Since I joined stacker.news in May, my mindset about money and debt has been changing. I began to see with new eyes what financial freedom really means and how credit can be a silent trap if you don't control it.
For a long time, I was dividing expenses across several cards, believing it was the way to "get organized." In reality, what I was doing was compromising my future and sinking deeper into debt. The chart I'm keeping is clear: in June, I reached a peak of R$5,611.15 in debt, an enormous burden that robbed me of peace. (My mother-in-law was also here at home, and we bought more things for her to take to Cuba.)
But from then on, I decided to make a radical change. I stopped using multiple cards and kept only one that gives cashback in SATs. It's a prepaid card, which means that to use it, I have to load money onto it first. This forces me to pay everything in cash, without financing. It may seem limiting, but it's actually been liberating: if there's no balance, you don't buy, period. And every SAT I accumulate is a reminder that I'm now building, not destroying.
To speed up the process of getting out of debt, I also started generating extra income. On weekends when I can, I accompany a member of my church to sell melons, and that extra money has helped me pay off my debt faster. At the same time, at home, we cut down on unnecessary expenses and learned to live more simply.
What's interesting about the table is how the change in mindset began to be reflected in the numbers. For example, what appears as September's payment actually corresponds to the end of August: there's already a significant drop, going from over R$2,900 in April and almost R$5,600 in June, to R$1,941 in July and R$852 in August/September. And by the end of December, the debts will be, God willing, just R$291.
It hasn't been easy, but with each passing month, I see the fruits of my hard work. Visiting stacker.news here helped me look at things from a different perspective: to stop seeing credit as easy money and start thinking in terms of sovereignty and discipline.
Today, I'm still in the process, but with one certainty: every debt I pay off is a step toward freedom, and every SAT I accumulate is a building block in the future I'm building.