Well, I’m not where I want to be, where I planned to be, but I am further than I was.
Current student loan balance (as of 2/23/26) is $15,255.65.
Income dropped unexpectedly as one of my clients took an early retirement once he qualified for disability. I’ve gotten no hours for the last two months. Our contract still stands, but he’s backed way off.
My other contracts continue as they have, but this one was the bulk of my income in Q4 and this drop was completely unexpected.
Thankfully, this hasn’t affected anything except my debt payoff. I’ve not accrued any more debt. still going cash only, but I’m also being really cautious until I replace the income. Especially since I am in Q1 of a new business launch.
What am I doing about that?
I’m looking for new work – both W2 and 1099. I continue to apply for projects via Upwork. And recently joined a couple of local, in person business networking groups (free). I attended my first two meet ups this past Friday. In addition, I’ve been applying for remote only W2 positions, but am being very selective on that as caretaking for my parents in the priority still.
I’m not in the whoa is me state that I’ve been in in the past when work fell through, but I am in a rebuilding phase of my primary business contracts/projects again. The last year has been really, really solid though so I’m in a good place.
New Business Update
As I am launching my new business, which is not taking much or really any money at this point, just lots of time; I am just hoarding my income paying bare minimums on everything. I’m anticipating breaking even on the money invested in this new venture near the end of Q2 and hopefully *crossing my fingers, will begin seeing some profits in Q3. But that will all be re-invested. It’s really running on a skeleton tech stack and to take it to the next level, I’ll have to invest a little more money. But getting through this first year as lean as possible to prove proof of concept.
And long term, this should become relatively passive. Goals – at least!
The post Hope’s Debt Update – February, 2026 appeared first on Blogging Away Debt.
