Are you in debt or have some other type of financial burden you just want to hide in the closet? Trust me on this. You are not alone. When you finally accept that you are in a financial bind, the faster you can work at removing it from your life. Before I moved to Orlando, I had to pump in $8,000 into fixing up my rental property after my previous tenants did some pretty big damages to the house. This situation evaporated all my savings and I started to live on credit. To make things even worse, a business I was partnering with ended up terminating our agreement and totally removed any type of monthly cash flow. I can honestly admit that this was one of the hardest times of my life. I didn’t know what to do, which led me to a small type of depression.

I took even more struggle for me to actually realize what I had to do to get the ball rolling in the right direction. Being in debt, spending over 40 hours a week repairing my rental house, and having no income really threw a wrench in my plan on being financially independent. My sister-in-law said to me that “There’s a big difference between successful and unsuccessful entrepreneurs. Successful entrepreneurs find any way possible [legal of course] to get out of a situation on top. Unsuccessful entrepreneurs give up and cry about their situations.” I was acting like an unsuccessful entrepreneur. Having a negative outlook on the scenario will always bring a negative outcome. Think positive and ask for guidance from people that have gone through a similar situation. Remember the first step to any problem is admitting it’s a problem.

I needed to think of ways to get out of my mess and come out on top. Originally, I tried to handle everything at the same time. I needed to get new tenants, create a case on my previous tenants, find a job, get money, repair my house, and at the time, keep my girlfriend happy. As all of you know, I didn’t resolve this situation without lots of bangs and bruises. I am still in debt from all the house repairs, I didn’t end up getting any money from the old tenants, and I lost my girl. Was I successful in the overall situation? I think so. I currently have incredible tenants, I have a new job in Orlando, and I am paying off my debt slowly but surely. I learned that you need to handle everything like an individual project. Complete one thing at a time and then move on. In my situation, I needed to get new tenants, but first I needed to repair my house so I could get people in there. So repairing my house was the number one priority. After that, things started to fall in place.

Now that that part of my life is complete, I can reflect on the decisions I’ve made and understand my mistakes. After analyzing the past year, I realized that this was all spun from a poor decision I made last year. Renting out my house without doing proper due diligence really smacked me in the face. If I tried to find better tenants, I wouldn’t have had to throw in all the money and go through all the stress that came from it. With every huge financial decision you need to take your time and reflect. It would have been better for me to pay one more month of the mortgage and try to find better tenants; instead of renting it to bad tenants.

Just remember to face your fears before 2008 and handle them accordingly. Don’t be afraid to ask questions to people that know and always learn from your mistakes.