Fatal Attraction

Hey everyone! I have a very special dear debt letter from Zina Kumok, who JUST paid off her debt! This letter was submitted beforehand, but since that time, she has made her last payment and is now debt free! Please congratulate her and enjoy her dear debt letter — you could feel how close she was to being debt free, and now she is. 🙂

More about her: Zina Kumok writes about paying off $28,000 worth of student loans in three years. She has been featured in ReadyforZero, RetailMeNot, DailyWorth, Fox Business and Time. Follow her on Twitter and Facebook to get more advice on budgeting, saving and paying off debt.

Dear Debt,

I’m ready for this to be over. I’ve been ready for three years – three years of waiting, wondering and worrying. Three years of living on less than I had to – including one year of living on less than 50% of my salary.

Debt, you have made me CRAZY.  If our relationship was a movie, it would be “Fatal Attraction” or for a more recent example (because Debt, I keep forgetting, you’re only a toddler), the 2009 thriller “Obsessed” starring Beyonce and Idris Elba.

Remember when I was calling the Nelnet hotline every month to see how long it would take to pay back my loans? Remember when I would check my balance every week, just to see how much interest I had accrued? Or when I would sit at home with my financial calculator and see how much of a difference $50 would make if I made a few more cuts in my budget?

Do you know what I’ve given up for you? Do you know how many earrings I have not bought on your account? How many sushi dinners or handcrafted cocktails I have given up? How many movies and books I got from the library just so I could save an extra $10 to put toward your stupid existence.  Do you even care?

Sometimes it would feel like this day would never come, that you would be the baggage I would carry around forever, just another mole on my otherwise perfect financial complexion. Once I might have been content to let this go on for years, but not anymore. This isn’t a healthy relationship anymore. For neither one of us.

Dear Debt, your time is up.

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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)

• Talking About Money and Mental Health - September 12, 2022
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