and how you can too!
Friends, ladies, and gentlemen,…This blog post is a premiere in the history of the blog: it is actually an audio episode! Yes, since I have been on the We Travel There podcast I have been pondering, testing and finally made the decision to experiment with audio as well. Let’s see where this takes us on our journey to achieve our financial goals :)!
The goal of having audio episodes is to add a voice dimension to the blog, having the opportunity to share stories, unique insights from guests who are more experienced in fields where I am not necessarily knowledgeable in. This will also make your car trips, commute, grocery shopping and gym sessions more meaningful (Ok, I am pushing it a bit here, but you get the picture :)).
For today’s post (my first interview as a host 😱!), I have interviewed Virginia Elder from Happy Healthy Abundance to share her story of how she crushed an 80 000 dollars debt. Yes, that is quite a huge amount and as you can imagine this does not happen overnight (unless you have spent the night at the casino), a lot of emotions will come at play and you will need to figure out a plan to crush it. Luckily, Virginia who has been through it all and got out of this bad situation (she was even considering to apply for bankruptcy!) was generous enough to share her story with us.
This episode is for you if you are currently facing some form of debt, or if you know anyone in that situation. Virginia takes us through the whole journey, we talk about the various emotional states one can face when confronted with such high debt and she shares practical actionable steps to go back to a debt-free and abundant life!
or listen on Apple Podcasts or Spotify.
I hope you enjoyed this audio episode and that it gave you the inspiration to take action in case you are in debt at the moment.
Here are my quick takeaways from this episode
- First and foremost debt can overcome anyone, as you can hear Virginia and her husband were doing well in their careers with regular jobs. The debt sneakingly accumulated in the “background”.
- You will face several emotional stages throughout the process.
- Financial education is key to help you make the right decisions (while as I said in the show, emotions will play a major role in your decision-making).
- Working towards a better future and seeing improvements on the way will help you to keep the focus (frankly, I still do not know how she managed to keep it up during those 3 years!).
It is possible to negotiate with credit card companies and there seem to be great people willing to help out in every way they can (Virginia managed substantial interest reduction on her credit card bills and at one company she was offered a $100 gift card to use for groceries).- It requires planning and determination to change your situation.
- Your real friends will stick with you.
- Virginia used the DebtSnowballmethod: This is a debt reduction method where you prioritize paying the account with the lowest balance first.
- If you have young kids, they will not remember what happens in their first years, so it is the best time to be frugal. Wait until they are 7 to take them to memorable places such as Disney World!
- On a side note: I do not know how it works in Europe, but I was very surprised to hear you have to pay AND apply for bankruptcy.
Who is Virginia Elder?
Virginia is a mother of 2, who previously worked as a tax analyst. She now runs Happy Healthy Abundance full time to help moms create a bright future for themselves and their children. You can find her at www.happyhealthyabundance.net, and contact her throughFacebookand Instagram@happyhealthyabundance.
You can read more about her financial journey here and how debt affected her life here. There are plenty of useful articles and tools on her website (even if you are not a mom!). And here isthe blog post where we collaborated on about effortless ways to save money.
So tell me, friends, have you been in a major debt crisis yourself? How did you get out of this? And, again if you know anyone in a debt situation please make sure you share the episode with them!
Since I am starting out with these audio episodes I would also love to hear your feedback on this episode, the sound levels, the ambience, the structure, let me know I am all ears!
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