We’re Debt Free!
My prayer journal entry from December 8th, 2020
Well… we are personally debt-free of consumer debt that is. As difficult as 2020 was and as admittedly terrible my mindset was about New Scooters 4 Less, my wife and I were able to pay off our personal debt (which if you remember… most was actually business debt, transferred to personal credit cards in order to reduce the insane interest rates we were paying on business credit cards).
The only personal debt we have today is our home mortgage and though people think I’m crazy for it, my goal is to pay it off as fast as possible.
As dark as 2020 was, paying off this personal debt was a speck of light at the end of the dark tunnel that really helped my family as we would eventually reach my lowest point as an entrepreneur in early 2021 (more to come on this).
[Re-typed and elaborated for clarity and context…]
Tuesday, December 8th, 2020 8:21a
Jesus-
Today is my brother’s birthday. Bless him on his 33rd birthday. Bless this upcoming year for him. Bless his beautiful family. [My brother is awesome. He worked at the shop with me for a long time and I really miss it, but he’s doing really well and he and his wife Hannah now have two beautiful girls! Praise God!]
This morning God, I’m going to pray for very specific things. [An amazing friend] once told me to pray for specifics and recalling this conversation, I reflected back to my first prayer in this [prayer journal] book. At the beginning of the year, we had $35,632.27 of [personal] credit card debt. In addition, we were still making payments on the car and on the new mattress [never take a loan period, let alone on something as stupid as a mattress. Services like Affirm make it easy to put yourself in debt] and now ALL of that is gone as of a few months ago [I’ll never go into debt again]. Thank you, Jesus. What a joy it is to be debt-free personally. [A really great “benefit” of Covid was that we really couldn’t spend money on much. We were able to save a lot of money because we weren’t going out anywhere. We were staying home and with the Lord’s help, we were able to limit our budget to the essentials and sell a lot of stuff out of our house that we didn’t need anymore. For these reasons, we were able to get this debt gone.]
Thank you for my wife, my partner that supports me through it all. Thank you for my children that light up my world in ways they will never know. I love them so much.
LORD - as of today, there is approximately $250,000 of debt in New Scooters 4 Less and $100,000 in loan debt in Austin Global Holdings [this is our holding company that holds the commercial property] (besides the $1,200,000 owed on the property). It lays out as follows…
American Express Credit Card $24,218.00
PNC Visa Credit Card $49,033.94
[Private Investor] Loan $20,000.00
[Private Investor] Loan $20,000.00
Repaint The Wall Loan $40,000.00 [If you don’t remember this from previous posts, I borrowed money from our media company to support New Scooter 4 Less.]
[Private Investor] Loan $45,000.00
[Private Investor] Loan $50,000.00
A total of $248,251.94
In addition, we have collateralized debt for our inventory of …
Northpoint Financial $54,102.38
Wells Fargo $83,051.24
[A total of] $137,153.62
Grand total of NS4L debt $385,405.56 plus the interest that continues to increase on these loans. In addition…
I owe in Austin Global Holdings…
[Private Investor] Loan $80,000.00
Repaint The Wall Loan $20,000.00
[A total of] $100,000.00
Jesus, I ask specifically for this $485,405.56 plus any interest to disappear [If you missed it, check out my post from a few weeks ago $700,000 in Liabilities to see where we stand today]. I pray that I will sell New Scooters 4 Less prior to January 25th, 2021 (Monday), sixty days from signing the business broker’s agreement [if you’ve been reading my blog for a bit, you already know that God’s plan was different]. I ask that you find me a tenant to rent 607 [one of the buildings on our commercial property of about 2,000 sq ft] at a healthy rental rate and income [He answered this prayer plus some. As I release future posts, pay special attention to what happens with 607]. I pray that in 2021 I will be out of New Scooters 4 Less as the operator, I will have leases from 607 and the new owner of New Scooters 4 Less that more than covers the mortgage and puts additional income in my pocket that I can easily support my family without stress and worry and allow me the freedom to spend more time with them and build Repaint/WHOA GNV [the media company and podcast]. I pray that any transitions be smooth for my family and my team. I love them dearly.
LORD - I will work hard every day to be a better steward for you. I apologize for the times that I have messed up. Forgive me of my sins. Forgive me of my tongue and the negative words I often say. [I curse often and as a Christian, I don’t believe it’s the best representation of Christ.] I want to be better. Forgive me for the times the stress causes me to lose my patience (I had unkind words with a customer yesterday and it was not reflective of the kind of person or leader I want to be). Tap my shoulder in those moments. I want to be a strong leader for you. Help me, Jesus. Thank you for being with me. May your spirit flow within me always and may I always remember your promise and the greatness that lies ahead after my time on Earth. Let every day be an impactful domino that leads toward that. I love you and I’m so grateful for the opportunity to have air in my lungs today. Thank you.
Love you.
Collin
Have a blessed week, my friends! I pray that God will bring you rest this weekend. God bless the men and women (and their families) that have sacrificed so much protecting our freedom. I’m thinking about you and praying for you this Memorial Day.
Thank you for reading,
Collin
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