Fly finances (pun intended)

If I could be any animal I would be a housefly.

Okay, not really. I’d probably be a fire-breathing squirrel. But house fly would be second on my list.

Yeah I know flies are pretty gross looking and only have an average life span of about a month, but they do have one thing going for them: persistence. Sure they are rather annoying, but ya can’t really say they lack commitment or dedication.

I was at the beach this weekend, trying to get my tan on, but a handful of flies were doing everything they could to prevent me from reaching ultimate relaxation.

They’d buzz around me and land on my legs and stomach.

I would try and swat at them, but they are just too darn quick and seemed to narrowly escape my hand each time.

I think the flies got some sick pleasure out of taunting me, as they continued “touch and go” landings on my body.

As annoyed as I was, I had to acknowledge the fact that these flies were persistent. Even when facing certain death as I swatted at them, they never gave up on their mission: Annoy the crap out of Debt Ninja.

This may be a stretch, but hear me out… Our financial attitude should mimic that of a fly. When declaring war on debt, like so many of us have, we have to keep consistent and remain committed to our battle.

Paying down my student loan is not exactly my idea of a good time, but committing to being aggressive and throwing all my extra money at it will surely benefit me in the long run.

I have a stated goal of getting out of debt and becoming a bazillionaire.

A fly has a goal of bugging the crap out of me while I chill out on the beach. Sure our goals are different, but the only way to achieve them is to remain persistent. Just as I tried to stop the fly from reaching its goal (primarily by attempting to murder it), it’s important to be aware that our lenders are going to try and prevent us from becoming debt free.

They’ll try and add late fees, increase our interest rates, and penalize the bejeezus out of us for sneezing. But we cannot… I repeat, we CANNOT, let our creditors “swat” us to death.

We will fight, persevere, and ultimately end up victorious. Let this be a lesson to you all, although flies may be gross, they can teach us a thing or two about managing our money.