Once after a trauma happened to me while living in Los Angeles I charged $1,000 on my credit cards. I spent a year paying that off and each month reducing debt. As I don’t have debt, it was incredibly stressful.
Part of our challenge in finding a house as I record this, is houses are selling above appraisal in Wheeling, WV. Now, we might be dead before we sell our house or we might need to downsize even further. You don’t know what life holds. But, we are being smart. We also almost have this house paid off in Angier, North Carolina, and we aren’t going to take on massive debt, even with great interest rates. Are two ER bills going to stress me out? Yup, but we can probably cover it and I am not opposed to working on getting it reduced. Trying to reduce debt can be challenging but you can do it! I read success stories all the time.
Now, while reducing debt is something that you can easily tackle and will most likely take some time, this is designed to get you moving and get you started and take away the overwhelm. I have had clients so paralyzed that they haven’t been able to open their bills. You aren’t alone. Here are three quick actions you can take.
Take Actions from today’s podcast:
- Create a budget
- Sell your clutter
- Step away & be aware of your clutter kryptonite
- Being tackling your debt
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Certified life coach, author & award-winning professional life organizer Julie Coraccio shares steps and tips to support you in creating the life you choose, deserve and desire through decluttering your life, mindfulness and how to organize your life.
About Clear Your Clutter Inside & Out
Clutter is stuck stagnant energy and prevents you from creating the life you choose, desire and deserve. We discuss clutter in all its forms: energetic, spiritual, emotional, mental & physical, relationships, health, finances and more. We share tips and take action steps for clutter free living and how to organize your life and death with end of life planning. We’re thinking outside the box on areas where people might not realize where clutter is blocking them. When we remove clutter from our lives we can discover our passions, lead the extraordinary lives we are all meant to live and share our gifts with the world.
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Transcript
Julie Coraccio 0:01
Today on Clear Your Clutter inside now, we’re talking about getting a handle on debt. Do you cringe every month when all of your bills come due? Are you worried about how you’d cover an emergency? Have you found yourself feeling like you’re going to spend the rest of your life paying off interest and never feeling like you’ll break even or get ahead? Learn how to begin to release the financial clutter of debt. As we continue our month focused on three actionable steps to declutter your life. Do you control your clutter? Or does your clutter control you? Unclear your clutter inside now we’ll teach you awareness as well as action steps to create change in your life. Come on, let’s get started. The last episode was about stress. Today, episode was inspired because I see many people and debt and just plain overwhelmed. You know, many people who were doing okay COVID happen, and many have gone into debt, their stresses increased. I think with COVID, the more read and learn and peers like the wealthy got wealthier, and people were maybe middle class and below really suffered the most. One, when I was living in Los Angeles, I had a trauma and I charged 1000 bucks in credit card, you might think and that’s not that much. But this is probably about 15 or so years ago now even more than that made probably 2025 years ago. And so I don’t know what that would be equivalent today. I took a year to pay that off. And for someone who always pays in the credit card. And I don’t know about you, but I don’t like paying the credit card interest, because I’m like, what’s that going to that’s making some line in someone’s pocket. And because so many people rely on credit cards anyway. So that caused me an amount of stress, there was like this cloud thing that always hung over me. And I never done that before. And so I had to spend a year. And anyway, it was just really stressful. So I can’t imagine what it would be like to have to conditionally have credit card debt, because I believe even if we’re quote unquote, ignoring it, it’s in the back of our mind kind of this drip, drip drip, you know, part of our challenge in finding a house is that they won’t appraise and wheeling. Now when we put this house on the market, they’re gonna be having the 540 freeway, complete a whole circle around and that’s going to increase the home value. So I don’t feel bad about what this house sells for, if it goes over the appraised price, because it’s just it will meet that appraisal now where we’re moving to and wheeling, that’s probably not going to happen now. We could die in that next house or but maybe we need to downsize even further. You know, there’s so many unknown variables with what life holds. We really want to be smart. We almost paid off this house. And we refused to go into massive debt. We don’t want to take on a huge mortgage at our age, even with a really great interest rates, the way an app to your bills, right? Because one trip to the ER wasn’t enough. So I went to two trips in three months. I mean, talk about something that’ll think you bring on a heart attack. But the reality is, we will probably be able to cover it because of savings. And I’m also going to make that call and say What can you do with me? Because if the reality is it’s a business, and I have to tell you, I want to ask, Did you recommend all these things for someone who is uninsured? Did you recommend everything was on Medicaid? Because I don’t know what the answer to our health care system is but it shacked up. So anyway, but I know I’m going to be able to work that out. I’m not going to go into debt over that. That’s something that I’m grateful for. Because I think is my brother said to me, don’t skimp on health care.
