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If I can do it - YOU can do it!

MerseyLad
MerseyLad Posts: 174 Forumite
Part of the Furniture 100 Posts Combo Breaker
edited 10 September 2020 at 1:40PM in Debt-free wannabe
Back in about 2004, I joined this forum to try and deal with my debt problems. 
At the time, I never EVER thought that I would be able to sort myself out. It was depressing and it was almost all consuming. I had a job that wasn't paying well and my outgoings were pretty much all of my income. I would read the odd post in here about how people had been where I was and how they had managed to turn things around. I just wanted to see a bit of light at the end of the tunnel - I never thought or expected to really get there. But knowing other people were able to do it, gave me hope that there was a chance......and thats why I decided to come back here and write this thread. 

As of today, I am now finally 100% debt free. Its taken me over 14 years and there is no doubt that I could have done it quicker, but the last few years I have be lucky enough to be able to prioritise life over the debt. 

I never really looked all the way back to 2004 until I was thinking about it this week. I logged in to MSE this morning and read the messages I had posted. It made me sad 0 but mostly, its made me proud. Proud that I've been able to tackle it. 
HERE is the 1st post from 2004

At this point, I was earning £850 p/m and paying out about £600 on debt. At 24 years age when all your friends are just starting to see increases in money and availability to do things in life - thats very hard. I did the wrong thing and tried to "keep up" with them and this spiralled into more debt. 
In 2006 I wrote THIS thread and this was around the peak of where I was struggling with my debt. I was in the same job, but now earning about £950 a month but my debt was close to £20k. I had reached the "rock bottom" and I knew I had to do something. This wasn't the largest amount of debt I had in in my life [that would come later], but it was the lightbulb moment where I knew it was affecting everything in my life and impacting massively on my mental and physical health. 

I came back to these forums for some help and advice and as a result I began a series of events that started to make these key changes with my debt. I moved things about. I prioritised what debt needed to be paid and in what order. I kept records of where I was up to, set goals and used the forum as a spur to get things done. Advertising your debt to people you don't know is a bit cathartic and relieved a bit of the stress surrounding it. Being open and honest about my problems with it was a small way of admitting it was a problem and starting to deal with this issue. 

Things got worse before they got better. I had consolidated all of the £20k debts and now had a loan of £22k but I split from a relationship and all the issues and costs that are associated with that [including the costs of a shared mortgage/house] meant I ended up with a further £10-£12 worth of debt in loans, cards and finance. I was now near £35k in debt but was about to start a new job and had hope. 

In late 2006, I was lucky [and worked hard] to get a new job. It was slightly more money and with hard work this has improved as years have gone on and this has clearly helped. But the foundations put in place early on are what helped me to wipe things off one by one and even if I wasn't posting on here much - I was already reading and using it as a motivation. I would return to change my "debt free lightbulb" signature to say how much I owed and eventually cleared. 
Today, I have been able to finally change the last debt on that signature to show I am finally DEBT FREE. 

Its hard to explain how that feels. Back in 2004, I didn't think it was possible but the thought of it would have made me feel I would be free of burden and stress. Life means thats not always going to be the case - there are always issues relevant to the period of time you are living in. But the best thing is knowing that I was there and now I am here. I can do something I thought was impossible and I am back in control of myself and my life. I don't owe anyone anything and I can make my own money decisions now without really having to worry about what impact other things may have on me. 

So.....I have not com here to gloat and I hope it doesn't come across like that. I just wanted to hopefully give just 1 person that hope that its possible. No matter what position you find yourself in. Its possible. 

Good luck to all of you who are still on this journey. May you reach the end as quickly as possible. 

All the best. 

MerseyLad. 

Debt LIGHTBULB Moment - Sept 2009 - *** DEBT FREE SEPT 2020
Coventry BS Loan - was £21300. Now £0 CLOSED Northern Rock Loann - was £7500. Now £0 CLOSED Egg Card - was £5300. Now £0 CLOSED.
Capital One Card - was £5550. Now £0 CLOSED Cahoot Overdraft - was £1500. Now £0 CLOSED.
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