Gen z cut off

As of this weekend, my wife and I are officially debt free. It was an incredibly difficult journey, and it feels surreal even typing this.
Last year in January, my wife and I skipped our New Year’s resolution and decided to focus on a single goal: becoming debt free. Somehow, we amassed a total of 43k in debt which included credit cards, car loans, and personal loans. I’ve always been pretty good with money, but somewhere down the line, money got tight and credit lines increase. Throw in a few poorly timed trips (not poorly timed at the moment), and the fact Christmas had just passed, and you can easily see how we got there. The worst part about it was the interest we were paying. We were okay with paying back what we owed, but we realized every month we somehow owed more than what we just paid off. It was maddening. So we got serious and made the decision we weren’t going to continue living like this.
Starting was the most difficult part. Spending money is easy, and spending someone else’s money is even easier. We start getting becoming frustrated with the world. Suddenly we had no money because all of it was going toward paying off the debt. I realized how predatory credit card companies truly are. It was like they knew actually when to increase our credit lines because that’s when we needed it most. But at the end of the day, we had to take responsibility as adults for not managing our finances properly. In all, it took us about 18 months to clear our debt completely. It wasn’t an easy task, but here are a couple of things we did that made clearing out our debt a bit easier:

1. Remove the financial boundaries between me and my wife

The first thing we did was have a VERY open conversation about our finances. We thought we knew everything we needed to know, but it quickly became apparent that we didn’t. We covered a multitude of topics including spending habits, how much each of us brought in (the specific number) on payday, how the money was being divided, what we currently had in our separate accounts, etc. We left no stone unturned, and this led to many tough conversations. But we NEEDED to have it to get to the next step and clear out debt. Once we knew exactly how much we were bringing in every month, we calculated our monthly expenditures. We got this figure by looking through our bank statements and viewing what was being withdrawn every month. We subtracted this amount from our combined take-home pay, and this gave us our available income to contribute towards paying off our debt.

1. Set baseline, “Sweetspot”, and aggressive payment goals

Once we knew how much we could contribute towards paying off our debt monthly, we set goals. Our goals were dynamic, meaning instead of saying “Every month we must contribute x to this debt”, we operated within a range. The range consisted of a baseline goal, The Sweetspot, and an aggressive goal. The baseline was the absolute minimum we must contribute towards our debt. I realized there would be months where life gets in the way and we aren’t able to give as much as we would like. The Sweetspot was our happy place. It allowed us to pay off a good amount of debt every month but also allowed us to keep spending money in our pockets. Most months, we focused on reaching our Sweetspot. The aggressive payment goal was no joke. It was balls to the wall, full throttle, no sunshine, no fun, no lube, and strictly business. This goal pushed the limits of what we could contribute monthly and made up 90% of our available income to contribute to our debt. In the 18 months it took us to clear our debt, we had no more than 5 aggressive payment months. Although effective, it is difficult and not for the faint of heart. Working within this range gave us the flexibility to react to what was happening in our lives on a month-to-month basis. It also let us live a little without living on just bread and butter.

1. Focus on a single debt at a time

Once we established our range, we had to determine which debts to pay off first. It is tempting to want to spread your money out and hit as many debts as possible, but that’s the exact opposite of what we did. It’s much more effective to pool your money together and kill debt one by one. If you spread your money out across multiple debts, you won’t make much progress because of the interest. We first focused on our car loans, as we’re required to make payments on them monthly and it would free up more money to pay on other debts. I had about 4k left on my car and my wife had around 9k. Our monthly payments were $300 and $430, and once paid off, we would have an additional $730 to put toward other debts every month. The most important thing to remember when focusing on a single debt is that you still have to make minimum payments on all other debts. Do not miss payments. You don’t want to work so hard, just for it to hurt your credit score. Every time we paid off a debt, we didn’t sit on the extra money we’d be saving. We added the amount to our available income to accelerate our journey.

1. Stop wasting money

An effective way to help cut down on our debt was to stop wasting money (the Starbucks people were right). We realized we had to make sacrifices to go from 43k to zero, and in this case, that meant eating out less, combining services that we used, zero trips, canceling unused subscriptions, etc. I did some math one day and realized every weekend we spent between $80 to $100 eating out. Yikes. Truthfully it didn’t make a considerable dent in clearing out our debt, however, the money we were saving we were able to hold on to as cash for unexpected expenses.

