I had a profound epiphany today. I'm listening to this podcast, Pure Hustle Podcast, at work. They are starting to review Dave Ramsey's "Total Money Makeover". As you know, I'm going through the baby steps right now. I was on Step #2 (snowballing your debt), but I slipped back to Step 1 with the office remodel. With a little bit of Step 2. I'm still using the minimum payment from the accounts I have paid off to pay down the next credit account, but everything extra after that goes into the savings account.

The things they talked about in their podcast are things I want. I want to be able to buy a car with just cash - no interest payments. I want to be able to live within my means and save money. I want to be debt free and working for things I want, rather than work to pay off credit cards and loans.

That's why I'm working so hard with the side hustles. Selling on Etsy, selling on eBay, DoorDash, etc. I want to pay off my debt as soon as I can and be able to help my mom out when she needs it. I want to be able to hop on a plane in first class and go see my son. I was over at my mom's today and she's talking about things she wants to do around the house, but can't afford to right now. The carpet has been there since she moved in 25 years ago. The dishwasher finally died, and she desperately needs a new stove and oven  - I think they are original to the house (1970s). But she'd have to redo the entire kitchen to replace them (built into the cabinets).

I want to live without credit cards and loans. It is possible if I can scale down things. Which I'm working on. I think now that my son is moved out, I need to look at the budget and see where I can trim things. Maybe some hard decisions will need to be made. (eek!) But it's late here, so I need to head off to bed.

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