On July 1, 2015, Kayla from the personal finance blog KaylaSloan.com owed $148,000 in debt. Her finances and her state of mind were a wreck.
“I couldn’t sleep through the night because I never knew if I’d have enough Money to keep my checking account ‘in the green,'” recalls Kayla. “I was overdrafting all the time and very stressed about money.”
But something else also kept her up at night — a nagging feeling. “As I laid down each night to sleep, I always felt like something was missing,” says Kayla. “Could this be all there is to life: working and paying bills?”
So on July 1, as Kayla fretted over her massive debt, she also quit her full-time job.
Most people called her “crazy,” but Kayla secretly planned this out. It started one sleepless night on a day she had joined her friend for lunch.
Kayla explains: “I went to lunch with my best friend and my card was declined for a $10 purchase. That night, I couldn’t sleep, so I did a quick Google search and found personal finance blogs.”
She discovered strange things like budgeting and paying off debt. But those things didn’t inspire her. “I found the stories of people paying off debt each month inspiring,” notes Kayla. “They found ways to simplify their spending and make extra money at the same time and that encouraged me to start my own blog, so I’d become accountable for my own finances.”
She started as a part-time blogger, and created her first blog — Shoeaholic No More. It found success fairly quickly. “At the time that I quit my job, probably a year after I started my blog, my business was grossing about the same amount I had been earning from my day job.”
I love her success story, but without her painful personal and financial past, it probably wouldn’t have happened.
Kayla said she always spent too much. But when she opened up her first credit card, she didn’t do it for spending purposes. She opened an account to “build credit.” Smart.
But something ruined her plans — she and her husband divorced.
“When you go through a traumatic and very emotional experience, all logic flies out the window,” says Kayla. “I was still a full-time student and only working part-time. To cope with my emotions, I spent a lot of money on eating out, new clothes, and things for my house.”
Kayla unfortunately became an emotional spender. Thankfully, the stories she read on those personal finance blogs proved that other people also went through financial hardships and turned themselves around. Kayla gained control over her spending and now describes herself as “accountable.”