1. Bi-weekly money talks

This is one of the most important steps that we took in our journey. Every two weeks, we had a talk about our finances and where we stood relative to where we wanted to be. During our talks, we only focused on the specific debt we were challenging and how much closer we were to eliminating it. We did it this way because looking at everything at once became overwhelming, and at times, it felt like we weren’t making progress. We went from 43k to 30k, a difference of 13 thousand and it messed with us mentally because we still had so much left. It’s much easier to digest when you break it down. Our talks lasted between 10 to 30 minutes. We had to make adjustments along the way because even if you have a plan, life doesn’t allow you to follow it easily.
And that’s how we became debt free! It felt like an eternity, but it also came so quickly. If you’re in a position like we were, I encourage you to make a plan and start ASAP. Your future self will thank you for it. What’s next? Well, we plan on saving 72k in two years. Until next time, stay focused!

​
THE SHADOW PEOPLE AND THE RAVEN
​
The Raven alighted on the beach and took off his wings and beak and became a man.
When walking along, the sharp mussel shells attached to the rocks cut and bruised his feet. The day was hot, the sun burned his naked body.
Raven was making his way to the village when he came upon the lodge where the Shadow People lived.
When they saw him coming they said among themselves:
"Here comes that twister of the truth, who is full of conceit and has so many cunning tricks. We will have to watch him."
When Raven entered their house he was glad to get from under the blistering sun as his feet were sore.
Once inside Raven was surprised to see everything was so orderly and clean.
Suspended from the racks on the beams hung salmon and halibut.
The roof planks had been set back from the smoke hole, allowing the light to brighten up every nook and corner.
What impressed him most that there was not a person to be seen.
Raven thought: "I'll do a little snooping around."
There were other foods in abundance: fern roots, barks and berries, boxes of oolichan grease were standing in rows.
He then observed that there was something following him wherever he went.
Although he was not hungry he could not resist the temptation to help himself and finally he selected a nice red salmon.
Then Raven made his way to the elevated platform that surrounded the interior of the lodge and came to the Chief's carved cedar chest, covered with soft sea-otter and other furs. There he sat down in comfort and placed his salmon beside him while he examined his feet which troubled him painfully, but when he reached for his fish it was gone!
He thought that this was a trick of his mind and that perhaps he had not brought it after all.
Going back to where the fish were hung, he selected another and went back to his seat, noticing all the time that a Shadow followed close to him, both going and coming.
To have a stranger tag him like an evil spirit and be unable to see him was rather mystifying. Raven sat and pondered it over.
He laid his salmon beside him and again it disappeared as before.
This business of taking a fish and not having it to eat was getting puzzling.
He tried a third and then a fourth time and it was then he discovered that the salmon he had taken were still hanging on their hooks.
And still beside him on the floor was the same confusing Shadow.
Then he stamped and tramped it on the floor.
While a voice spoke up and said:
"You look to be well fed,
What are you going to do?
Where will this lead you to?"
Whence the questions came,
Raven could not name.
Their bodies were not plain;
He gazed and looked in vain.
Sane or insane was he!
Afraid to wait and see,
He limped toward the door
But, moving as before,
His angry Shadow wriggled.
The others laughed and giggled.
Raven knew ’twas near.
"Something strange is here,
I'll out, and quick away,
They'll have no more to say."
Raven then rambled about the village, passing people who did not appear to notice him and to make sure they did he approached close to where some children were playing games. They paid no attention to him for they did not realize what was on his mind or what he was trying to do.
No matter where Raven went or what he did that day there was no escaping from his shadow.
At last Raven found shelter in a place where there were a number of wooden images.
There he stopped to rest from thinking and to find himself.
Was he more clever than his own intelligence and was he stronger than his own self and would he always have this Shadow for a companion?
Whether Raven found out all these things the Indians do not know, but his deeds and, still more, his conceit, have impressed the Haidas and Kwakiutls through the ages.
Raven rested his thoughts until his feet were better, then he assumed his bird-like shape and flew through the bright and happy skies seeking advice, for Raven had to live by mind and body.
When flying high his shadow followed on the ground far below.