And I feel for I can’t tell you how many I see of the GoFundMe that I see for people to raise funds to pay for cancer treatments do everything else. It just it’s heartbreaking. And so I think when you’re in debt, that we all have every other stress that just that piles on now wide, that is something you can easily tackle, it’s most likely going to take time so this is designed again to get you moving to get you started and take away some of the overwhelm. I’ve had clients so paralyzed that they haven’t been able to open the bills so just know you’re not alone. You can do this. You can accomplishment I accomplished this. I belong to a financial freedom, a couple groups on Facebook, and I have to tell you, I am blown away by some of these people now. Student debt and college costs something else that needs to be reformed. I thought really interesting thing the other day in a discussion in my alumni group, and someone said, Yeah, but you know, what if they if the cost, one of the reasons the costs are so high is people equate that with being good, or elite, which, you know, that’s a whole other story. Anyway, so they have all these inspiring stories about how they have managed to pay off their student loans and get out of debt. And then crazy amount, like two and three years, and I’m talking like 75, and 80,000, and sometimes more, so just know you can do it. But here are some tips to get you started. Quick, actionable tip number one, create a budget. Many people don’t have a budget, they have no clue how much they are spending and bring in each month. Kind of like I mentioned at the beginning, not knowing what your bills are, because you’re free to open them and just bury your head in the sand. And if you don’t have a budget, you might be surprised at how much something is costing you. Like if you spend 510 20 bucks, you might not think of it. But if you’re doing it frequently, it adds up. Of course, my favorite target Starbucks Fancy Pants copy, maybe five bucks, I think it’s you can definitely spend 678 on that times up by 52 weeks, you spend 3040 50 bucks on dinner once a week, how multiply that by 52 weeks, you get the idea. So when you look at that number, I’m not really good at math, let’s do 10 times 52 weeks, that’s the that’s 520 bucks. For some people that might be a mortgage payment half of the mortgage payment that makes a difference. So what you’re gonna want to do is get your statements like your credit card bills, your if you have an automobile payment, your mortgage, grab your paycheck stubs, get your grocery receipts, now, that’s always gonna vary, but you can get a good idea. So you have your income, what you’re taking in each month, and start a list of expenses. Now, fixed expenses are going to be really easy like mortgage and car payment, but then you’re going to have variable expenses, like groceries. Maybe if you need to get the oil change, you know, the different things are gonna not be the same every time you pay them. So you’re going to want to total those up. But that’s why I said get the all your grocery receipts you can get an idea, okay, you know what I spent 405 and 600 a month, and then budget around 500. So then you look at everything you see my income and what I’m spending each month and you know, if you have credit card debt, you’re gonna want to include that. So cable, beauty and clothing are good places to start. To cut your budget to save money. I mentioned the Starbucks like freeze your spending $10 randomly a week, that 520 that you’ve just found in your budget. You can use a good old fashioned Excel spreadsheet. There are apps such as pocket guard, mint, y and a be good budget. I’m gonna encourage you to do a little bit of research because they all have different features. So depending on what is most important to you, you can figure that out and pen and paper work just as handy as well. I can’t do that because my math is terrible. I need an Excel spreadsheet. What one step can you take right now to create a budget Have you found yourself longing to make a dream a reality? Would you like to achieve financial freedom? Are you swimming in debt? Do you want to be prepared for retirement? Ready to find abundance and share your gifts with the world. get control of your clutter
so your financial clutter doesn’t control you. Reclaim time, money, sanity and resources got clutter 365 Journal prompt financial support you in clearing your money clutter free gift with purchase available at reawaken your brilliance.com Amazon Google Books and More. Quick actionable Tip number two, so your clutter. This is a bonus tip. Do you see how I related that to the first episode this month? Because if you’ve already been clearing physical space, I’m hoping that you already have a pile to begin with. Most of you are going to have stuff lying around. You know we have now done too rounds of downsizing in about the same amount of time and we don’t buy stuff every day. And we’re not bringing in a lot of stuff. And I clear my clutter regularly. And I’m like, dang, we own a lot. So if I’m in that position, I know you are as