Yo-Yo Debting

Our debt has continued to go down for 7 consecutive months. It doesn’t decrease each month by leaps and bounds but has been on a downward trajectory the whole time.

I’m afraid to jinx it, but I think we may have finally put our ways of yo-yo debting behind us.

You know, yo-yo debting; when your debt goes down one month, only to increase the next month, but then you have a good month for payoff and you repeat the cycle… again, and again, and again.

For the last 20 years of my life, that has been our cycle: up and down and never ending.

But, I think we have finally stepped out of the viscous cycle. We have decreased out debt, every month for eight months, with hard work and diligence. Our debt isn’t gone (oh, how I wish!), but our debt totals have shrank every month.

The last time we got out of debt, we used The Husband’s pension when he switched jobs. There was no hard work involved. That lasted for about five minutes before we tumbled ourselves back into debt.

This time has been different. There haven’t been any quick fixes; but there have been triumphs and setbacks. We’ve had months where we have made great strides and are paying off debt in leaps and bounds and we have had months where we’ve had to transfer money out of our savings to make sure out debt actually decreased. The difference between this time and last time is this time we are doing the work. Admittedly, some months are better than others, but through them all we’ve made progress.

Our total debt has not increased once since we got serious about paying off our debt in September, 2018.

The worst thing about our yo-yo debting was it was all caused by lack of self-control. We didn’t need most of the things we were buying, we just didn’t say no.  We chose to live outside of our means and spend money we didn’t have. Now, we are paying the price for that. But maybe, that will be the price that keeps us out of debt for good. Maybe, having to put in the work will make us realize we don’t want to have to work so hard again. It’s been difficult trying to live our life and pay off debt. I can’t wait until this debt is gone and we can live our life and plan for our future!

Yo-yo debting is a painful cycle and one you have to consciously choose to quit.  It took us over 20 years to decide it was a cycle we didn’t want to be in anymore. And it’s going to take us another 2+ years to actually get out of the cycle. But we’re here. We are scratching and clawing our way out of debt. We have decided yo-yo debting isn’t for us. We are getting out.

Getting out is hard. Especially when you’ve spent 20 years living above your means. Making an effort to live within your means and to budget and to plan takes self-control and I think we are finely there. The stress of debt just isn’t worth it. The stress of hoping we can make all our minimum payments and pay for The Kids activities and maybe have some fun along the way has become too much.

It’s past time for us to take control. To pay off debt and to yo-yo debt no more!