​
THE EIGHT-HEADED DRAGON
( OJIBWA )
​
There was once an old man living alone with his wife.
They had a horse and one dog, a spaniel.
They hunted and fished only in the big lake.
Once upon a time they could not get any fish in the nets, and they were very hungry.
The man went to look after his net in the morning, and found a jackfish with a large head.
As he was going to kill the fish, it said, "Hold on, old man! Don't kill me right away!"
The old man stopped, and the fish told the old man to take all its scales off and not to lose any, and to go and put these in the garden.
It also told him to cut off its fins and place them in the garden, to cut its head off and give it to his wife to eat, half of its body to be fed to the dog, and the other end to the horse.
He told the old man to shut the stable, but not to look at it for four days and four nights, and not to look at the scales for four days and four nights, but each morning after that he could look.
The old man then killed it and took it home.
He told his wife about it; and she asked, "Is that true?"--
"Yes," answered the old man, and repeated all.
"We will obey.
We are poor and hungry; maybe we shall have good luck."
He scaled and cut the fish and put it in the garden.
He also fed his wife, dog, and horse as he had been told, and shut the stable.
For four days and nights he could not sleep.
His wife became pregnant; and on the fourth morning she had two sons, and the old man was glad.
He ran to the stable, and found that the mare had two foals, the dog two pups.
He went to the garden, and there was silver money where the scales had been placed.
There were two fine swords where the fins had been.
The old man ran in to tell his wife what had happened, and they were delighted.
After that the old man caught many fish.
Soon his boys grew up.
One time, when they were home in the evening, the elder boy said, "Are there any other people in the world?"--
"Certainly, there are many people."--
"Where can I find them?"--"You can find them anywhere."
The youth said, "I will start to-morrow to try to visit some people."
He left his sword, and told his brother, "I shall take yours, and leave mine hanging here.
Do not touch it! If I have trouble or if I am killed, it will become rusty.
Then he went off.
About dinner-time he dismounted and drank from a spring.
He found silver water; and when he dipped his little finger into it, it became solid silver.
He put some of the water on the horse's ears, and they became silver.
He did the same to the dog's and also on his own hair.
Then he started off.
When he came to a large town, he took off his clothes, found some old ones, and put rags around his finger and a handkerchief over his hair.
He had a little box in which he put the horse and dog after making them small and hid them in a blacksmith's shop.
The blacksmith looked at him.
"Where are you from?"--"Is there a town here?
I am very poor."--"Oh, come in!"
The blacksmith fed him.
The man said, "I can keep you here," and engaged him to do the chores in the house.
He staid there a while, when one night the blacksmith came home and said,
"The king of this town has a fine daughter, and she is going to be fed to the Windigo that has eight heads.
He eats only people."--
"When is she going to be taken there?"--"To-morrow morning."
The next day, after his work, the young man went out.
He mounted his horse, took his dog, put on his own clothes, and rode out of the city.
After a while he heard some one weeping in the woods.
He turned in that direction, and found a young girl who was crying.
She stopped when she saw him.
The young man asked her, "Why are you crying?"--
"There is no use telling you."--
"Oh, no! tell me! Where are you going?"--"There is no use telling you."--
"Oh, yes! you must tell me."
Then the girl, seeing that he was a stranger, said, "I will tell you.
I am going to yonder bluff.
There is an eight-headed manitou there, and I am going to be eaten by him.
"--"Why?"--"He wants me."--"What if you do not go?"--
"Then he would devour every one in the city.
Therefore I must go."
Then the youth said, "I will go first.
You can go when I come back."--"No, No! you must not go.
I am not going there for life, I am going there to die."--
"If that is so, I must see him first.
"--"Oh, no!" The young man said, "I will go and come back.
You stay here."--"Well, go on! but he will kill you," and she gave the boy a ring.
He then went to the bluff, and saw that the trees were shaken by the breath of the manitou.
He stopped, and said to his horse and dog, "Try as hard as you can to help me," and then he rode on.
The horse and dog sank deep into the soil.
The boy took his sword and cut off one head, which sprang back again.
Then he told his dog to catch it;. and he hit the monster again, cutting off another of his heads.
The dog seized it and shook it.
The youth cut off another one, and the horse kicked it.
When he had cut off four heads, the manitou was not breathing very strongly.
Finally he killed him.
He cut out all the tongues and put them in a handkerchief.
When he came back, he found the girl waiting, and told her that he had killed the manitou.
He told the girl to go home and take the tongues with her, but not to tell who killed the manitou.
"Give the tongues to your father, and say that a young fellow did it, but that you do not know who."
The blacksmith was working at home.
