21 Ways To Get Out Of Debt Even If You're A Freelancer

It was 2010 and after ten years of marriage it was time to call it quits. I was done. Done with the nonsense, the affairs, the lying, the manipulation, the guilt….I was d.o.n.e. Without any thought of repercussion I packed up my shit and left. Seemed simple enough and it was how my mama raised me….but there were consequences.

My divorce ended up taking four years. With little to no assets and no kids many were surprised it lasted that long, but it was no surprise to me. He wanted to stick it to me one last time and he made every process beyond painful, difficult and ridiculous. Needless to say I finally threw my hands up in the air (which is ultimately what he wanted) and threw in the towel…did I mention I was done?

We had over twenty thousand dollars in joint debt. Initially, because he made seven times my income I assumed he would continue making payments towards said debt, but I was wrong. Within just a few months I started receiving calls from debt collectors wanting money. The minimums alone were over a thousand dollars a month, but it was going to take over three thousand just to get them caught up from months of non-payment. To say that I was scared and overwhelmed would be an understatement. Problem was, I’m an entrepreneur, and if you work for yourself, or are a student, you know what it means to have inconsistent income.

Initially it was all very overwhelming. As an entrepreneur I chose not to pull a paycheck for five years. After the separation I started to pull a small paycheck but it was never the same each month. Some months I was only able to pull $500, other months I could pull $1500….needless to say it was never the same and never consistent, which made it seem impossible to pay off such a large amount of debt. How on earth could I make a budget this way?

When the divorce started I figured the court would see his income and make him pay at least half of the debt but I got stuck with all of it. Problem was by the time I came to the realization that all of this was happening and I got out of the “holy shit, what am I going to do phase” my credit was destroyed. I went from a 750 credit score to a 595 practically overnight. I was no longer a sure thing and I couldn’t get a loan or a credit card to consolidate the debt. So I had to do whatever I could to make shit happen. I buckled down, researched and came up with a plan. Click link below to see all 21 of my tips,

Here are 21 things I did to get out of debt and avoid the overwhelm.