Keep going, it’s the best and only option.

Staring at your bank account won’t make it grow faster

Sometimes the needle isn’t moving as fast as I’d like.

At least that’s how it feels when I check it constantly.

Checking our bank accounts for massive growth EVERY DAY is a recipe for disappointment.

It’s like watching water boil.

It’s a slow and painful experience when you just stand there and stare at the pot.

I often feel like the effort we are putting in to our financial growth and the actual growth don’t match up.

You guessed it, I feel like the effort FAR outweighs the growth.

But when I take a step back and stop staring at the water, take my mind off it, maybe even stare out the window for a minute, the next thing I know the water is boiling over!

The same thing is happening to our bank account right now.

It’s about to boil over… in a way…

sorta……

let me explain.

Bubbles are forming in our bank account!

We are on track to become 100% debt free VERY soon.

(About a month away if a few things work out the way they are supposed to!!)

When we blow our debts off the face of the planet once and for all (and add in a few other savings explained below), the pot will start to boil.

Like flipping a switch, we will soon be debt free AND see an increased cashflow of around $1,000/mo.

WHAT?!?!?!

Yeah dude, here’s the break down:

• $400/mo for last years taxes. (Gone when we pay it off next month.)
• $400/mo in extra tax payments for this year because we started paying late. (Gone when we send in a check to get caught up.)
• $100/mo student loan payments. (Gone when we pay them off next month.)
• $100/mo drop in rent because our deposit has been rolled into our rent until now.
• $50/mo drop in car insurance because we switched.
• $20/mo drop in life insurance because we switched providers and got more coverage!

Total = $1,070

There’s a really good chance we will be able to accomplish all of these things next month. (Carrie has a client that hasn’t paid in a while and we are expecting a five figure check in the mail at anytime! That’s where this “extra” money is coming from.)

At the very least we will do all of them except catch up on this years tax payments. Worst case scenario we are up $670/mo. Then we continue to make double payments on this years taxes and get completely caught up in April. Then at that point we will be saving the full $1,070.

Words. Can. Not. Describe. How. Excited. I. Am. About. This.

So what’s up with all this frustration dude?!

I’ve got one answer with both practical and emotional undertones. (And so it goes with everything money related.)

Fighting your way up to the starting line doesn’t feel like progress, but it is.

Imagine having to run 10 miles just to get to the starting line of the marathon.

Can I shave off 10 miles at the end of the marathon please? I just ran 10 to get to the starting line! NO?! WTF DUDE!

Spending so much money just to get to the starting line doesn’t feel practical. It doesn’t feel like progress. It feels like wasted effort. Effort that the only credit you get for is the ability to start the race all over again. Sheesh!!

Another force is at play…

The difference between un-realistic expectations and reality is disappointment.

In other words… Just because I think or feel like we should be making progress faster than we are doesn’t mean that the progress that we are making isn’t right, earned, correct or good.

If I wanted to make 100k progress every month but only made $75k progress every month I would be disappointed. But being disappointed in $75k progress every month would be ridiculous.

But that’s how it goes. Unmet expectations.

Stronger because of the weights you’ve thrown off

If there’s any good news at all…

You could say that we’ve been walking around wearing $1,070 pound financial weights.

And we’ve been getting by just fine.

More than just fine.

We’ve been enjoying life, taking trips, eating food. We even have a car, a house, heat, two kinds of water (hot AND cold). We’ve got this machine that washes our clothes for us. We have electricity that powers computers and access the this wonderful/terrible thing called The Internet. We can afford to go to the doctor when we need to. We have everything we need.

Having the financial weights has forced us to prove that we can make it by just fine WITH the weights.

When the weights come off we will be stronger because we carried them for so long.

Had we never had the weights we might not have forced ourselves to carve out the extra $1,070/mo. It was forced on us, we had no choice. We aren’t above the lure of lifestyle creep or the temptation to spend as much as you earn. We are human too! If it weren’t for the debt forcing us to meet it’s demands, we easily could have just spent the $1,070/mo on something silly.

Maybe this is just an optimistic way of looking at a less than ideal situation that we’re stuck with anyway. (But not for much longer!)

One foot in front of the other

I don’t usually feel this mix of frustration and excitement.

I think it’s because we are soooooooo close to becoming debt free that these feelings have crept up to the surface.

A few years ago when debt-freedom looked like far off smoke on the horizon I didn’t think about it as much. We just put one foot in front of the other.

Now that it’s close I’m reminded of why we are in this situation. What it all means. And how different things will be very soon.

All those months of putting in the effort when the water refused to boil is finally paying off.

The effort we put in over the months and years is the reason why the water boils now.

The world is paying attention to our efforts and we will be rewarded.

We will shortly be debt free and able to start saving and investing $1,000/mo.

And it’s only up, up, up from there as we increase our income. It’s off to the races folks!

Keep going, it’s the best and only option.

It will pay off. It might feel painfully slow now but it will happen in it’s own time.

-Derek