The Foundation

For the past several days, I've been setting up my other blog. It's not that I have so much to say, but a couple years ago, I started posting over on zaadz. I've since removed my content from that site and have found a new place for it. In moving those posts, I reread a few things. One post, from December 2007, struck me in particular.

It was all about clearing the rubble. In it, I wrote:

For the last several months, I have been getting the message that I have to get my debt out of the way if the next chapter of my life is to be written. A few times this year, I’ve practiced going a month or so without making any purchases outside of necessities. (For someone for whom shopping is retail therapy, this was difficult the first couple times. But it’s gotten easier.) I have a deadline to be debt free and am driven to see it happen. I’ve put a plan together and January will find me beginning that plan in earnest.

I'm now 10 months into that plan I mentioned last year, and I'm delighted to say I've done quite well. Wait -- scratch that. I've done very well. (I've gotta stop selling myself short!) I am right on schedule with my debt payoff and savings goal.

2008 was meant to be a foundational year, and you know what? I believe it has been. I've gotten frustrated with myself a lot this year, feeling like I'm supposed to be doing something and not sure what that something is. But maybe I have been doing that something: paying off that debt so that the next chapter of my life can be written. (Maybe 2009 will find me working on my patience as well.)

My healthy financial habits have also helped me feel better about the economic downturn. Mind you, I'm still kinda freaked out, but I'm not half as freaked out as I would be if I still owed more than $20,000 and had no more than $1,000 in savings. I am still trying to calm down about the 401(k) issue, but I won't be retiring for quite some time (unless I hit the lottery, but that's another story).