So sometimes when you’ve been blogging for 8+ years, it can be hard to find things to blog about (which has been extra obvious to me this year as I dropped down to one post a week from total computer burnout).

But I had sort of forgotten that shortly after starting my blog, I actually wrote a Money Manifesto, which lives under the About Me section on my blog. It’s a list of my (mostly) money related goals for life.

I wrote this thing in 2013 and I figured it was a good time to revisit what was essentially a goal list I created ages ago and evaluate my thoughts and progress on each of them all these years later.

The top thing on my Money Manifesto was “I will pay off all my debt.”

I flipping love that this was my number one goal.

I took on a fair amount of debt to obtain my Masters degree in Theatre and Performance Studies in 2010.

That debt was actually the #1 catalyst to me becoming a personal finance blogger.

I went to grad school with about $10,000 in the bank. To attend, I borrowed $20,000 from my grandma (which was an amazing and lucky 0% interest loan, though I did pay back every interest free penny – except the last payment of $1,000 which she gifted to me).

I borrowed $3,000 high interest dollars from Sallie Mae, which took roughly 5 minutes, no questions asked, in that application. Super sketch, Sallie, super sketch.

And I had about $10,000 in debt in my credit cards when I graduated.

I went back to work full time in mid-June 2011 and finished writing my dissertation while working.

I graduated on 10/31/2011.

I paid off the last bit of debt from this crazy adventure on 11/15/13. In 2012 and 2013, I earned about $35,000 a year.

In some ways, I’m grateful for that experience because I learned so much about money from it.

I remember working a job I absolutely hated and being so aware that I couldn’t just quit because even though the job provided my housing and I had super minimal life expenses, I still had all these debt payments to make.

I am not in any way encouraging debt as a way to learn to make better financial decisions, but I have notice in my years in the pf blogosphere, that it does seem to be a hell of a catalyst.

Some key things I did to get rid of that debt:

I debt avalanched it.

I did the minimum payments on all three (and grandma was amazing and deferred what I owed her till I got the Sallie Mae and my credit cards under control – another totally lucky and privileged move in my world). Then I threw every extra dollar at the highest interest debt.

Then I set an agreed upon monthly amount with grandma and made sure it was the minimum I paid her each month. We agreed on $500 (though in her very grandmotherly ways, she told me not to worry if it ever needed to be less). I did everything I could to make it $1000 a month.

Also, for anyone thinking of borrowing from family, by all means, go for it. But you may find your zero percent interest rate come with some unexpected catches. Like I got all kinds of shit from grandma about going to Peru with my cousin for two weeks during this payoff period, even though I was meeting our agreed upon amount of $500 a month, because she just didn’t like the idea of girls in Peru alone. You are kind of opening a lot of your life to criticism from the person you owe money to.

I 100% consider this better than interest payments, but it’s also a very real thing.

Nothing in life comes without a catch.

I will also say that when my grandma passed away in 2014, when we were going through her things the thing that made be break down and bawl like a baby was that she kept the last little note I sent her with my final repayment check and on the envelope she wrote the date and a little note that I had paid her back in full. I was astonished she kept my silly little letters to her because I always wrote a full note about what I had been up to that month when I sent her a check. We were very close even though I spent so much of my 20s on the road.

I took jobs that covered my housing.

I really think my top tip, if you owe money anywhere to anyone, is to find employment that cover your living expenses.

I can’t speak for other careers, and heaven knowns the arts are a hard career to make it work, but one of the things we do have going for us is that a large number of gigs come with housing.

Not all, not by a long shot, but quite a few do. And I lucked out further and wound up on cruise ships for quite a few years, which paid for food too.

If you can buckle down in the early debt years and put the equivalent of a rent payment towards your debt, you will generally make some really good progress.

I got my hustle on.

I’ll level with you, I think my hustle peaked in 2014 when I first moved to NYC, and I was looking for things to do for post for this blog. And also my budget was pretty tight between NYC rent and trying to make my savings and investing goals.

But early on in majoring in theater, after I realized that maybe I really could make a career out of stage management, I started listening to all the folks who warned about how hard it was to make it in the arts.

My hustle started with becoming a substitute teacher – a gig that took me through many times between contracts in my career.

Folks. I hate substitute teaching. BUT I am so grateful for the income it provided and I always tried to do my best so that the kids had no idea how much I hated being there. And subbing for high schoolers really isn’t that bad…. assuming they don’t start throwing desks at each other during your class.

Other side hustles I started during this time include blogging, freelance writing, and mystery shopping. None of them were a magic bullet, but all of them were helpful in their own ways.

But also how does paying off $30,000 in debt linger with you nearly 10 years later…

WELL

I am about to move to England to work on PhD, which has a pretty strong connection both to that debt and to where I racked it all up.

I am nervous about possibly going back into debt with this decision. With my overall net worth in a way it will be negligible, but I refuse to touch any retirement savings to do this, especially since I’ll be in my early 40s when I finish – 40 if I finish exactly on time and 41 if I use the writing up year… which I currently do plan to use.

Total sidenote, but 41 just does seem crazy. Like… what a grown up number? But I’m 37 and I’ve got to level with you  – when I think in terms of things I’m really skilled at (which is largely relegated to stage management and my faith…) I think, yeah, I know what I’m doing there, but then essentially… I think I’m 27 forever in my head. And also it’s ridiculous when I’m the grown up in the room.

Sidenote done.

I saved up a little over 2 years tuition and my dad offered $5000 a year (yes, I am aware again of how lucky I am), which bring me a whopping approx.$5000 short in funds to pay my tuition.

However my previous dance with debt makes me very reluctant to take on any more.

BUT I do also think back on my previous time in England and after graduating, there are a few things I wish I had done that would’ve put me a little further in debt but overall seemed worth it.

I played in the local band for a few months, but you had to pay dues to play and at the time I felt like I that wasn’t worth the extra money.

I totally should’ve stuck with it.

I wish I’d gone on a few city breaks. I could’ve easily spent the weekend in almost any city in continental Europe for $500 or less. I wish I’d done that 3 or 4 times.

It’s so hard to find a proper life balance with money sometimes.

Overall though, I try to remind myself that when I started this blog, I had a fair amount of debt to pay off and a net worth of about $30k. It’s been 8.5 years and now I have no debt and a net worth of almost $380k.

So at least I’ve nailed one thing on the Money Manifesto. Now the goal is to not go back into debt.