Juliet’s Personal Finance Blog

I don’t really know how to start this, so I’m just going to write.

It’s January, it’s cold in Alaska, and today I finally admitted to myself that I can’t keep doing this anymore. I’ve carried my financial mess quietly for years, not because I’m embarrassed, but because talking about money feels like handing someone my diary. It’s personal. It’s vulnerable. It says more about me than I sometimes want to admit.

But I’m tired of pretending I’ve got it all under control.

So… here I am. Day 1.
Writing it down.
Starting over.
Again.

My total debt is $122,653 and that’s just the credit cards.
It doesn’t even include the mortgage. Seeing that number still makes my stomach drop, but there it is. It exists whether I write it down or not. I’ve tried ignoring it, minimizing it, “someday-ing” it, none of that worked. So I’m doing the thing that scares me most: I’m telling the truth out loud.

I’m sharing this because I want to connect with people who get it.
People who budget at midnight.
People who stare at their bank apps way too often.
People who mess up, fix it, mess up again, and keep going anyway.
People like me.

I don’t have a magical plan. I don’t have a secret trick. I’m not going to pretend this journey is cute or aesthetic or easy. I just know I’m done avoiding the hard parts. I want to be intentional this year, with my time, my money, and my future. I want stability. I want freedom. I want a life where money isn’t a constant source of stress buzzing in the back of my mind.

And I want a place to sort through all of it, the numbers, the emotions, the progress, the setbacks. That’s why I’m here. That’s why I’m writing. If someone out there reads this and thinks, “Okay, I’m not the only one,” then good. But even if no one reads it, this space is for me.

A place to keep myself accountable.
A place to be honest.
A place to remember that starting over isn’t failure. It’s just a beginning.

So this is my beginning.
Day 1.
Let’s see where this goes.