All photography provided by Jared Chambers

I once owed more money than I have made in a year.

my story

My hair was falling out from the stress of it.  At age 35, with tail tucked between my legs, I moved back in with my parents. 

Beyond broke, I was broken.

I had already made a commitment to not incur any new, unsecured debt.  But I couldn’t keep up with my payment plans and health insurance premiums.  When I got six months behind on my credit card, they sold the debt to a collector.  The collector called my parents’ home phone a dozen times a day.

I was defeated.  I was ashamed and embarrassed.  I was physically unwell.  I was overwhelmed by the number of people I owed.

Somehow I stumbled into the thing that would get me out of this.

A few years earlier, I had been living paycheck to paycheck in a commission only job – and I didn’t know when the next paycheck was coming.

I had bills that totaled a certain amount.  And all the money I had in the world was only 60% of that total.

I sat with some patient and wise friends who helped me come up with a plan.  Pay this one, pay that one, pay half of this one.  Call these people.  Work.  Pray.  Work some more.  See us again in six weeks.

What we were doing was making a plan for what to do with every dollar that I had.  We totaled it all up, and planned for every bit of it, all the way down to zero.  I found out later this is called Zero-Based Budgeting.

I continued this practice, while living with my parents, after I got a new job in a call center.  I was then able to save a $1000.00 emergency fund, get out of living paycheck-to-paycheck, move out, and pay down all of my debt.

I replaced the transmission in my car without batting an eye, have taken half a dozen vacations paid in cash, purchased a couple of musical instruments, started practicing yoga, and replaced my laptop and cell phone.

I even took a summer off of work – just because I wanted to.

I did all of these things on my call center salary.  I have yet to make in a year as much as I once owed.

When I was under that mountain of debt I could not see how I would ever get out.

I used to think good things were for other people, not for me.

I used to think you had to make six figures in order to not live paycheck to paycheck.

But I was wrong. 

What I needed was structure. 
 

I needed a particular way of framing what I was doing with my money and where it was going.  I needed money clarity so I could make better decisions.  Once I had that, I could prioritize what was important to me and reach my goals.  I could live the life I wanted to live.

Now I show people about how they can do this too.