3 Long Years

Good morning, I have bought your book twice because I gave my first copy to my ex-husband when we got divorced as I thought he needed it more than I did at the time. We were together for about 8 years, and I ended up supporting us as best I could for about 2 years while we bought a commercial fishing vessel and he became his own captain as fishing is the love of his life. I accrued about $4,000 in credit card debt. After our amicable divorce, I worked on paying off my credit card. Then the saga of my support dogs medical problems started. Over the last three years, I have spent about $17,000 on her for: two ACL surgeries, removing a bone tumor from her head and we had to fly to WSU, flying down for a follow up six months later, and lastly two root canals because she hit a trailer hitch and broke her front teeth off chasing a ball. Two months ago when she broke her teeth, I was able to pay the $1,200 vet bill with cash and not have to put more money on my credit card for this unforeseen medical expense. I have also worked as much overtime as possible at my job, and had a few other part times jobs over the course of the last two years, sacrificing many adventures with my support dog, fun social events, and sleep. It has been a very long, hard road, especially as other medical bills happened and my goal date of debt-freedom would come and go. I paid for my dad???s Subaru with cash when he bought a new one and I worked my butt off in college to graduate with no debt, so having credit card debt was my first experience with paying a finance charge, and it hurt every month, year after year. I have followed your principals as best I could (sometimes better than others), and by showing restraint, having a budget and sticking to it, and making sure that I have an emergency fund, today is the day. I worked 28 hours of overtime last pay period (119.75 hours of OT this year), and I am finally able to pay off my credit card for good. Not gonna lie, I might be a little weepy right now. I have to thank you for giving me the tools to set myself up for success, if I wanted it bad enough. And trust me, I told myself many times ???don???t buy things with money you don???t have???, and ???one day I will be able to pay for all of this and more without having to buy it on credit???. Along the way I have also been able to save for retirement, and in July I was able to purchase my first house, a townhouse end unit condo in the same neighborhood I was renting in. (I will say that the housing market is odd in Juneau, Alaska, and I paid more in rent than I do for my mortgage.) In showing restraint, and giving reasons for why I didn???t always participate in fun group activities, one of my other friends has also found the motivation to change his ways and actively work to pay off his credit cards and live without finance charges. Another friend has taken a serious look at her financial life and is also making some positive changes. Being able to pay off my credit card today is probably a day I will celebrate as an annual holiday for a few years. It???s kind of a big deal. And I'm not even ashamed I'm a little weepy.