A finance professional who wound up in credit card debt after ‘doom spending’ explains how she got out of the red and changed her money mindset

Rojas wanted to understand her situation. She recalls Googling something like, “Why do finance people get into debt?” It sent her down the rabbit hole of money and psychology and eventually led her to get a Trauma of Money certification.

She learned that her “doom spending” habits were emotional and stemmed from a fear of losing her friends or not being able to connect with her community. Understanding why she was overspending was empowering.

“When I realized that I wasn’t the only one — that this was not a ‘me problem’ — and that it was something that I could turn around, the first thing I did was make a plan,” said Rojas.

Her 2-step process to getting out of debt: Creating a ‘big vision’ and using the ‘snowball method’

For years, Rojas didn’t know what she wanted, let alone have a plan for getting there.

“I was just going day by day,” she said. “I had to first sit down and say, ‘Where do I want to be in three years from now? In five years from now? What is the thing that I want for myself?’ And that step alone showed a complete misalignment of how I was spending and where I wanted to be.”

She thought through what she calls her “big vision,” which was two-fold: to travel the world and build a business. “Then, the second step was, ‘Okay, if I want to be there in five years, what do I need to do now, and how would I pay this debt off?'”

She used what’s known as the debt snowball method. With this strategy, you make the minimum payment on each debt except for your smallest one — on that one, you pay as much as your budget allows you to each month. The idea is that you gain positive momentum by checking debts off the list.

“I needed the motivation that comes from, ‘Okay, I did this. I paid this one,'” said Rojas.

To free up cash to pay down her debt, she felt she had only one lever to pull: spend less.

At the time, “there was no option for me to boost my income,” she said. “I was trapped in a cap, so I could only control my expenses.”

She started by examining her credit card statements and spending habits. It was a revealing exercise.

“If I look back to what I was spending at the time, I was literally pleasing everybody but myself,” she said. “There was absolutely nothing that showed up that could bring me long-term joy — none of that. It was just in-the-moment purchases and things that I don’t even remember.”

She started tracking her expenses so she knew exactly where her money was going. Some costs — like rent, groceries, and insurance — were unavoidable, but she wanted all other expenses to feel intentional.

“Every single dollar that went out, I knew exactly the purpose that it had, and how it was going to benefit me,” she said. It wasn’t easy, she added: “I went through a period of grieving and processing. I’m like, ‘Why am I doing this? I want to go out to happy hours. Now I’m just staying at home trying to build this business.’ But, ultimately, when I was in those moments, I reminded myself of my big vision and that this is not a forever thing.”

Plus, she learned that she enjoyed other, less expensive activities.

“I started to find things to do for free that would fulfill me. I found the most beautiful parks nearby, I found my love for books. I found that most of my friends also like those types of activities,” said Rojas, who also became more and more comfortable with declining invitations to social events that didn’t align with her goals or values.

Rojas, now 29, said it took her six to seven months to pay off her credit card debt. She’s since gone all-in on running her financial education company, The Money Mindset Hub, which started as a side hustle, and splits her time between Maryland and Amsterdam.

Becoming debt-free “felt so good, not only because it was gone, but because I was in control,” she said. “That was the part that felt the best. It was like, now I understand that I can turn things around — that I have the control over this.”