You Don’t Live Here Anymore

Hey friends! I have another awesome dear debt letter from my friend at Even Steven Money. I have to admit you guys are rocking my socks off lately — I completely fell in love with this letter. My whole blog is about our relationship(s) to debt and this letter just took it to a new level. Enjoy!

Dear Debt,

I have welcomed you into my home for the last 14 years. I have had many members of your family come to visit and in some cases even stay a long time. It all started with your friendly brother, student loans, he told me he would only be around for a couple years. He even said that I needed him, if I wanted to go to school, graduate and become a major success. 14 years later he is still staying at my house. He takes money from me every month in the form of payments; these include principal aka the promise to leave, and interest, aka the promise to make my working days last 12,000 days.

That is just the beginning; I met your sister Credit Cards shortly after letting student loans enter my home. I dated your sister and to me she is one of the worst people I have ever met, some people say there are good ones out there if you find the right one, but I have been damaged and beaten down by her, I don’t think I will ever find the right one. It did not help that I didn’t know how to treat a woman so early in my financial life, but she made things painful. She charged me a high interest rate, fees, and told me I had to pay at a certain time otherwise the interest rate and fees would go even higher. It was like when I would pick her up one minute late, she would make me feel guilty the whole time we were together and it would cost me.

You must have a lot of sisters because this is not first or the last one I have ever met. Sometimes they are nicer, offering you low interest rates, but they are all the same eventually they go back to the high interest rates and fees because they have you locked in, they know nobody wants your sorry minimum payment of a relationship or maybe it is everyone wants your minimum payment relationship, but they don’t really care about you. I quit them all together a couple years ago; I was through jumping from girlfriend to girlfriend of credit cards. I held on to one and gave her extra money to go away. Finally it worked your sister(s) left for good. Despite others saying how attractive she is I refuse to date her, I found what I like to think is my new girlfriend, Cash. We have been getting along great and she doesn’t expect things from me, she’s not secretive and manipulative, she’s honest and I can see myself with her for a long time.

During my time with your sister, credit cards, I also came across your Uncle, the car loan. I didn’t see him until I was out of college, but man is he a talker. He saw that I needed a car and had no problem showing me the most expensive car I could afford, a nice Mercedes Benz. He didn’t even care I wasn’t making much money; he just wanted to stay at my house with his expensive car loan. He told me things to get me on board: you worked hard throughout college, you have been in the same car since high school, you have a real job now, get the car loan, that’s what everyone does. The good news about your Uncle is he did not stay long, I was able to sell the expensive car he talked me into getting and thinking I deserved and I kicked him out, but not before hurting me with car maintenance, gas, insurance, expensive monthly payments, loss of car value that I had to pay, and to make matters worse I used your sister to pay for all of these except the last one because I didn’t have any Cash. I have not had your Uncle in my home in over 4 years and not having your Uncle, made getting rid of your sister that much easier, funny how that works.

The last family member that is currently staying at my house is your child, the mortgage. They say having a kid is a great thing, that kids are the good kind of debt. I’m not sure I agree. When you already have a whole family living of debt staying in your house it makes caring for your child that much harder. Your child is going to grow up with us for 30 years is what they told me, assuming I make all the payments on time. The good news is I will not be raising your child for you; I am making extra payments on my own and even have come to an agreement with a couple other families to help pay off this debt, only then can this child go out into the world on his own. If I have your child stay in our house for 30 years I’m not going to be able to make all of the choices I want, I want freedom; I want to be able to live a debt free life. I’m sorry debt that’s just the way it is.

I’ve made a plan to kick out your friendly brother, student loans in April 2015, he’s just annoying. He won’t go away, he’s not hurting me financially, but I don’t want him living in my home anymore. I have 2 of your children staying at our home, but I don’t plan on them staying long. One will be gone in December 2016 and the other in July 2020. That’s the day the home is really mine, the day I can kiss your family goodbye. The day I can declare financial independence  and I don’t plan on ever asking or inviting your family to come visit again. I don’t care if you write letters or send emails, advertise on my favorite website, or talk to me when I’m going to grab some Cash; the answer is a loud NO! Our time is soon to be over, I may have had some fun with your family, but it was short-lived. The foolish thought that you would help me was my own fault, I should have known better. I’m sick of taking care of your family like it is one of my own. I’m ready to never see you again, it might not be tomorrow but I have plans to kick them out forever.  Debt I’m going to share my story with others so they know about how terrible your family is and how they are using almost everyone out there to drag them down, I hope they will read this and realize Debt, your family is the worst.

Gone Forever July 2020,

Even Steven Money

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Melanie

Melanie Lockert is the founder of the blog and author of the book, Dear Debt. Through her blog, she chronicled her journey out of $81,000 in student loan debt. She is also the co-founder of the Lola Retreat, which helps bold women face their fears, own their dreams and figure out a plan to be in control of their finances. She is passionate about empowering women, helping others get out of debt, and focuses on the intersection of debt and mental health. Every September she organizes a Suicide Prevention Awareness Blog Tour, to help share resources for those struggling with debt and suicide. In addition to her love of personal finance, art and music, she is also a karaoke master and a cat mom to Miles and Thelonious.

Latest posts by Melanie (see all)

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