I'm 33. Kim's only 26, which is good for her. Yeah, I've made some mistakes in my financial life, got a Master's Degree that don't add up to a hill o' beans, rolled around in too much debt. So I'm behind the eight ball, under the gun.
Not only that, but we just got married (more posts on that to follow, to be sure), and just moved 2,500 miles across the country. So it's there I'd like to start.
Seattle is a beautiful city, with a vibrant EVERYTHING. Seriously. And the climate is perfect for a guy like me. Not too much sun (almost none in the winter), but no snow to speak of, either. Apart from the occasional freak storm in the dead of winter. The people are, for the most part, great. I felt safe at virtually all times, which is not normal for me. And I started learning Kung Fu there. If you're in Seattle, check out Seattle Wing Chun, on 12th near Pike. It's the best thing that I experienced in Seattle, and I had a lot of good times over the year that I was there.
So why leave?
We looked around and decided that we just didn't need... so much of everything. It's all there, at our fingertips, and we didn't really partake. I mean, I loved the tacos at the Fremont Market and met a bunch of people at Reddit game night (and fell in love with a little game called Dominion). But in the end, we wanted a simpler life.
Seattle was good to us financially, too. Sure, we took out a 1900 dollar student loan (paid off 1 year later with our entire tax return) to put Kim through a couple of classes, but by the time we'd left we had a pretty good emergency fund, paid off the credit cards, and were rolling about 1200 bucks a month into our debt snowball. We both thought we were in a pretty good place to move back to northeast Ohio, where it would be cheaper and we'd have family within driving distance.
Of course, we were wrong. The issue wasn't the move, which cost about 1500 bucks, but the living on no income that got to us. We were no longer in a city, so Kim needed a car. We paid cash, because we'd learn to hate being in debt, but that cut down our savings even more.
We exhausted our credit cards, maxed out our line of credit, which we had just started to put a dent into, and basically spent every penny making life work.
Four months later, and we're just about where we feel comfortable. The move nearly broke us, but we're doing better. Staying afloat, paddling toward shore, but still in very, very deep water.
The future of KillOurDebt.com
In the coming weeks I'll be adding widgets and sidebars, explaining the breakdown of our debt situation. We're not soliciting donations just to help out, more like payments for cool content. Kim is an aspiring food writer and I dabble in short stories and poetry. We both enjoy hands-on projects that we get from DIY shows, blogs, and our own sense of style. We've learned a thing or two about money, our priorities, and where we'd like to be.
Basically, we'll be sharing our creative lives.
Aside from posts that examine the state of our debt, which will no doubt include some summary of the donations received, this is the only post where I'll mention donations, since that's the goal of the blog, but not the content.
If you enjoy something, we're already happy. If you donate, happier still. If you leave a comment, or link us, or tell a friend, happiest of all.
Thanks for reading.
- Michael.
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