Hello everyone!

I hope your May is off to a great start. Over the past couple of months, I have really been grinding to pay off this student loan and invest in my future. I’ve been making strides on my payments, but I’ve noticed that I haven’t been living my best life.

Let me explain. If you look up debt free journey videos on YouTube, you’ll find individuals who advocate: to not spend money on things you can do yourself (ex: cook, cut hair, make clothes), to downsize or move-in with in-laws, and to get rid of cars, along with taking extreme measures. They believe that since it worked for them, it will work for you as well. And while I haven’t been that extreme with my money, I have been very tight-fisted with how I spend my money, because every cent counts.

Yesterday I decided to get a manicure; and I rarely get manicures. For some reason, I tend to get my nails done for special occasions (like my birthday) or before a vacation. While sitting at a traffic light admiring my nails, I realized something about myself…I prioritize my financial goals over my overall health and mental state. For example, up until this year, the only time I got a massage was for my birthday. With all of the stress (mental and physical) that I endure throughout the year, I definitely need more than one massage a year.

I have just been so focused on paying off my student loan since October 2018, that I haven’t been practicing self-care. And self-care looks different for everyone, it doesn’t necessarily have to be massages and mani/pedi’s…it can be camping or watching Netflix or even working out. I realized in that moment the low quality of life I would have if I always prioritized my financial goals over my well-being, instead of finding a balance between the two.

Paying off debt does not mean that you can’t enjoy the life God has given you. Paying off debt is just having self-control and discipline to achieve your goals. As I have been learning this lesson and putting it into practice, I have allowed myself more leeway when it comes to purchasing things that I want/need or spending money to make memories with my friends. And if you’re on a journey of financial freedom, I hope you will learn to find a balance between your goals and your well-being.

“So I saw that there is nothing better for a person than to enjoy their work, because that is their lot. For who can bring them to see what will happen after them?” – Ecclesiastes 3:22

At the end of the day, I would rather die having lived a full life, then to die debt-free and deprived of a full life.

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Are you on a journey to financial freedom? What have been some lessons that you’ve learned along the way? Are you interested in becoming debt-free? Check out: The Financial Diet , Make Real Cents, and Broke Millennial. And as if that wasn’t enough to help you out, you can get 10 percent off any set of my cash envelopes using the promo code CASH4U through my Etsy shop. Thanks for reading! Make sure to like this post, comment below with any questions or advice, and share this post with everyone you know.

Love,

Britt ♥