Willpower

[Alex Gaw]

This post is way longer than I expected it to be when I started writing it. Sorry about that.

When I started coming to this site, reading articles and listening to the podcast, I was not in a position to take big action in pursuit of real estate investing. My credit score was 503. I owed about $60k in student loans, which I had only recently started paying because I hadn't felt stable enough before that. I worked a full-time job downtown and spent most of my free time either dancing or teaching other people to dance. My wife and I weren't poor, but we were one big disaster away from becoming poor, because we didn't have any savings.

Since I didn't have the money for a down payment, couldn't afford a couple hundred or a thousand dollars a month on a mailing campaign, didn't have much free time, didn't know anybody, couldn't make any of the REIA meetings I knew of, and couldn't qualify for any kind of mortgage, I figured I should start with the things I could do.

So my wife and I made a budget and started reducing expenses. We started putting a thousand dollars a month into an emergency fund for the first time ever. I was eager to start investing in some way so I opened an account at Lending Club and started putting a little in there whenever I could. I set up auto pay on all my student debt accounts so I couldn't miss a payment. I signed up for Lyft and Uber to make extra money. Eventually I started waking up three hours before I had to be at work so I could drive for longer and make more money. We added me to my wife's credit cards (her history is much better than mine) and started systematically and aggressively eradicating all of our credit card debt. I started actually talking to my student loan servicing companies instead of avoiding them. Last week I sent letters requesting a goodwill adjustment to late payments they had reported.

In addition to working toward financial success, I've also been working really hard to become the kind of person who deserves to be successful. I've been practicing generosity with my friends, volunteering to help them with whatever projects they've got going on (which is a little self-serving, because I also want to learn to be handy with properties). I have been taking better care of myself by eating better and working out most days. Doing more chores around the house. Helping my wife pursue her goal of being a well-known professional artist. Playing with our cat every night so she gets some exercise and knows that we love her. Reducing caffeine and alcohol intake so I only spend money on them when I'm going to really enjoy it. Etc.

All this is to say that I've been making amazing progress. I'm still not in a position to buy a property, but I'm closer than I was. We've got over $10k in our emergency fund now. I check my credit score every week, and it's up over a hundred points to 630, which is only ten points away from changing from "Poor" to "Fair." We've zeroed out one credit card and have just one more to go before we turn to my auto note. Our house is cleaner. My relationships with my friends are stronger than they were. Our cat is still fat, but she seems happier. I can lift more and run farther.

In the last week or two, though, I've had trouble keeping up my willpower, which is the main reason I'm posting this now. I wake up at 5:30am when the alarm goes off, walk into the other room to stop it, and shuffle right back to bed for another 45 minutes. Instead of using my lunch break to work out, I've sat in my office watching Netflix. I wasted money on lunch out instead of eating the food I brought. I've been less diligent about my chores.

So I'm wondering, for the five of you who read this far: what do you do when your willpower slumps? Do you wait it out or is there something you do to kickstart it again? I've been so proud of the work I've done and the progress I've made. I've spent most of my life being lazy and unfocused and I'm terrified of slipping back into that.