The Debt Dragon and Me (and You)

This was the first post on my Substack when I initially dedicated it to my battle with survival debt. I was going to talk about my journey to eliminate the debts I've built up over the past 13 years there, and how my 2023 ADHD diagnosis factors into everything I've dealt with. Since I deleted my Substack I have since decided to stick to Vocal.Media and my Buy Me A Coffee page.

Consumer debt is increasing in Canada.

That's a no-brainer to anybody that's alive and has to eat, house themselves, or get anywhere. Interest rates going up pushed the cost of mortgages to unsustainable levels for, like, most people (cue Bank of Canada laughing and twirling mustaches here), but especially those who purchased at the lowest rates and are now looking at additional thousands on their monthly bill.

And if you're already a low-income Canadian, it's even worse.

Hi, I'm Missie, and I've been fighting with precarious employment and mental health crap since losing my first full-time job in 2010. For over a decade, I've flitted from job-to-job and built up survival debt along the way.

I'm still under the normal amount of debt for someone my age, but it's enough that I'm struggling to get by.

I know I'm not the only Canadian in my boat. In Ontario, the minimum wage is nowhere near the living wage across the province, which ranges from $18.65 in southwestern Ontario to $25.05 in the GTA.

How I Got Here

There are two factors that put me in this hole: one being precarious work, two being undiagnosed ADHD.

People with ADHD are more likely to be impulsive spenders. It's harder for us to say "no", especially when it's so easy and convenient to buy a thing now and deal with the blowback later. We're impulsive in other ways, too, and it's harder for us to regulate that.

It's also very easy for us to be talked into buying things we don't actually need—like courses from side hustle gurus—or taking on debts we shouldn't, like the line of credit that's been strangling me since 2016. Focusing on anything, especially if we don't want to do it, is nearly impossible. When you don't know what's going on in your head? The frustration just makes it worse.

Slaying the Debt Dragon

Over the course of however long it takes, I'm going to be using this blog to track my progress—from figuring out where my finances stand, to examining my thought processes, right up to the last payment on the last debt. Along the way I'll provide you with the tools I'm using to slay the debt dragon in the hopes that maybe they'll help you, too.

We'll talk about how ADHD impacts the way we approach our finances, and we'll go over ways to cope and the specific barriers that I face, because I know some of you will see yourselves reflected in my bullshit and hopefully come away with something you can use.

Yes, I will occasionally sell products and services. Yes, I will get personal. Yes, this is going to be uncomfortable for everyone involved.

I'm not a personal finance expert. I love crunching numbers and picking things apart and solving problems—why oh why did I go into Multimedia Design?!—and I know a lot of shit about a lot of shit.

So, we'll see what happens.

Cheers, and see you soon.