From Debt Spiral to Purpose Driven Financial Freedom
Written by Eugenie O.
Becoming debt free has nothing to do with a tighter budget.
I am so excited to introduce myself to the Mint Worthy Community. I have been an avid reader of Vanessa's content for some time now and found it to resonate and help me along my finance journey truly. And yes, it has been quite a journey! I hope that by sharing my story with you all, some may leave this post feeling as if they, too, can completely transform their relationship with money and their entire financial circumstances.
The story goes like this. It's as if for the first few years of my twenties, I had completely turned a blind eye to my debt. I was living my new adult life, and well, debt was just part of it... right? Until I woke up one morning to the sickening realisation that I had blown through my $20,000 line of credit, I had opened as a student and now had nothing to pay off that month's credit card statement. The worst part? I didn't have a clue how I wound up in this mess.
To put it into context, I had just landed a great new job 3,000 kilometres from home and was taking the giant leap of purchasing a home in this foreign new city with my partner. As far as the outside world was concerned, things seemed to be going well. I realised how fortunate I was to be living such an adult lifestyle while I was relatively young. Still, I was drowning in anxiety and spiralling into depression, all of which made it so very easy for me to turn a blind eye to my finances.
To deal with this discomfort, I found myself turning to good old retail therapy. What had gone from the occasional purchase became almost a daily practice. I spent more and more time on Instagram, following the cutest little boutiques. Everything they had seemed so perfect, and that just obtaining one more thing would somehow make my life complete. From clothing from cute little boutiques to fancy coffee machines and high-end diffusers, I shopped for it all. I found a way to rationalise every unnecessary purchase with the classic "I work hard, I deserve this," or "Well, it looked great on Liz, and she looks so happy."
Growing up, I was raised by frugal parents and worked a lot throughout high school and college to help contribute to my expenses. So how did I end up in this position, suddenly having blown a great deal of money with nothing meaningful to show for it? As I looked around, I saw I wasn't alone. I realised that millions of others had turned to shopping as a form of instant gratification and excitement, especially in one of the most stressful periods many of us have experienced.
It's become increasingly apparent that social media-based retailers have been leveraging the general consumer's mindset of lack and ultra-consumerism. This shopping problem I developed had not happened out of nowhere, and the more I shopped, the more beautifully enticing items popped up on my Instagram feed.
After this realization, I put my head down and got to work. I took on four extra side hustles and implemented some helpful budgeting tactics. In just under a year, I was $1,000 dollars away from being debt-free.
Just as my debt was about to be paid off, things suddenly took a turn for the worse. The second wave of the pandemic hit, and a few months later, I found myself in another $10,000 of consumer debt. I was honestly shocked. How had this happened yet again? After having put in so much work, I felt like giving up. At this point, I was both so angry and ashamed. My relationship with my fiancée was so strained, and I didn't know where to turn. I had done this to myself once again.
Just as I was about to accept my fate as someone who would likely be in consumer debt all my life, I stumbled upon a very different approach to money. For the first time, I read about the concept of money mindset, shifting my perspective of financial lack to building an abundance mindset.
It's as if it finally clicked; I now understood how I had spiralled back into my old spending habits so quickly. The more I read, the more I understood that my relationship with money was what had gotten me back into debt yet again. I had wholly self-sabotaged my progress, and it came from a place of lack of control.
My money mindset was based on not having enough and not being enough as I was. I had operated out of a scarcity mindset, and every time I was shaken, I would go out and purchase something to fill the scarcity void.
The more I understood that getting out of debt was about healing my relationship with my emotions first and with money, the more confidence I gained to manage my money, and direct it purposefully.
Now that I am debt-free and have completely transformed my relationship with money, I want to share some tangible strategies I have used to overcome financial turmoil for good.
Journaling about my relationship with money
Journaling has been the most critical step for me. This blog from Mint Worthy specifically helped me identify where my limiting beliefs stemmed from and how to radically transform my mindset.
Healing my relationship with health and wellness
As cliché as it may sound, the absolute first step in my money mindset transformation was taking proper care of myself. And by this, I mean just essential self-care. By making sleep a priority, eating in a way that makes my body feel its best, spending time outdoors, and moving my body whenever possible, I felt like a whole new person, ready to take on absolutely anything. Only once your body feels taken care of can your mind do the necessary work of gaining financial clarity and shifting your money mindset.
Reading and working with financial practitioners (based on transforming beliefs)
For me, getting out and staying out of debt required deep emotional healing, rather than the more conventional methods of simply implementing a firmer budget. The truth that we tell ourselves is so powerful. For the longest time, I held onto the limiting belief that I wasn't enough, that I didn't have enough, and I never would. It was only after reading a lot and working with excellent professionals that I was able to entirely reframe this limiting belief and move forward.
Diving into my 2–5-year goals
It was so vital for me to figure out my why. Why was I working so hard, and for what? What were my values? And would my purchases support my core values? By mapping this out, I recognised that my impulsive spending was not contributing to my values. Once I identified that my values are rooted in connection, I began to experience so much more joy. I now direct my money towards experiences that bring me closer to nature and the people I love.