well. So sell what you’re not using. I have to tell you we are garage sale board, we had fun. I like seeing that cash and that cash lasted us a while. If you did the three tips from the first episode, you’re probably going to have stuff lying around that you’ve already taken a huge leap because you’ve got a pile of stuff. And I’m hoping that that’s the case and you’re already like haha, I know exactly where everything is that I’d like to share. You could do a garage sale. And don’t forget to post online. I learned at our garage sale two years ago that people map out this one woman I was super impressed with she figures out at the beginning of your everything she’s going to need and then she hits garage sales. And she said pays pennies on the dollars. I would I will negotiate. I’m not a like my husband like I just, that’s fine. I’m more the one that’s like, No, I’m not not going to give it away for free. And in a couple cases I donated it and said because people wanted to pay so little and I thought you can pay more and give it to a charity. So if you have different personalities, or if you’re like me, make sure maybe there’s a balance there to help you out. If you don’t want to do a garage sale and you might just have a couple items, Craigslist consignment shops, if you have closed for instance, or maybe a pawn shop, the pawn shops probably not going to pay you much. And maybe you want to try to to do another option. So you can take that money and put it towards debt. I know that I did a podcast episode I believe in the fall on how to sell your stuff with tips on maximizing your sale. So clear space and get some cash. Consider looking at your credit card debt. And then look at your pile of what you have to sell. Do you remember how much you paid for all your stuff? How much money do you think you have sitting in those piles? That can help motivate you in the future? And you can remember that when you go to buy something maybe make you say you know what? I don’t think I’m gonna buy it. What one step can you do right now to sell your stuff? Quick, actionable. Tip number three step away. This is similar to my favorite phrase your clutter kryptonite. I’ve talked about how you have stuff that it’s hard to walk away from. I’ve joked for me it’s makeup samples, I don’t do that anymore. Leopard print, where I can just go leopard print shoes, or I’m very tactile from in store like to feel things and that usually like enough to satisfy me. What I mean by the stepping away is related to the clutter kryptonite. It’s about realizing what is your temptation, if you have a lot of debt, you’re obviously buying something. Now again, sometimes emergencies come up like er bills, I get this. So this might not apply. But I’m going to encourage you, if maybe it’s not related to bills, maybe it’s when you’re budgeting things that you notice, wow. Like I spend $5,000 a year on clothes. With a credit card, it’s much easier to indulge in those temptations right because it’s plastic, we lay it down and we don’t think about it usually until the bill comes. So if you know where you’re weak or challenge or tempted, you can make sure to stop it before it starts. Remind yourself if you’re trying to go out of debt, avoid it. So if you are closed down, stop going to close store. Make your household down to one Amazon account. So
if you have a spouse or boyfriend or even a good friend, they can say hey, stop. What is it that you’re spending this on? Replace what the healthy habit a lot of time for doing something like shopping or whatever spending the most on and again, not always, but usually we’re trying to fulfill a need. So can you figure out what need Am I trying to fulfill when I just lay down the credit card and I rack up all this debt? And then think about what healthy habit can I do instead of shopping for clothes or shopping for my hobby? Can I talk to a friend or tell my friend Hey, I’m thinking about buying this and have them talk me off the ledge or go for a walk deep breathing, make a smoothie, take a bath, whatever is going to work with you work for you. Figure that out. Oh, consider recognize what being in debt has passed. Has this stress been worth the closet full of clothes that may still have tags on them that may not fit and that you’ve never worn? If you’re up for it, consider why you buy more than you can afford. Oftentimes the reason why again, it can be loneliness, sadness, fear, there’s no judgement, just awareness. What can you do right now? To let go and step away? Take actions from today’s podcast. Create a budget. Sell your clutter. Step away and be aware of your clutter kryptonite. Begin tackling your debt move forward and release your debt. On our next episode, we’re talking about three actionable steps for healing relationships. Go out Clear Your Clutter to create the life you choose deserve and desire. When you clear your clutter, you can share your guests with the world. Sign up for our free newsletter at reawaken your brilliance calm. Even enjoy Clear Your Clutter inside now. Please rate review and share us
Transcribed by https://otter.ai