So I never want anyone to think like, Oh, I just like decided
one day to become debt free. And it just happened. I was doing a
lot of work behind the scenes. And without really anyone
knowing to get to a point where I could say at the end of 2019,
hey, I think I could pay off all of my remaining debt, which at
that time was about $23,000 in one year.
Hi, everyone, this is Cynthia Ella mean of fly man's, I am
passionate about all things personal finance, travel, and
really see myself here to help other women of color, especially
working women find financial freedom so that they can travel
more often, and say yes to more things that bring them joy. So
I'm really excited to share that as of July 2021. I did it I
saved and invested in my first $100,000. And I will say this
has really been a journey that has really taken me the last
three and a half years. So I am someone who historically was an
over spender, and really struggled with credit card debt
and managing my credit card debt. I also was a person who
took on student loans that in hindsight, I didn't really need.
So I had to become intentional about eliminating and reducing
my debt, really laying that foundation is what allowed me to
be able to aggressively do it. That was number one, I think
number two was I had to increase my income. So I was definitely
making a great salary in 2019. But in 2020, I really put it out
to the universe to say, I'm gonna need some help to make
this happen. Right. This is before I started a business.
This is I was just relying on my you know, my one paycheck, and I
did, I did transition into a higher paying job that that
helped me on 30,000 more dollars in 2020. Then came COVID-19 that
really allowed me to put a lot of disposable income towards my
debt, being able to live in a city like New York City where I
lived with two roommates, I took public transportation, there was
not a lot going on because of the lockdown. All of those
things were lifestyle choices that allowed me to have a lot
more disposable income to put towards my debt. When I got a
tax refund in 2020. I put almost all of that towards my debt,
whenever I would get unexpected money, I will put that towards
that is what allowed me to, to do it and make it and make it
work without me feeling miserable. One of the first
things I did was actually just like, get a budget worksheet.
And literally what I did was I filled in for every category it
was asking me like, how much is your rent? How much is your
insurance? How much do you spend on groceries, and really started
to calculate and really see it, you know, in real life. From
there, I was able to create a zero based budget. So that
allowed me to say, I need to give every single dollar that's
coming through my paycheck, give it a job, having that zero based
budget, and then combining it with what I like to call
destination budgeting, essentially creating a framework
for my money to say, Okay, I have multiple accounts, where my
money is going to flow into really assigning and automating
money to go into different accounts. What's the life
changer for me? Travel hacking is definitely a way that helps
me balance my financial goals and travel by putting expenses
that would normally already have on to travel rewards card and
getting those points I'm able to fly for free stay in rooms for
free and, you know, really reduce the amount that I have to
kind of put out in cash for travel. I think me really
changed my mindset around travel not only being an expense, but
being something that can also help me get closer to my
financial goals and really being part of like my overall
financial life. I will say that the amount that I've contributed
to my retirement savings has definitely evolved. As I've
become debt free from 2017 through 2020. I never
contributed more than 10% of my paycheck to my 401k. Right. I
was benefiting from having a company match. And I was
contributing the minimum amount to get my company match. At the
end of 2020. I became debt free. So for the first time, I had a
lot more disposable income. So I wanted to max out my 401k in
2021 during the summer, so literally in the three months
that I was into loom I was spending less than half of what
I was spending even living with two roommates in New York City
during that time I started saving 40% of my paycheck
towards retirement. That's something I would not have been
able to do if I just kind of like stayed in New York. And
here I was with this amazing backdrop behind me like being in
Tulum, right. So that was a very aggressive amount that I was
contributing. That is not a recommendation at all, but
that's what worked well for me And again, that's why now I am
sitting on almost $100,000 in my 401k alone