Step-By-Step(h) Financial Coaching

👇 This. I used to be so proud when this memory popped up. But like so much of social media, it was a total facade. Yes, the stats are true. And YES, I'm still proud of the debt we paid off (and that we still have those two cars to this day!🚗🚙). But I am not at all proud of the way we did it. What you're looking at in this memory are two very tired, absolutely miserable people. I had worked 7 days a week for 3+ years, was beyond exhausted, depressed, and angry. Our marriage was broken, and we completely resented each other. I lost a lot of friends, had strained relationships with my entire family, and stopped getting invited to anything because everyone assumed I'd be working and wouldn't come. Everything about this method of paying off debt was toxic. I took "my way or the highway" advice from a delusional rich guy and turned "gazelle intensity" into an addiction that imploded my life. Now, as a Financial Coach helping others take control of their own money lives and money stories, I look back on this post with a pang of regret and side order of shame. Ugh. 🤢 Running myself ragged and my relationships into the ground wasn't a goddamn badge of honor (or cute chalkboard sign) to proclaim to the world. It was literal fucking insanity. And I paid the price for it. For years. It wasn't worth the cost. So please, don't do what we did. Sometimes it is not about what makes the most financial sense in the gurus' eyes. It is about the humans behind the numbers. Their lives, relationships, dreams, priorities and goals. That version of me had it all backwards. But I don't anymore. This is what makes me different. I would absolutely NEVER coach someone to get out of debt the way we did, and I so wish I'd had future me by my side in that dark, lonely journey. Asking ME about MY dreams and MY priorities and MY goals. Asking me if paying off debt SO ravenously was more important than a nephew's soccer game or birthday with grandma. (The answer is no, by the way). I know that sometimes we have to learn from hindsight, but please use my hard-learned wisdom to steer clear of anyone who tells you there's a right way and a wrong way to get out of debt and indoctrinates you into thinking THEIR way is the only right way to do it. And if you don't know where to start. Reach out. I'm here for you now because I wasn't there for myself. #financialfreedom #financialcoach #moneycoach #moneycoachingforwomen #womenempoweringwomen #DebtFree #DebtFreeJourney