My “Debt-Free by 33” Plan

Originally, when I started my debt-free by thirty-three plan, my BIGGEST motivator was to become debt-free so I could quit working and travel the world for a few years. 

I still didn’t really understand anything about money, or investing– I just understood how to not spend money so that I could put more on debt. 

I didn’t want to travel with massive student loan debt, so I decided to start dedicating huge chunks of my paycheck to debt payoff. 

As time went on, I discovered the FIRE Community (Financial Independence Retire Early Community). At first, I was kind of like “yeah that’s cool but there’s no way I could ever do that, these people are crazy!” 

But…I COULD NOT stop reading all the blogs of these people who retired in their 50s, 40s, or even their 30s to travel or live on a homestead in Vermont. 

Who doesn’t want financial freedom?! I caught the research bug and became obsessed with figuring out how I could not only get out of debt but build wealth. 

Like real wealth. 

Like feed my dog organic fresh food, buy whatever I want at Sephora, take my parents on vacation wealth. (Check, check, and check, BTW)

I’m a huge believer that the people we are most jealous of are the people we want to be like.

And I was JEALOUS as hell of these two millennials who retired before they hit thirty and have been traveling the world ever since. 

So I decided– if they could do it, there’s no reason I couldn’t at least TRY.

And that’s when I started getting REALLY serious about my money. 

I decided to start living off of less than half my income in order to use the rest to pay off debt, save and invest. 

I started reading everything I could about investing and retirement accounts, and how to be more frugal in order to save even more money. 

I started organizing meetups for people who wanted to talk about the FIRE movement. 

I started coaching people how to do the same. 

And that led me here to meet you.

I’m going to guess you can probably relate to my story at least a little. 

Why? 

Because financial literacy isn’t taught to us. Unless you had parents that really got it, most of us don’t have a clue what we are doing.

(Can I offer you a very empathetic “You’re doing great, sweetie!”)

But maybe you are ready to change your relationship with money once and for all. 

Maybe you have been obsessively reading about budgeting and the stock market, or maybe you are just getting started. But you know one thing…

You can’t keep doing what you have always been doing. 

Maybe you haven’t even let yourself dream about how life could look if you did change your relationship with your finances, but I am here to tell you…

It’s more than possible. And it’s easier than you might think. 

You don’t have to live on half your paycheck like I did.

You need a game plan that works for your life. One you can stick to. One that empowers you. One that not only makes sense but makes you excited about your finances. 

That’s what financial education can do. 

Give you power. 

Give you options.

Give you hope.