I thought I was on the right road to financial independence when the rug was pulled out from under me. OK, I am being a bit over dramatic, the rug was not really pulled out, I just tripped a bit. You know the kind of trip that you don’t fall but your heart skips a beat and you thank the heavens that you didn’t fall on your face.
Here is the story, I have an overdraft which I utilize like most people in the UK. You get used to having that extra bit of money at your disposal. I was almost thinking it was my money to use but it was not. I have been mosying along working on paying down my debt on everything else but my overdraft. I was using my overdraft to pay off other debt.
Yes I was being careless and a bit stupid. I was thinking that since my overdraft carries a lower interest rate than my credit cards, I would pay that off last. BIG MISTAKE! What I forgot was that the bank can withdraw an overdraft at any time and they did. They gave me a few weeks notice to pay up or get fined beyond my wildest dreams.
Boy was that a kick in the pants! I had the same overdraft for years, I never thought they would take it away especially without much notice. So I scrambled around in a calmish panic and made a plan. I spent almost nothing in the weeks leading up to the deduced overdraft then I put stuff on eBay and guess what? I made the money to get back into the right side of the red.
This whole process has made me start thinking – why was I living my life at the whim of a bank or a credit card? That is not being financially independent, it is being a financial slave. My lenders can do what they want to me; raise the interest rate or even demand the money back, this puts all the power in their hands.
I am now super revved up to get these companies out of my life. I was passionate before but now it is a different story, I am going for the jugular. I am constantly looking around for things I don’t need or use to put on eBay as well as trying to think of new ways to make money and to save my pennies.
How have you gone nuclear? Do you have a story how you got these vampires out of your life? Drop me a comment, give me and other reader some inspiration.