regardless of the amount of children in that household. I have 3 siblings. My brother and my sister received financial assistance and went to college while I received a professionally worded letter that basically amounted to “tough shit, better luck next life”.
Both my husband and I spent the better part of the next decade thinking we weren’t good enough for college. That we’d never get a degree and that partly, that defined us as people. But, that didn’t actually stop us from believing that our own version of the american dream was still possible. We knew that however we got there, it would not exactly be a conventional path.
Early on even while we were still looking to try and find away to get into school (circa 2013), we started throwing around the idea of buying a home. As it turns out my friends, the internet is a VERY useful resource. After over a year in research, strategizing, and one failed purchase, we closed on our first home in 2015. But we didn’t stop there.
During our research, we learned about real estate investing and after YEARS of research and planning, we finally pulled the trigger. We sold our first house, bought a second, and rented it out. We’re now officially landlords, just scraping by. Breaking Even.
I know, I know. You came here to read about my debt. Thanks for sticking with me on this, but I needed to establish a foundation to explain why I had the debt that I had.
So knowing that, here’s the rough breakdown as of January 1st, 2020:
Mortgage: $235,000 Credit Cards: $20,000 Personal Loan: $9,000 Auto Loan: $12,000 Retail Installment Loan: $3,000 ------------------- Total: $279,000
If you couldn’t tell already though, we’re not phased by our mortgage debt. Since we’ve turned our house in to a rental property, the mortage will be taken care of in time. However, the rest of it? Yeah, that’s trouble.
We don’t have an excuse. It’s a mix of hard times and mismanagement that brought us to this point. And we plan to eliminate it. All $44,000 of it.
And, we intend to do so while continuing to invest simultaneously. We intend to reach our dream.
We’ve come up with a plan.
It’s not a matter of if, it’s a matter of when.