"Where are you going,--home? No, you have to be eaten by the manitou."--
"The manitou has been killed."--"Nobody can kill him."
The girl showed him the tongues.
Then the blacksmith believed her, and asked her who had killed him.
"I do not know, he is a youth."--"Go home and tell your father that I killed him.
If you don't, I will kill you."
The girl agreed, and he went with her.
Her father and mother asked her why she had come back, and she told them that the blacksmith had killed the manitou.
She called him in, and they asked him, "How did you do it?"--
"I hit his tongues."
The king was very glad, and gave the girl to the blacksmith.
The youth went home, put his horse back into the box, and dressed in his old clothes.
There was to be a four-days' dance before the wedding.
After three night's dance, the blacksmith was very glad, and told the boy that this was the last night.
Then the lad put on his clothes.
He came into the lodge and sat down by the door.
The girl knew him at once, and told her father secretly that he had slain the monster.
The king invited him to a better place.
The blacksmith wanted to go out, pretending that his stomach pained him, but he was not allowed to leave.
He was locked up, taken to the sea, and thrown in.
The youth married the girl; and the king gave him half of the town, half of his money, and half of everything he owned, he was so glad that his daughter had been saved.
They went upstairs into their rooms.
There was a window at the top on the east side of the house, and from there could be seen a blue fire at a distance.
"What kind of fire is that?" asked the youth.
"Do not ask about it," said the princess, "and never go near it."
On the next day he took his little horse and dog and went to the fire.
There he saw an old, long house.
He entered the first room, but there was no one there.
After a while he heard some one.
The door opened, and a white-headed old woman came in, and said, "Grandchild, hold your little dog, he will bite me.
I am cold."--"Warm yourself, the dog will not touch you."--"You must tie him"--"I have nothing to tie him with."
So the old lady gave him one hair, and said, "Nosis, tie him with that."
The youth did so, and also tied the horse.
The old woman had a cane.
She touched him with it on the feet, and he died.
One morning the other youth, who had been left at home, saw rust on the sword.
He said to his father, " I fear brother is dead somewhere, for his sword is rusty.
I must go and try to find him."
His father consented, and told him to be careful.
The next morning the elder brother left.
About noon he found the same spring, and did as his brother had done.
In the evening he came to the city and went to the chief's house.
The girl came out and kissed him, and asked him where he had been, but he did not answer.
They had supper, and he thought to himself
"That must be my brother's wife."
At night he refused to go to bed.
Through the window he saw the blue fires.
He asked, "What kind of fires are those?"--"Why did you not go over to see?"
In the morning he went there.
When he arrived there, he saw his brother's horse and dog tied with brass wire, lying down and frozen to death.
He went into the lodge, and saw that his brother also lay dead by the fire.
Soon he heard some one coming.
An old woman appeared, and said, "I am cold."--
"Warm yourself by the fire."--"First tie your little dog."
He refused to do so, and finally said, "Now, granny, make that man and horse and dog alive! If you do not do so at once, I shall send the dog after you."--"Nosis, I cannot bring a dead man to life"--"You have to."--"No."
Then he set his dog on her.
The dog bit her, and the horse kicked her.
"Stop! I'll bring them to life."
He stopped the animals, and the old woman walked forward.
The youth kept away from her cane.
She told him to take up a little bottle and put it on his frozen brother.
As soon as he dropped some of the liquid from the bottle into his mouth, he came to.
She did the same to the dog and to the horse.
Then the brothers killed the old woman.
They took the bottle away from her and went home.
As they rode along together, the elder brother said, "You must be married.
Yes, Your wife mistook me for you, but I only let her sleep with my arm.
That's how I found out."
The younger brother, on hearing this, became jealous.
He drew back and shot his brother with his revolver.
He also shot his dog and horse.
Then he went home, and his wife was glad to see him.
She asked him why he refused to sleep with her last night.
"You only let me have your hand."
Then the brother began to sorrow for his brother.
He took his horse and went back to the corpse.
There he wept over his brother.
His little dog ran around the dead body, and began to look inside the coat.
There he found the old woman's little bottle.
He put some of the liquid on the wound, and thus brought the brother back to life.
Then he dropped some on the dog and the horse, and they all came to.
They went home, put their horses and dogs away, entered the lodge, and sat down.
The younger one's wife saw them, and was unable to tell them apart.
On the following day they started to return to their parents.
When they came to a forked road, they decided to go in different directions.
The elder one took one road, and said, "I will go this way, and my name will be God."
The other said, "I will follow the other, and I will be the Devil."
That's the end of it.

