How I’m Paying Off a 0% APR Loan Before It Jumps to 30% Interest
If you’re trying to pay off credit cards or personal loans while earning around $40,000 a year, it can feel like every financial decision is just choosing the least painful option.
Over the past 7 months, I’ve paid down roughly $6,000 of my personal debt while working a full-time and part-time job on a low income. I’m still in debt—but seeing that number drop has changed how much pressure I feel around money.
It’s taken me a very long time— as long as The Stratagem’s Archives has been around—but I’ve finally managed to drop my $17,000+ personal debt down to roughly $11,000+.
Do you have any idea how much of a relief it is to have that number drop?! I knew that I felt my body was constantly bracing, but I didn’t realize how wound up I was until I let some tension go.
That’s $6,000 eradicated and the money I used for this debt can be used towards my remaining balances.
Of course, my material situation hasn’t changed too much:
- I’m still carrying debt
- I’m still earning roughly $40,000/annually with a full-time and a part-time job
- Rent, necessities, and other expenses still exist
However, the fact that I’ve been making incremental progress on my low salary, to be able to chunk off so much money from my overall debts, is monumental for me.
I felt my anxiety, my anger, my resentment almost melt away—enough where my chest wasn’t trying to crush my rib cage with every exhale.
They’re not completely gone—I still feel anxious, I still hate my situation, I resent past-me for not having as many financial options as present-me does—but it’s enough where I’m not constantly holding my breath.
I HATE debt; I hate the fact that I owe someone else money because I didn’t have the cash on hand at the time something came up. I hate how I can’t save, invest, or use my money the way I want to, but I’ve always prioritized automatically saving and investing anyways.
This—seeing how far I’ve gotten from point A to now—gives me a faint glimmer of hope that I’ll be able to get out of debt after all.
The Debt Lesson I Learned After Years of Using Personal Loans
I was reliving the same money lesson over and over, spending years stuck in revolving debt.
It wasn’t just credit cards I had to deal with either. I had to factor in for the personal loans that I took out because I needed money THEN, that present-me is paying for NOW.
When you earn as much as I do, you don’t have a lot of options when it comes to financial kindness.
Not being financially generous—rather being kinder to ourselves. When you’ve weighed every financial option you had at the time, you realize that you had to pick the less painful option.
Not the most good option; the least painful.
Why I’m Avoiding Personal Loans Going Forward
I decided that, before and after my debts are gone, I’ll never take out a personal loan again, if I can help it, just because I lack the money now.
Keeping as much of my money for myself gives me more agency—both in how I use my money and how I use my time.
Not just working to pay off debt, but giving myself a chance to imagine life past survival mode.
If I managed to slog my way out of $6,000, then I’ll be able to slog my way into saving at least $1,000-$1,500 into my emergency funds.
I used to have almost $20,000 in my emergency fund at one point in my life.
However, I made the best decision at the time a few years ago to use around $15,000 to pay towards my $35,000 car loan.
It was a smart decision at the time, until a real emergency came up. A Ford truck T-boned my car on my way home from work that my car was unsalvageable.
I had more expenses piling up than I could pay off and everyday felt like a noose was wrapping tighter around my neck.
Aren’t You Using The IWT’s Conscious Spending Plan?
Yes, I am using Ramit Sethi’s CSP from I Will Teach You to be Rich, but in my other blog post, Where Do Frameworks and Tools End and Our Thinking Begin?, I explicitly said that I’ve taken that framework and made it my own.
Instead of having 4 numbers to track, I keep track of 3: expenses, savings, and investing.
Guilt-free spending doesn’t exist for me right now because, with my debts, everything falls into my expenses category.
I use credit cards to pay for everything.
I prioritize ensuring my balances are paid off within my next weekly paycheck. Or at least paid off before my credit card’s closing date to avoid interest being adding on.
Being debt free is more important to me than spending money on things I would feel guilty spending on.
My life feels heavier without a small reward every now and again.
However, this was a choice I made because I would rather suffer in the short-term than prolong my debts.
Money, or rather my lack of it, was constantly stressing me out. However, I think that I’ll finally be able to have enough money to go somewhere with a deep bathtub and soak in hot water to congratulate myself on taking care of my debts.
That will be the day where I can experience using my money guilt-free.
If You Made It to The End
If this post made you feel seen, or if you recognized your own situation here, you’re welcome to quietly nod along.
You don’t have to explain yourself—your presence matters.
If you feel up to it, you can like, share, or subscribe to the Archives. Someone might benefit from hearing about tackling personal debt from someone still working on it themselves, rather than from someone without debt.
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