Tuesday, January 28, 2014

The Name of My Blog

You may be wondering why my blog is named "My Debt Emergency."  After all, just considering the amount of my outstanding balance of student loan debt would be enough to freak anyone out.  Now I have to look at the word "emergency" every time I go to write a new post.

This is intentionally so, as the name "My Debt Emergency" simultaneously freaks me out and makes me laugh.  One of the bloggers who inspires me and is causing me to make some serious shifts in my attitudes towards money, finance, and debt is Mr. Money Mustache.  You may have heard of him.  He retired from his office job around age 30 and is living a good life with his family, unburdened by debt and only works on things he wants to work on.

His blog post called "News Flash: Your Debt is an Emergency!!" really resounded with me.  Here is what he wrote:

"Your Debt is not something you 'work on'. It is a HUGE, FLAMING EMERGENCY!!!"

He also compared debt to having a swarm of killer bees constantly stinging you:

AAAAAUUUUUUGGGHHHH!!!! THERE IS A CLOUD OF KILLER BEES COVERING EVERY SQUARE INCH OF MY BODY AND STINGING ME CONSTANTLY!!!! I NEED TO STOP IT BEFORE I AM KILLED!!!”

I had a few laughs over this.  So whenever I read the name of my blog, I have a laugh when I'm reminded of this quote by Mr. Money Mustache, and I hope you do too.

The truly insightful portion of his blog post:

"The more vigorous method has multiple exponential benefits: every dollar of debt you pay off creates a compounding snowball of savings that continue for a lifetime. And every dollar you manage not to waste, builds your skill at saving money and learning to spend it more efficiently. These skills stick with you for life as well.
So if you still have a car loan, credit card, department store or even a student loan debt, you should destroy that as a prerequisite to beginning the more relaxed stage of saving for financial independence. At the later stages, you can start to take it easy, but right now is the time for some hard work. Depending on your life situation, you might decide to go car-free, live with roommates, eat a vegetarian diet, take on extra jobs, delay parenthood, enjoy only local travel, and do any number of other things to get the job done. This stage will be short and effective."
While I have no consumer debt (anymore, thankfully), I have to come to terms with the fact that I am indebted to several lenders and will be until this debt is eliminated, and that killing this debt will take a lot of hard work.  It may hurt a little, but it will be worth it.  The biggest thing I have to gain from all this is that the more effective I am at eliminating this debt, the more I will have learned about being smart with my money and making it go as far as it can.  That, in my view, is one of the best investments I can make over my lifetime.



2 comments:

  1. Love this - good for you. I found you on No More Harvard Debt. I too have a ton of law school loans that I am working SO hard to get rid of ASAP. My coutdown is on at 2 years right now (I don't have the undergrad loans you do). Good for you for starting a blog (something I keep telling myself I will do!). I will try to follow along and hope that you keep it up. I agree - student loan debt = pants on fire emergency! Best of luck! And keep blogging!

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    1. Thank you so much! :) I appreciate your kind words and support. Good luck paying down that debt in 2 years - you can totally do it!

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