#ItsGonnaBeMAY
- mydollarsandsense
- May 1, 2017
- 2 min read
once
May 2017
Debt Check – 45%
Helloooooo Readers!
Yes it's been a LONG while since I've posted, but for good reason. Life was happening and I had to roll with the punches. However, it's May 1st and I wanted to take a few minutes to write something meaningful.
Back in March, I paid off another debt in full and I didn't get as excited about it. I was "losing steam" in this race to keep going and I couldn't figure out why. So this post is about staying motivated when it feels like you are barely moving the needle!
It's beautiful to think that I really only have SIX more debts left and at the end of this month it will be FIVE. But most days, I feel like I'm missing out on EVERYTHING. Such and such is getting married, or going on vacation (just a moment while I shed a tear for missing the 2nd annual Zumba Cruise), or is throwing a party out of town and wants you to attend. All of these experiences cost money and every time I think about spending money I instantly ask myself, what's this gonna do to my snowball debt plan?
This isn't a way to live!! So I decided to take an approach similar to the way I studied for my CPA exam eons ago. It's quite simple actually. Plan out little nuggets of fun. Waaaaay back when I was studying for the exam, I was studying every single day and essentially had no social life. I could not stay motivated like that and I'm sure a few of my friends constantly got the " I DON'T CARE ANYMORE!" or "I QUIT!!!" text messages. So I took a different approach. One day a week, I didn't study. I didn't do anything related to the CPA exam. I could go to a happy hour, go to the movies, anything I wanted. And I got to choose which day of the week it was. Now that's not to say that most of my "no study days" were actually spent doing those things. In fact, most were wasted on napping and just not having to crack open a book! But guess what, those weekly nuggets of fun didn't stop me from reaching my goal. In fact, it wasn't until I changed my studying regime that I actually started passing the tests!
So how am I translating the CPA exam's weekly nuggets of fun to my debt payoff plan? Of course I am not going to be doing something every week! But once a month, every month, until I finish my debt snowball, I'm going to do something fun! And the best part is, it will be BUDGETED so it won't throw off my timeline for finishing with the debt! Here's what I have planned so far.
May - getting LASIK
June - Undecided.... maybe a Spa package?
July - ZUMBA CONVENTION
August - SkyZoneeee
September - Undecided
October - Undecided
November - USVI Vacation
December - Louisiana Trip
I encourage all of you on this journey to find your nuggets of fun.
So until my next post, I want you to remember one thing.... Just Keep Swimming!
XOXO
Teonna