I touched base on this yesterday a bit when I mentioned that living without a car just requires a bit more planning – and now that I think about it a whole lot of stuff applies to having a plan. Becoming debt free is just another plan. So is eating better too. If you have a meal plan you already know what you’re eating for dinner and you don’t have to stop on the way home to buy food or order in when you get home because in the morning you tossed something in the slow cooker. You had a plan, and tonight it’s pot roast.
Becoming better at anything requires a plan. Whether you want to pay down your visa bill, eat better, lose weight, whatever you have to have a plan and stick to it . Showing up consistently and regularly is more than half the battle in life. A lot of times we try to be perfect when good enough will do just fine. We want to run and lose weight, but we don’t want to endure the first week of running where it seems impossible. We’d much prefer to wake up with abs of steel and have to buy new ‘skinny clothes’ instantly.
But as I firmly grasp onto the rungs of middle age I have discovered a few truths and seeing how today I am 1/4 of the way through to my goal of becoming debt free I thought I would share with you what I think it is:
Do something every day. Work at your goal every day. Farting around and humming and hawing and studying and learning are all good but eventually you need to pick up the hammer and just start swinging. But before you go swinging around it’s a good idea to have a plan. Do you hav e nails? What are you building with your hammer? How much time will it take? These are all very important questions to ask and plan for.
A goal comes in handy, I’m finding. About this time last year I was making a meager payment on my Royal Bank Visa when I realized that I’ve been spending and spending. Not a full out spend myself silly with new TV’s and stuff - but a lot of times I had convinced myself that the future would be better so for the time being: “I’ll just put it on the card” I would say. Gas, christmas presents, fifty bucks here, and fifty bucks there.. it all went on the credit cards. Then I’d pay a bit and my balance would go down and then slowly it would creep right back up to where I was a few months ago, and it’s because I didn’t have any sort of plan or notion to get out of debt. Someday will better I thought and kept telling myself. But you have to make those some days happen. The phone’s not going to ring all by itself. You have to do the work so that you’re ready for the call and almost expecting it to come.
Five years is a good time frame. Now, if you’re twenty and you’re reading this I know it seems like five years must seem like a million. But for the rest of us five years 0r even less is very good goal. It’s doable. When I started photography school in my 20′s I went to the college to ask what camera to buy on day 1. Two years later I graduated and had my photos published in popular daily newspapers and even the national enquirer. But those two years of studying and planning for those days to happen meant driving crappy cars where you had to change the spark plugs weekly and sleeping in little basement apartments that was just a corner of a room. Lots of all nighters and lots of crappy photos were made too along the way . But I had a plan. I wanted to be a news photographer. And for a very short time, I was (turns out my skill is with a mouse, not a camera, but that’s a story for another day). And all the cold winters outside shooting bad photos and making prints all night ( I’m older than digital) was worth it because I had a plan and I stuck to it.
So now I need a new plan. The first is to become debt free in the next 750 days. I’m not certain I’ll make it but I want to spend more time on this site and start to add some value. The first 250 days so far for this site have been learning. Learning how to write and learning that pink kitty litter is easy to get on the front page of google. I’ve also slacked off with this site too . There were days where there was no consistency and I would go days without updating it and then when I did I would write about my new haircut . Not a whole lot of value with posts about haircuts don’t you agree?
I do know when I finally wrap up this little project I want to know that I helped just one person. Just one. Maybe even if it’s just that you realized that your own personal situation isn’t that bad after you’ve read about the hole I’ve dug myself into. That would be enough. Or maybe just a laugh or a comment.
Once the debt is paid off, I want to save a small down payment and have a small home and if needed a small car. I want to continue to make my income online in some fashion as that’s what I do best. I find a need and fill it online. Lots and lots of misses, but a few hits along the way too. I also enjoy the challenge.
At almost 1000 words, I’ll wrap this up. I have my eye on the prize and it’s this: Debt Free with a small home (and probably mortgage) I can call my home and enough income from online projects to keep me housed fed and full of starbucks. 
Five years and counting…
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