How I am Sorting My Life Out – My Debt Repayment Plan for 2026

I have started the year intentionally. The down time over Christmas and New Year has given me clarity on the unsustainable life I was trying to live. We all need a reality check, the money fairy isn’t coming, no one is here to save us. We can only save ourselves.

I have found myself saying over and over again, I can increase my turnover. Yes my monthly bills are high, but it’s just a blip, I can reduce them. I am asset rich and cash poor.

The thing is, my turnover is on a consistent downward trend, the dizzy highs of 2022 haven’t been repeated. In 2023 my turnover went down by 40k, 2024 by another 20k, 2025 by ANOTHER 20k. my 2025 turnover, lets face the reality was 80k lower than 2022. The exceptional year, the only year where I actually felt comfortable to spend what I wanted, and even managed to lock 40k away into my pension (a good and a bad idea).

I could do something drastic, become a Katy Hopkins controversy character? Or set up an Only Fans account? These are all some of the more extreme business ideas suggested to me. Or I could listen to my wonderful friends with Instagram accounts with 300k followers and follow the blue print they have shared with me, how to get to 100k from 20k in a few months, or could I? I am laced with doubts, I’m not sure I could do it, and I’m not sure I even WANT TO.

I’ve face up to Reality

My monthly bills, when I strip everything back to essential bills and minimum debt repayments are £4,000 a month. Of this £1,600 is my mortgage, and £1,400 is debt repayment. The solution is now blatantly clear. The mortgage needs to reduce and the debt needs to be paid off. My essential bills and food are literally stripped down to the bare minimum, I cannot get any better deals.

I hear this from a lot of my followers, keep those Instagram DM’s coming. They have cancelled everything they can, renegotiated everything they can down to the bare minimum. Everything valuable has been sold. What next?

Maybe your first port of call is to talk to family or friends to see if they can help? Hopefully you have access to this. I don’t. I tried, but it was made very clear that I am to stand on my own two feet and sort out my own issues. Fair call, it’s a harsh lesson but family shouldn’t be there to bail us out of financial problems.

What is next (for me) is looking at the assets and the reality is they have to be sold to release cash.

First Up is the Stock & Shares ISA, the easiest to liquidate

I have always had a Stocks and Shares ISA, it is money, invested in stock market funds containing loads of companies, that builds over time with great returns. My current balance is £6,000, of which £3,000 is investment profit since the account was opened in 2019. Stocks and Shares ISA’s consistently return more than saving in cash, 100% return in seven years, I’ll happily take.

This gives me breathing space.

Second Up is the Car

I have a car on PCP finance, a hybrid where I pay monthly costs of £357 (including loan £218, Insurance £42, Fuel £50, Servicing £30, Tax £17). I am moving this to an Electric Vehicle Used car lease with Octopus Vehicles. I will sell the current car, pay off the finance agreement to net a £6,000 profit.

The new car, which I will run through my business will come in at total costs of £300, main savings being when I use my Octopus Intelligent Tariff to charge the car, rather than fuel costs and tax.

Third Up is the Biggest – The House – And the Life Saver

I have a large amount of equity in my house, and also a large mortgage. I live in a four bedroom house in a lovely Hertfordshire expensive village. This is unsustainable. The decision is simple. Sell the house. Release over £300k of equity and buy a new slightly smaller house, slightly further north, but yet nearer to the boys schools, and quicker to get to London due to Thames Link train connections. It is literally a no-brainer. Provided I can sell my house, universe, you know what to do.

This is a major upheaval, but the mortgage will go down by around £1,000. And I can reduce debt repayments by £1200!!

I appreciate I am so fortunate to have these options, and most people don’t have access to sell assets to get at pockets of small or larger sums of money. But also it’s just me, no parents to ask for help, a partner to share the burden or an inheritance to tap into.

I have been through all the emotions, but mostly I feel happiness and relief, that I’ve made faced up to the reality and realised that I cannot carry on. The hope that things will improve has dwindled (you watch my business income take off like you’ve never seen it before) and I need to take full control of things that I can control

Fourth Up is My Income and Career

In 2025 I spent the last four months incredibly focussed and working hard on my business, I was everywhere, in newspapers, on the TV and radio, at all the events, learning and trying new things. I had an amazing time, it was the first time for a year that I had been motivated to run my business. 2025 was tough year for family issues and my focus was needed in other places.

This continues into 2026, the corporate work flows from the high profile work, and the high profile work continues. I need to get back to a place where I am consistently earning more than my outgoings. And to a place where I am investing in my stocks and shares ISA and making regular pension contributions. This will happen.

Also I am embarking on new learning. I have already been back to college for one day, and this will continue into 2026 and 2027 with my Human Givens Institute psychotherapy qualification. I am always searching for that USP and am aware you need to evolve. The moment you have it, and do it successfully, 50 people come along and copy, or do it better. I do not want to be a financial advisor and help rich people get richer, but I do want to be a life advisor. I get the most joy and satisfaction from when people let me know that I have made a difference to their life. I am really passionate about the combination of Mrs Mummypenny the financial expert and Lynn Beattie the psychotherapist.

I always wanted to make a difference, from the tender age of 22 when I first started my corporate career, it was always my goal. And now it evolves.

Life After Divorce

This whole financial situation relates to life after divorce. I’ll never share too much about that part of my life, but it was a the toughest thing I’ve ever been though, the last ten years have been equally amazing and tragic. I lost someone I thought would be a life partner, and hope in a long term relationship.

I tried to maintain security, safety and stability for my children for as long as I could. I managed seven years, this is a huge achievement, but the system has beaten me. And the circumstances. So I say let them, let me take control of what I can control, which is a lot!

Follow my journey here and on my social media, in the newspapers, and on my PODCAST!!