It’s very common to read about someone who has reached financial independence looking back at that moment they started their journey. More often than not they talk about how they had this “ah-ha” moment where things clicked for them and they set off down the defined path. Sometimes it’s after they hit rock bottom, or had a huge financial wake up call.
I started this site mid-journey. I’d already defined what it is I want out of my financial future. I’d already amassed a number of big wins. My focus has always been on the present, the near future, and occasional callbacks to the past. Unlike many of the stories I’ve read, I didn’t really have an “ah-ha” moment. I actually just kind of fell onto the path long before FI was a big thing. I still remember it well though…
It was 2007, I had around $20k in college loans, a leased Acura TSX, $5k in credit card debt at 14% interest, a $7k loan for MCSE and CCNA classes I’d taken at 12% interest, and two mortgages on my $215k condo, amounting to 95% of the purchase price.
I was working a dead end data center job that paid about $55k per year, spending the majority of it just to stay afloat. I knew I needed to make changes, and I’d been reading books to educate and motivate myself. I distinctly remember that at this time I’d been reading Rich Dad Poor Dad, The 4-Hour Work Week, Think and Grow Rich, and The Total Money Makeover.
The very first step I took on my path to financial independence wasn’t a big bang. It wasn’t pretty either. It kind of fell in my lap one day. I remember I got the mail and sorted through the pile of credit card offers that seemed to come daily since the housing market was booming and everyone had equity to burn. One caught my eye though. It was for a Citi card that I had with a very high limit and no charges on it. It was an offer to transfer debt to that card and it would be locked at 3.9% interest for the life of the debt. I was on the phone in minutes.
By the end of the call I’d transferred my $12k in credit card and professional training debt to the credit card, dropping my interest rate from an average 13% to 3.9%. That’s it. That was my big moment. My conscious journey to financial independence started with a debt transfer that actually cost me $75.
Although the months that followed were filled with changes both big and small, that one tiny move was how I started the snowball that would become an avalanche. From that day in 2007 to today, I have made an effort every day to improve my financial life. There have been pitfalls and detours along the way, but that silly little balance transfer was the moment I announced to myself and the world that I was going to change and life was going to get better. And I did, and it did.
Freed by 50 