Debt and creative living
The single best financial decision I ever made for the life I wanted
Hello you!
The most valuable lesson I’ve learnt from my long term relationship with minimalism and intentional living is far from the most poetic or romantic. Still, I feel the need to share it and unpack it with you because I wish I’d learnt it sooner in my quest for a freer more creative life. The lesson in question is around debt.
First I want to acknowledge my own privilege around money. It feels important to reiterate how aware I am of the privileges I have because of my ethnicity, education and where I was born but I’ve still come a long way and I want to share what I’ve learned in the spirit of helping other likeminded hearts.
Debt was very much engrained within my beginnings. It’s how my mum built a life for us as a single parent working two nhs nursing jobs. When she left her marriage she walked away with nothing and started from the ground up. I remember the credit card bills arriving and consoling her while she cried because she couldn’t pay them. For this reason debt has always felt both familiar and scary to me.
When I started building my own adult life I plunged into debt as my mum had with student loans, personal loans, car finance, credit cards and interest free credit to accumulate all the things I thought I wanted. I lived pay slip to pay slip and never had any savings. If I could afford the monthly payment, I told myself I could afford the thing. This all changed when I committed to living a life I wouldn’t regret when I was diagnosed with stage 1 cervical cancer at 25. This was when freedom became real wealth in my eyes and the way to achieve this became obvious - to live a debt free life. It took years not months, but one payment at a time I reached my debt-free goal and this was when my whole life opened up.
When you live a creative life, working for yourself and living abroad, people are naturally curious how you can afford it. The answer lies in my relationship with debt. We are not friends and I steer clear of it wherever possible. A debt free life is a free one. Carrying it around is heavy, keeps us stuck where we are and makes us feel like we can’t break out. Our dreams feel out of reach and we live from a place of lack. We’re constantly on the back foot trying to catch up to a level playing field.
I’m more fluid now depending on my circumstances but there was a time when I was so anti-debt I didn’t buy anything unless I could afford it outright, with the exception of my mortgage. Even then, I refused to take out a mortgage for longer than a 15 year term and I made overpayments at every opportunity. Adopting this attitude to money has been the single most freeing decision I’ve ever made especially in terms of creative living. It’s a well known secret that a creative life requires as little outside pressure as possible and money is perhaps the most unhelpful pressure of all. Living an anti-debt lifestyle is the greatest gift we can give to ourselves on the way to the life we truly want.
These are my debt free tips from the last decade when I first vowed to live an anti-debt life
Learn the language
I’m not qualified to give financial advice but I can categorically say that the more you educate yourself on money the better. Not knowing the language is how others exploit us and keep us operating on autopilot in the dark. My favourite watering holes are Nischa and My Frugal Year. Find a few people you vibe with and absorb all you can from them before applying what you learn to your own life.
Write down your number
I can’t remember the exact number I started with but I think it was close to £30k of debt. I had it written on a piece of paper and I used to carry it around with me everywhere as a reminder. I didn’t see this as a mark of shame. It was a challenge and a reality check. Every time I’d make a repayment I’d cross out the number and write down the new total. It became a game I was determined to win.
Reframe your mindset
Opting for a debt free life requires sacrifices in the short term. I remember feeling disheartened by how much debt I’d accumulated and hopeless at the thought of repaying it. It’s easy to feel stuck and constrained whilst also thinking you’ll lose out, but this isn’t true. We can reframe our mindset around what we want in life by letting go of all the things we think we should have or at least questioning them. This is easier when we detach our self-worth from what we own and get clear on our core values.
Make payments little and often
I guess this depends on your personality and what makes you tick but for me, I’m a sucker for instant gratification so I made debt repayments little and often - as often as possible. No amount was too small and every time I made overpayments I’d correct the figures and enjoy the dopamine rush, so it got a little addictive. I have such an addictive personality I can get addicted to anything, debt repayment included. This approach really helped me switch my emotional spending to emotional debt repayment. When we feel like we’re achieving and celebrate those little wins we can build momentum much easier.
Have a very clear why
I look back now and see that the younger me was hungry for a different kind of life even though she had no idea (consciously) what it was. If she could see me now writing outside a Parisian cafe she’d happily hand over all the things she’d bought because she thought she wanted them in a heartbeat. You don’t have to have a set specific goal. It could be as simple as because I want to choose creative living or I want to work less so I have more free time to enjoy life, but having a clear direction or curiosity to follow will set you on the right path.
When I got divorced the cultural expectation was for me to buy another house of my own and take out a new mortgage, but something didn’t feel right. I didn’t want to commit for one, but I also didn’t want the responsibility or suffocation of debt when I already felt so vulnerable. So, in true Aquarian fashion, I did something a little different. I decided to invest the money from my buyout agreement with a view that the interest would contribute towards any rent and living expenses. Simple, but effective and two years later I’d make the same decision again.
It felt right at the time because this option kept me free and made me feel much more secure. Had I gone down the stereotypical route and bought a place of my own I don’t think I’d have moved to Paris. I’m not saying owning a home is bad in any way but I think it’s always good to know we have other options, ones we might not have considered until we listened to the whispers within.
So many of us wish we could live a different kind of life, move somewhere remote or start a business from scratch and the fewer blocks we have in place, debt included, when we want to take risks like this the more within reach they feel. I don’t believe money buys happiness but I do believe it makes our lives more comfortable and the more stable our finances are the freer we are.
What’s your relationship with debt? How does it affect you? If you’ve got any tips, stories or resources to add please share them in the comments. I know from first hand experience how debt can affect our mental health but there most definitely is another way one step at a time. If you have any questions about my own debt-repayment story feel free to ask those too, no subject is off limits here.
Lots of love
Jessica xxx
Thanks for writing this, I think it's something people don't often talk about. Me and my husband made similar choices five years ago when we simplified down to the essentials. This led to us selling our house & buying a small apartment in an area we loved. This was so freeing! It has opened up so many more possibilities for us.
Thank you for sharing, Jess.This is actually a subject that has been on my mind more this summer. I paid off my student loan (about £16k) earlier this month, six years early. It felt like an immense milestone! There are a lot of dreams that feel closer, more tangible, now that loan is gone.
I have had a very anxious relationship with money, feeling almost sick just having to check my balance. When I moved to Copenhagen 8,5 years ago, I had no savings at all, quite a big student loan and paid off any extra expenses with a credit card, which resulted in a small, but rather expensive, debt too. And I felt anxious every time I even thought about money. Slowly but surely I have paid off the debt, put away a rather large sum in savings, bought an apartment (which is the only debt i currently have - but I know I can sell it without any loss) and - most importantly - have grown a healthy relationship with money.
I only work part time and I don't have a partner to help support me if times get tough, so I have to rely on myself. I like the challenge. I think I prefer it, actually. Currently I am saving so I can buy a small house for myself in the future. Start a slower, more quiet life with a creative business to help pay the bills.
Now my student loans are paid off, I can focus on saving for my dream, and living an intentional life with very few expenses has helped! I like the clarity it has brought into my life. And yes, I do recognise that I am quite privileged in many ways, but as an autistic ADHD person, life in an neurotypical world comes with a lot of uncertainty and difficulty, and living without debt helps me feel more secure about my future and my dreams.