Current Debts:
Credit Card: $100.00
Bank Loan: $4,577.61
Current Debt Total: $4,677.61
Meedileeemeedileemeedileebowwww. That is the sound of my guitar solo of awesomeness since I crushed $1,000 of credit card debt since I last wrote. How? I sold my brand new iPad that I got as a present. Having just $100 on my credit card feels saweeet!
Feeding the Dragon
Once I decided to sell it, I had a tough time deciding what was the most responsible thing to do with that money. I’ve been reading this great book called Happy Go Money by Melissa Leong in which she talks about compound interest as a dragon—it starts as a baby dragon and grows over time. The book has been motivating me to get a compound interest dragon on my team instead of on the other team (the debt that eats me team). I looked at the interest rates on my credit card (a whopping 19.99%) versus my RRSP (somewhere around 5%) and figured out that in the end I will have more money avoiding the credit card debt than by putting that money into my RRSPs. I felt like such a grown up making that decision.
My House is Now a Store
After that, I want to sell everything in my apartment. I’m driving my partner (an excellent online seller of goods) up the wall with questions like “how much could I charge for this? How about this? What if I bundled them together?”
Incidentally, after I finished the sale on that iPad, I got to the chapter in Happy Go Money about drumming up extra cash. One of her tips is to sell stuff you own online. (Straightens suit jacket) Already ahead of you, Melissa, already ahead of you.
Emily Nixon
Rags to Reasonable Community Outreach Coordinator
She came to this work after becoming completely fed up with living paycheque-to-paycheque and being too afraid to look in her chequing account. She is passionate about empowering other artists and variable income earners to keep doing what they love and feel confident about their finances.
Email Emily at emily@ragstoreasonable.com
I’ve been a long time fan of R2R, but I especially love this Artist Debt Series. It’s nice to see positive ways of relating to the debt I’ve amassed (mostly due to unexpected things), and also finding realistic ways of paying it down. Yes Emily yes!