As of this weekend, my wife and I are officially debt free. It was an incredibly difficult journey, and it feels surreal even typing this.
Last year in January, my wife and I skipped our New Year’s resolution and decided to focus on a single goal: becoming debt free. Somehow, we amassed a total of 43k in debt which included credit cards, car loans, and personal loans. I’ve always been pretty good with money, but somewhere down the line, money got tight and credit lines increase. Throw in a few poorly timed trips (not poorly timed at the moment), and the fact Christmas had just passed, and you can easily see how we got there. The worst part about it was the interest we were paying. We were okay with paying back what we owed, but we realized every month we somehow owed more than what we just paid off. It was maddening. So we got serious and made the decision we weren’t going to continue living like this.
Starting was the most difficult part. Spending money is easy, and spending someone else’s money is even easier. We start getting becoming frustrated with the world. Suddenly we had no money because all of it was going toward paying off the debt. I realized how predatory credit card companies truly are. It was like they knew actually when to increase our credit lines because that’s when we needed it most. But at the end of the day, we had to take responsibility as adults for not managing our finances properly. In all, it took us about 18 months to clear our debt completely. It wasn’t an easy task, but here are a couple of things we did that made clearing out our debt a bit easier:

1. Remove the financial boundaries between me and my wife

The first thing we did was have a VERY open conversation about our finances. We thought we knew everything we needed to know, but it quickly became apparent that we didn’t. We covered a multitude of topics including spending habits, how much each of us brought in (the specific number) on payday, how the money was being divided, what we currently had in our separate accounts, etc. We left no stone unturned, and this led to many tough conversations. But we NEEDED to have it to get to the next step and clear out debt. Once we knew exactly how much we were bringing in every month, we calculated our monthly expenditures. We got this figure by looking through our bank statements and viewing what was being withdrawn every month. We subtracted this amount from our combined take-home pay, and this gave us our available income to contribute towards paying off our debt.

1. Set baseline, “Sweetspot”, and aggressive payment goals

Once we knew how much we could contribute towards paying off our debt monthly, we set goals. Our goals were dynamic, meaning instead of saying “Every month we must contribute x to this debt”, we operated within a range. The range consisted of a baseline goal, The Sweetspot, and an aggressive goal. The baseline was the absolute minimum we must contribute towards our debt. I realized there would be months where life gets in the way and we aren’t able to give as much as we would like. The Sweetspot was our happy place. It allowed us to pay off a good amount of debt every month but also allowed us to keep spending money in our pockets. Most months, we focused on reaching our Sweetspot. The aggressive payment goal was no joke. It was balls to the wall, full throttle, no sunshine, no fun, no lube, and strictly business. This goal pushed the limits of what we could contribute monthly and made up 90% of our available income to contribute to our debt. In the 18 months it took us to clear our debt, we had no more than 5 aggressive payment months. Although effective, it is difficult and not for the faint of heart. Working within this range gave us the flexibility to react to what was happening in our lives on a month-to-month basis. It also let us live a little without living on just bread and butter.

1. Focus on a single debt at a time

Once we established our range, we had to determine which debts to pay off first. It is tempting to want to spread your money out and hit as many debts as possible, but that’s the exact opposite of what we did. It’s much more effective to pool your money together and kill debt one by one. If you spread your money out across multiple debts, you won’t make much progress because of the interest. We first focused on our car loans, as we’re required to make payments on them monthly and it would free up more money to pay on other debts. I had about 4k left on my car and my wife had around 9k. Our monthly payments were $300 and $430, and once paid off, we would have an additional $730 to put toward other debts every month. The most important thing to remember when focusing on a single debt is that you still have to make minimum payments on all other debts. Do not miss payments. You don’t want to work so hard, just for it to hurt your credit score. Every time we paid off a debt, we didn’t sit on the extra money we’d be saving. We added the amount to our available income to accelerate our journey.

1. Stop wasting money

An effective way to help cut down on our debt was to stop wasting money (the Starbucks people were right). We realized we had to make sacrifices to go from 43k to zero, and in this case, that meant eating out less, combining services that we used, zero trips, canceling unused subscriptions, etc. I did some math one day and realized every weekend we spent between $80 to $100 eating out. Yikes. Truthfully it didn’t make a considerable dent in clearing out our debt, however, the money we were saving we were able to hold on to as cash for unexpected expenses.

1. Bi-weekly money talks

This is one of the most important steps that we took in our journey. Every two weeks, we had a talk about our finances and where we stood relative to where we wanted to be. During our talks, we only focused on the specific debt we were challenging and how much closer we were to eliminating it. We did it this way because looking at everything at once became overwhelming, and at times, it felt like we weren’t making progress. We went from 43k to 30k, a difference of 13 thousand and it messed with us mentally because we still had so much left. It’s much easier to digest when you break it down. Our talks lasted between 10 to 30 minutes. We had to make adjustments along the way because even if you have a plan, life doesn’t allow you to follow it easily.
And that’s how we became debt free! It felt like an eternity, but it also came so quickly. If you’re in a position like we were, I encourage you to make a plan and start ASAP. Your future self will thank you for it. What’s next? Well, we plan on saving 72k in two years. Until next time, stay focused!