As Gail Vas-Oxlade (and probably a bunch of other people) says, money is the last taboo. I’ve had frank discussions about so many topics, but money never really seems to be one of them. I think this is ridiculous, and part of what is fueling the fire of Canadian consumer debt. In an effort to combat this, here are the facts about my debt:

My Original Debt

Car Loan: $11,282.45

In July 2011, my fiancée’s trusty neon was hit on the highway by a driver who failed to check her blind spot. Read more about that here. As a result the car was totalled and we needed a new one. I was not yet a PF crazed lunatic, so we bought a used VW Golf. I don’t regret it, I love that car. Probably should’ve bought something more reasonably priced, but I was still under the impression that since I had just graduated from university, I DESERVED a nice car.

Student Loan: $26,825.38

I’m so happy this number isn’t higher. I went to one of the most expensive schools in the country in the most expensive city in Atlantic Canada. I got some help through school from parents but still graduated with about 40k in student loans. But then, because I’m thrifty like that, I realized that my provincial government was forgiving massive amounts of student debt just to bribe us to graduate on time. One little form filled out and faxed and POOF, 16k of my student debt just disappeared. Read more about that here. Moral of the story: Check your government incentives, you never know what you might find. Still, with $26,825 owing, I was being charged $4.10 per day in interest!

Learn More

I started out with this much debt, but I’ve been working to get rid of it for over a year now. To learn more about getting rid of debt, check out these posts.