5 Years Debt Free reacting to paying off $200,000 of debt aja dang

Hey everyone, it's Aja Dang and today is a very exciting video as this month marks my five-year, not ten-year, five-year debt-free anniversary. Normally these times, these anniversaries kind of just fly by for me. I don't pay attention to them until like a few months later where I'm like, wow, that is another year that I've been debt-free. But I think this year because I've slowed down on work, I've slowed down on just the fast-paced life that I finally have some time to reflect and we're celebrating a little bit today. Maybe I should buy myself a cake. Since I paid off $200,000 of debt five years ago, I fully funded my emergency fund, cash flowed a semi-honeymoon, bought a house, moved to Houston, moved from Houston back to LA. I don't know, it's kind of crazy to think about because I never thought that I would ever, ever be in a situation where I wasn't worried about debt. I think the next video I upload will be about the methods I used to pay off $200,000 of debt, but in this video I wanted to re-watch my debt payoff video. This is on my channel if you want to watch it without any of my commentary, but I cannot believe it's been five years, guys. Crazy stuff. What can you do in two years? As the new year approaches and we start planning our goals, think about your game changer. The one goal that will have the biggest impact on your life moving forward. My game changer didn't even seem like a possibility, so I never wrote it down as a goal. It was just always a fantasy. And then Luke, my second adopted son, needed to have emergency surgery, and I couldn't afford it. If it wasn't for my boyfriend, Luke might be dead. It's actually crazy too because currently, like present day, the dogs are having major medical issues. So it's crazy to see how different it is this time during a pet emergency versus last time. I talk a lot on this channel about, like, you need your aha moment. Some people will just refuse to get out of debt until a light bulb finally clicks in their head, and that was my light bulb. You know, up until that point, I struggled constantly with money. Not only were debt collectors calling me for my student loans, but they were calling my grandma, who is now 97, because she co-signed a few of my loans. I had to, like, sell personal items of mine to, like, pay rent. So that was where I was financially in that moment or, like, before that moment. And getting out of debt still didn't click in my head. Like, it was never a priority until Luke. Look at my Lukey. Five years later, he's still with us. He's happy and healthy. Now with all of Levi's things going on, it's scary and it's still a lot of money, but we're not worried about having to take out credit card debt, or we're not worried about having to pay for whatever next thing comes up for him. So even though it is a lot of money and it sucks, we're not in a scary place anymore. And actually, that's kind of crazy that we're watching this now and this is happening in this moment, because the parallel or, like, the difference? Night and day. After that, I vowed to never put myself and my family in that situation again. That was in October of 2017. Two months later, I posted a video that would change my life forever. My current balance is $152,677.65. I didn't think it was weird for me to share my still loan debt. I knew the majority of Americans were in some type of debt, so I didn't think it would be that big of a deal. But it was. I mean, at what point in your career it's crazy to see how popular financial blogging is now, because when I first posted that initial video of sharing my debt, no one was talking about debt. And I feel like now it's not as popular as maybe like investing or savings. But like back then, talking about debt was just not happening. And I was definitely, definitely the first woman and definitely the first woman of color talking about how much debt that they personally had. And probably the first person on social media to share their debt, like their journey. Again, it's just like five years makes a difference, not only like financially, but just the space of financial health. It's more accepted now to talk about money and debt and stuff. And that's really amazing. Get your own financial situation and say, you know what, this is really my most authentic self. I don't understand how me being in debt somehow made me some financial expert, but it resonated with you. Finally, someone somewhere is talking openly about their debt, making mistakes in front of your eyes, crying every month, sharing my wins, losses, and even my income. You were all there. I definitely did not want to disappoint you. But beyond that, you sharing your stories of mistakes, successes helped me push through those really dark moments. I still use these debt free flow charts. Now they're just kind of like financial gold flow charts. But this I'll talk about in the next video. But yeah, these flow charts really, really helped me a lot because visually seeing kind of some sort of debt payoff, because when you're seeing a large six figure number, it feels like it's never going down. But when you kind of break it down like this and highlight, like smaller increment