I don't exactly remember the date, but it was at the end of October/beginning of November. I was at home alone and was walking from the kitchen to my room. Suddenly I heard a voice that said, "Sell your truck". It was so real, I forgot for a moment that I was home by myself. I loved my Tacoma. It was a type of consolation prize to me for being single and not having a family. In other words, it meant a lot to me and I thoroughly enjoyed it. I put the truck on craigslist and within a week I had a buyer. As soon as the reality of selling it came to pass, I felt like I needed to panic.
I left for my winter break and bought a ford escort wagon for $800, all the extra money I had in my bank account. That car ran when it shouldn't have. I continually had to add transmission fluid and oil. It didn't have an engine heater, so I was never able to plug it in to keep the fluids moving. It had a rigged heater, with a crazy connection to the battery. The dash lights didn't work, but that didn't matter cuz the speedometer didn't work. The radio would intermittently change channels or change volume all on its own. The seat belts didn't work properly, and the interior stunk like yucky dog and cigarettes. It wouldn't pass emissions, but it didn't matter cuz I could register it in Healy, where it's not required.
At the time I was selling the truck, I had about 15K left on it. My credit card debt had swelled to 17K. In total, I had more debt than I had assets and had nothing to show for it. I wasn't just arbitrarily spending money all of the time--(yes sometimes that was the case), but more of the debt came from trying to figure out life and where to live and when to go to school after mom and dad died. I take full responsibility for it, I should have been living differently. Anyway, after I had the burden of the truck taken care of, I started to put that truck payment toward my debt. If I got extra money from the dividend, tax refund, etc, it went toward the debt. Yesterday at 1:18PM Alaska Standard Time, I paid the last penny off on my debt. I am free. I am free because God spoke in 2007 and fortunately that time I was not only listening, but I acted. Thanks be to God for seeing ahead in my future and preparing me for it.