A while back, I posted an update on my student debt situation, and I realized that the post was over a year old. Since then, a lot has happened (including a complete basement renovation), and I wanted to share an update on how I was able to knock my debt all the way down to under $10,000 today, from $37,900 in September 2017.

No New Projects

The first order of business was to put a stop to new projects for the timing being, to allow me to focus on knocking back my debt. The renovation cost me almost $10,000, and this was a huge setback in terms of paying off my debt. We now have an awesome gathering space in our basement of course, but that’s beside the point 🙂

Once the basement renovation was done, I took all of the disposable income I have each month and started sinking it into paying off my line of credit. This made a HUGE difference to the amount I was able to pay off each month.

Invest My Holiday Bonus

It’s tempting to use that holiday bonus to treat yourself. In my case, it was even more tempting to invest it all into my RRSP for retirement. But because paying off this line of credit is my number one priority right now, I chose to accept my bonus as a cash payment, and put the whole thing toward my debt. This made a big dent in how much I owed!

Get a Side Hustle

Rather than focus on drinking less coffee or whatever, I chose instead to find ways to earn more income. I found myself a side hustle that makes fantastic use of some of my latent skills, and began using the incremental money to even further accelerate my debt repayment.

Fewer Extravagant Date Nights

“*GASP* what is he thinking?! Oh his poor wife.”

…hang on.

This was something I consulted with her on before making the call. Any decisions that affect both of us are made by both of us, always. In this case, we both decided that getting my debt paid off was a priority, and chose to make a bit of a game out of how little we could spend while still enjoying ourselves.

This mentality has a trickle-down effect that spills over into other areas of your life, and what we’ve noticed is that we’re just as happy spending quality time while spending less money. Even after the debt is paid off, I hope that at least some part of this mentality lives on, because it means we’ll both reach retirement just that much sooner.

Track Every. Damn. Expense.

Ok, so this one doesn’t directly contribute to debt reduction. It does make a difference indirectly, though. By tracking all of my incomes and expenses in an Excel sheet, I’m forced to confront my spending patterns head-on. There’s no hiding from it, and the guilt of having to mark down that new pair of shoes or whatever, and watching my debt-free date push out by two weeks, is a painful feeling.

I use that pain to keep me focused on the goal, and it has made all the difference in keeping me from overspending on stupid stuff I don’t need.

Wrapping it Up

I think I’m more focused now than I ever have been before on getting this line of credit paid off. Life has a way of throwing curveballs at you, and you never know what’s going to come your way. I realized that, with all the money that needs to come out of my account every month and no emergency fund to rely on, a crisis such as a lost job would be absolutely crippling.

I never want my money to force life decisions on me, and that’s exactly the position I find myself in right now. Having been fiercely independent ever since I was a teenager, even needing to rely on a certain level of income feels painful to me, and so this is the game I’m playing right now.

How little can I manage to live off of every single month? The lower that number, the more liberated I’ll feel… and that feeling of liberation is part of my recipe for happiness and peace.

Total outstanding debt: $9,800