Looking forward to 2014

As 2013 winds down, I am already preparing for the New Year. 2014 holds a lot of promise for me. 2014 will be the year when I finally clear off my debt that has been plaguing me for far too many years. This will be the most important thing that I can accomplish in the new year. As the final payments get closer, I can feel a sense of relief flooding over me. I am doing so much better than I was at the same time last year. This has been an effort that has taken over 5 years to accomplish, and despite the hardships I have learned a tremendous amount in that time.

I promise myself that once this episode is behind me, I will never let it happen again. The feeling of finally retaking control is an illusion because I have never lost control. In fact, I have exercised a tremendous amount of control as I have worked my way through these difficult times. I feel good about the results and I am proud of what I have done in terms of getting this whole episode taken care of without losing my sanity in the process.

Removing the financial burden will make the rest of my life that much better. I plan to exist on the same budget for a while after the payments are complete in order to prevent a stupid mistake by immediately accumulating more debt. I have learned what I really need to survive, and it isn't really that much when I think about it. The money that would normally vanish from my account each month will go into Savings and I will let that account grow as the remainder of 2014 passes by. My discipline has improved over the past few years as I struggled to make ends meet, and then realized just how strong and powerful I could be as the results became evident.

So, 2014 is actually a year that I am looking forward to.