Episode 136: Crushing $70,000 of debt in 36 months

On this episode, I chat with Sarah Hawkey, founder of toRISEtogether and creator of The Money Studio, about how she tackled all her debt in three years. Sarah also shares her best tips to get started with budgeting and debt management.

This episode is sponsored by my FREE training: 3 legal & tax mistakes made by new & experienced business owners and how you can avoid them. [Sign up for this free Masterclass here, and get ready to unf*ck your biz](https://www.bradendrake.com/masterclass).

On this episode, I chat with my guest, Sarah Hawkey, founder of toRISEtogether and creator of The Money Studio, about balancing debt payments with saving for an emergency fund and and saving for retirement.

toRISEtogether is a collection of creative freelancers getting their money shit together as a community so they can focus on being creative. The Money Studio is to help creatives do the work to create the life they dream and remove worries about money.

This episode is sponsored by my FREE training: 3 legal & tax mistakes made by new & experienced business owners and how you can avoid them. Sign up for this free Masterclass here, and get ready to unf*ck your biz.

Coming from a low income family, Sarah moved to New York to pursue opera.  Bringing in little money and the feelings of being to fit the New York City image, Sarah's credit card debt grew (on top of her Bachelor's and Master's degree student debt). The $145,000 in debt effected Sarah's work, causing her to say yes to every paying opportunity instead of the freedom to choose. 

She paid little by little toward her student debt and almost $70k in credit card debt but the debt was holding her back from being a channel for creativity to flow through. 

The financial cost and emotional cost to a toll on her, leading her to one day decide she wanted to put everything toward paying off her debts as quickly as possible. In addition to working to pay it off, debt comes with a lot of self forgiveness work for your past.

The two common solutions to debt payoff are - raise your income and/or cut expenses. Sarah found the all or nothing approach was creating stress and anxiety. Sometimes she really needed to have a coffee meeting or lunch. She turned to the money envelope method, putting cash in envelopes to help budget without feeling guilty. For example, once the $80 in the food envelope was gone, that meant Sarah couldn't order takeout anymore.

Increasing your income isn't always a practical, realistic plan, especially for freelancers.  Variable income owners, plan for income dips with the hill and valley method. When you are on the hill, you can look out and forecast for the valleys, saving money for months you know you won't be bringing in as much work. 

Get in touch with our guest

Sarah Hawkey, founder of toRISEtogether and creator of The Money Studio

Check out the toRISEtogether website to get the free 5 Steps for Planning Ahead on an Unpredictable Income workbook

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