The $76K Project: Reboot

Originally posted on The $76K Project on 7/20/2018 Money talk is too taboo. As polite members of society, many of us were brought up to not talk about the following: Sex Mental health issues Politics and religion  Money - particularly what you owe and what you earn My friends and I throw some of these taboos out the window without a second thought. I know their religious and political views. We're open with one another about our depression, anxiety, mood disorders, and the like. Sex? Sure, we'll delve into that juicy topic with glee, especially if we're sharing a bottle of wine.  But money? For the most part, we don't go there.  Of all the taboo subjects, money is the one that often feels the most repellant somehow, and I'm just as guilty as anyone of avoiding the issue. I may spill all my debt secrets here on this blog, but in real life, I don't talk about it. And salary? I mean, sure, I'd share it if a friend or acquaintance asked. But the likelihood of an

(Originally published on The $76K Project on 7/6/2018) First: We did it! We paid off the credit cards! I'm still in semi-disbelief, but the credit card balances are now ALL at zero. The big moment happened the day before Independence Day. Actually, it almost *didn't* happen, because the bonus we'd been planning to use for the final payoff didn't show up when it was supposed to. I got impatient, dragged the money over from our emergency fund, and insisted that we eliminate the remaining $1500 anyway. Boom!  ( Bonus arrived today, so I replenished the e-fund.) The fact that we managed to meet this milestone, and well before we ever expected to, feels shocking in an is-this-really-happening (or as my former therapist would have coached me, did-we-really-make-this-happen) sort of way. It hasn't sunk in yet. Credit cards have been my ball-and-chain financial reality for so long that the idea of existing without carrying a balance seems... outside the realm of my understa