increments of like 1000 or $2,000, or whatever increment you want. When you highlight that and you visually see this page slowly filling up with highlighter, it's incredibly motivating. And I still use it to this day. But instead of for debt, it's for savings goals. moments of doubt, because if I was able to pay off all of my debt by myself, no excuses. And hopefully one day, maybe in five years, I will be able to pay it off. And the day that comes, I will cry of happiness. Because I am no longer Sally Mays, motherfucking bitch. So here we are. One year, 11 months later, we made it. I actually under two years, paying off $200,000 is crazy. Actually was planning to kind of like get all dolled up and have look really good for this video. But I kind of figured assumed that maybe I would just get too scared to pull the trigger. And now I'm kind of feeling like it's the moment right now. So I'm just going to do it. And if you don't know what I'm talking about, it's that I am going to pay off my student loans. I'm going to call them. Because I feel like it'd be more satisfying for someone to like tell me, like, hey, you're you've paid off your loans. Instead of just like pressing a button and it being done. I cannot emphasize how emotional getting out of debt is. It is incredibly exhausting. Emotionally, financially, it just it drains you, which is why it is always so impressive. When someone pays off their debts, because it's hard. I remember the last time I paid off something which was my AES success loan. I started crying not because I was happy or relieved but because I had to tackle this loan now which was what $150,000 or something like that. The four debts that I had was one was a small credit card. The other one was a $10,000 car loan. The AES success one that I was just mentioning was I think like $30,000 with the AES success. And then I had my $150,000 student loan, grad school student loan. And when I paid off my $30,000 AES success loan, I thought I would be so excited. But it was just like, I felt nothing. I felt nothing because I knew that I wasn't even halfway done with my journey. At that point, I had paid off three loans totaling $40,000 plus. But even that, paying off three loans is not that satisfying when you have $150,000 left to pay off. So again, paying off debt is very, very complicated emotionally. And it's hard to explain that to someone who's never been in that position. Because you think like, oh my god, I paid off three loans, this is great. But actually, when you look forward, you still have six figures of debt left to tackle. So it's like, you're paying all this hard, you're paying off all this money, and you're working so hard, but you're not even halfway there. And like mentally, it really fucked with me. Because I was like, what am I doing? Like, this should feel better than it is, but it's not. How can I help you today? I would like to pay off my student loans. All right. The payoff for today is $4,265.31. Can I process that payment for you today? Yes, please do. Process the payment. All right. So I have went and got that payment processed for you. And would you like that confirmation number over the phone? Otherwise, it will be Email it. And can you just give me a verbal confirmation that I am now debt-free, please? Yes, you are debt-free. The payment will be processed and added to your account tomorrow. Oh, okay. Awesome. Yeah. Is there anything else I can do for you today? No, that is definitely it. All right. Well, congratulations on paying that off today. Thank you so much. Enjoy the rest of your night. I will. Thank you. Oh, my God. He did it. Who are you going to? I feel like I've accomplished quite a lot in my life, right? In various different forms. But that will always probably be like my biggest accomplishment just because not everyone can do it. And it was very hard and never in my wildest dreams that I ever think that I would get to that point. And I like, I'm very proud of myself, even to this day, I'm very proud that I was able to do that. And I think that's also why I don't do monthly budget videos anymore, or like, hardly talk about my debt, as much as I used to, because like, everyone's always questioning or like, giving me excuses as to why I was able to do that, instead of just like, you know, you worked really hard and you accomplished that. So it's like hard to talk about now because they diminish that accomplishment. And I just like, emotionally, it's just not worth me talking about as much anymore. I'm going to share your debt free moment with your parents. I'm going to cry. I know I cried already for about an hour. Your significant other. A couple of friends. Definitely the person who inspired you to start your journey. Or maybe you're like, so this is my friend, Jen. And she actually, I remember, we were on the phone and I was complaining to her, like, why do I always feel so broke? Why am I always so broke? And she told me about Dave Ramsey's podcast. And I know, like, he's very controversial. And politically, we do not align at all. But the one thing I will say about Dave Ramsey is he's kind of like the gateway drug for people to get out of debt, right? So while, you know, he and I are no longer in each other's lives in