Dealing with the emotions that come from debt.

In 2020, my friend was forced to close her massage practice due to shoulder issues. 

 

While she was going through treatment on her shoulder, she held out hope that she would be able to reopen and held onto the rental space, which started her debt issues. She was coming off of a banner year in 2019. So much so that the government then requested more tax money than she had set aside, which increased to the debt issues. To add to her situation, after losing her primary source of income right before the pandemic started, she found it difficult to get steady employment.

Then she reached out to me, and we had a Zoom conversation to talk about what she was going through. After catching up on each other’s lives, we got into her financial situation, which immediately triggered her emotions.
Debt has that ability on a lot of people.
When there isn’t a plan to get out of debt, a person can often feel controlled by it. And when an external force like debt controls you, it can weigh very heavily on you.
 
On average, Canadians have $23,035 of non-mortgage debt that they are trying to service. If your plan is paying the minimum payments, it can take you decades to pay off your debt.  
 
No wonder she was in tears as we started to talk. But those tears also proved to be the first step in paying off her debts. It showed that she knew she needed to take action and find a better way to pay off her debt. And by her reaching out to talk to someone who knew how to help showed that she was willing to put her financial future ahead of her pride.
 
When we looked at her debt strategically, we found a better way of paying off her debt. The plan she had put together would get her out of debt in 13 years. The plan we designed together has her out of debt in just over 3 years. When we came to that number, the look on her face showed just how much relief she had knowing that the control the debt had on her would be gone so much faster than she expected.
Over the next three posts, I will share the steps we will be taking to pay down the debt.
For some people reading this, you might be thinking, “I’m not in debt, so I’ll check back in next week.” Before0 you do that, remember that the average non-mortgage debt amount is $23,035. That means that if you have none, someone you know has $46,070 in debt or more.
If you know of a specific person who can benefit from hearing how to deal with their debt, please forward this post to them so they can use this to build a plan to become debt free.