that sense, I am, you know, grateful. And I took what I needed from his learnings. And I got myself out of debt. And now I'm able to help you guys get out of debt without all the judgment and the hate and stuff. So that's cool. But anyways, she's the one that introduced me to Total Money Makeover and the Debt and Dave Ramsey's podcast. And every time, like anytime I would drive, I would just listen to the Debt Free Screams. That's all I would do was listen to the Debt Free Screams. And that's really motivated. And in fact, I ended up doing a Debt Free Scream on his podcast literally right before COVID hit. So it's kind of crazy. But Jen's the one that actually, and well, Luki inspired this whole process. Jen's the one that kind of guided me into a method to how to do that. Shout out to my girl Jen. Me, and you share it with everyone on the planet. After all, the only way to help others get out of debt is to talk about your experience with debt. So let's start to inspire others to take control of their financial lives. Can you imagine a life where you aren't living paycheck to paycheck, worrying about when the next check will come in? Still waiting for payment from 2017. And I'm going to call out the brand, the brand ASICS. You owe me 10,000 motherfucking dollars. And let me tell you who's coming at me to try to work with me again. Fucking ASICS. Or maybe harping on government promises of debt relief. Or one day, being so financially responsible that you are able to send your children to college with cash. If you're in the middle of your financial journey, you got this. It's okay to have slip up. When I first started my debt free journey, I used the envelope system, the cash envelope system that Dave Ramsey like preaches. That did not work for me. Paying with cash was just not it. And it stressed me out even more. So like personal finance is very much a personal experience, right? So you can take all the advice that you hear from financial gurus. But if they don't work for you, you tailor it to yourself. Dang, the cash envelope system. I forgot I did that. Ups and breakdowns. Just continue to remember the end goal. Now, if you haven't started my cliff notes version of the past two years of my life. So this layout was the beginning of these planners. Unfortunately, we're no longer going to be offering physical data planners once the data planners sell out. We're out. But yeah, that I used to write my I used to build my own budget layouts until I built my own budget planner. That's crazy. My cliff notes version of the past two years of my life is budget and make more money. Know where your money is going so you can see where you can cut back and make more responsible decisions. But more importantly, especially for me, make more money. I would not have been able to pay off $200,000 of debt in less than two years if I hadn't tripled my income. Everyone's jobs are different. But from my experience, if you tell people you work with what your goal is, most of the time, they'll do everything they can to help you achieve your goal. Whether that's more hours, more money, or maybe helping you find a whole new job. Trust that people want to see you succeed. The one thing taking control of your finances does for you is it gives you a certain type of confidence, a confidence that can't be explained. But trust me, it elevates your sense of self worth. I need to touch upon that because I actually just did a podcast. It's going to come out next year. But we were talking about how much more confident we were, especially as women, especially as women of color, feel now that we are financially independent. The confidence that you get, one, not only becoming debt free, but two, knowing that you are financially okay, no matter what, is crazy. I know that if my dogs get sick, I know that if there is an emergency in this apartment or at our Houston house, I know that if I have to take a last minute trip to Hawaii for a family situation, I know that I can afford that comfortably. And there's a confidence you get knowing that you are going to be okay, that I cannot stress enough. What is your game changer? The first thing that comes to mind is what you need to start working towards. And if you were waiting for some kind of sign to This is it. Dang, girl. I can edit. I can tell the story. I am very grateful that I can look. I literally documented my entire journey. And I can look back at the entire experience on YouTube. And I'm actually kind of grateful for that. Because sometimes you really do forget how big of an accomplishment it is. The journey is crazy. The growth is crazy. But yeah, thank you everyone for watching this video. I think I may order myself a cake to celebrate. But for those of you going through your debt free journey, just know that there is light at the end of the tunnel. I know how difficult it is and how frustrating it can be. But keep replaying that video because I feel like that is a very inspiring video to watch. And for those of you kind of waiting around for a sign to start your debt free journey, let this be your sign. I'm Asia Dang. Thank you so much for joining me on my channel. And I will see you all next time where I talk about the methods I use to get out of debt. Okay, bye.