Bank account below zero
Today I woke up to an email from my bank, Your bank amount is below zero. No money in savings, no cash. I had to transfer from my credit card a cash advance. Remaining balance $2,400. Barely enough to cover the rent for this next month.
I feel ashamed, embarrassed, a failure. I mean here I am a woman who has studied financial gurus, who has read a bunch of books, invested heavily in herself. A woman who has faith and hope. A woman who teaches people how to save money, how to get out of debt and yet my bank account sits below zero.
My debt has racked up to about $60k. Not long ago I was writing my first co-authored book and was writing about how I had gotten my finances in order, how I was no longer living paycheck to paycheck. How I had traveled so many times and telling others that my system works. This morning I even had a meeting with a lady to talk to her about my program, 633 Money Systems, and how it helped.
How can I continue teaching about money, when I don’t have any. I’ve talked to God about it. I’ve meditating, sat still or at least tried to. I have given, praised God, followed God, lived by the 10 commandments, I haven’t cheated anybody over, I have worked on myself and becoming a person who is able to have wealth. I have used money to make others feel good, I’ve blessed families, my family with it. So what is the problem? Why don’t I have more money now?
What is really weird, and what blows my mind is the feeling I have? Before I created the money system I remember that the creditors would be constantly calling and leaving me voicemails (because I didn’t have the courage to answer) that they needed me to pay. I fetl stressed, cried a lot, but it was a desperate cry, a frustrated cry. Like those cries that you can’t express what you feel, yet like you can’t cry like you want to, but you do cry. Well it was those types of cries. I remember feeling like that throughout the whole time I was getting my finances in order. I felt guilty because I hadn’t been smarter, wiser with my money. I felt angry that I was in that position because my ex hadn’t given me my part of the divorce. I was not okay.
Today, I’m in a similar situation. I have been able to pay my credit card companies up until now. I do not know what will happen in a few weeks, but for now the payments have been made. I don’t have a second plan, a savings account. I have a house that used to be rented out, but tenants moved out because I was selling. It hasn’t sold, and it’s been on the market for about 5 months. I am trying different ways to figure out how to get the cash out and every door seems to close. It feels like it felt when I was trying to move from my parents house.
We looked at several houses, but for one reason or another they didn’t come through. We stopped trying to move out and it was after a few months that the perfect opportunity for this beautiful home came, and it came in the perfect way. Today I feel that same feeling. Like all the doors are being closed, because God has a better plan.
My eyes see what is going on. They see no money in the bank account, they see no tenants, they see the next month’s bills. My brain is trying to tell me, “Hey you need to freak out, you need to feel scared, to get your butt up and go work, to ask for money, to feel anxious.” But, there is something deep inside me that is much bigger.
A hope that I didn’t think was there, or didn’t think it was that big. Today, a few hours after I had received the email about the amount below zero, I also got a denial to get a hard money loan on the property. I was hoping on that loan so that I could pay off the credit card loans and have some money to pull me through until I get this business off the ground. So, when that denial came, I did feel I aint going to lie.
Yet, something inside me, God, has allowed me to experience peace in all of this. There is worry, but the trust is bigger. I know His plans are better. When I got that denial I was in my room and I sat on the floor, closed my eyes and just breathed.
There is nothing else I can do. I have told God, Im not going back to work, because I believe in what I am doing. I have peace with where I live, because God is the one that opened this door. I have peace over my credit card usage because I have used them to invest in either myself or my family. I have been a good steward. I still write my expenses in my tool, I still look at my numbers, I still give (except for this month because to completely transparent I want to find another place to give where my heart feels joy to give). But bottom line, I have paid attention to my numbers. God took the bookkeeping clients I had from last year and that allowed me to focus more on my business.
As I sat there reminiscing on how I felt and that all of this is an illusion, only love exists I had a thought. I went downstairs where the kids were at, I got a large sheet of paper hung it on the dry erase board and told the kids, “I will not allow the enemy to take over my thoughts. Things didn’t work as planned today, but a miracle is a change in perception (from A return to love). We are going to write for 30 minutes the miracles God has done for us.”
So we started writing them on the piece of paper. We listed things that had happened to us recently to things that had happened a long time ago. Things like health, being able to work from home, our podcast, the house. We also listed things that looked like they were that great. For example, the divorce. If we think about what a miracle is, that is a change in perception, the I choose to believe that the divorce brought me a huge opportunity for me to find myself again, for me to grow into the woman God wanted me to be. Even the choosing to believe what we want to believe is a miracle. Soon the paper was full. There we were my kids and I just feeling grateful for all that God has given us and let us experience. We realized how far we had come. How we had moved out from the house we lived in when we were married and had moved in with my parents into 1 room the 3 of us. How my brother had gifted me a car and then a truck. How we had moved into this home without a bed, couches, almost nothing at all. It was at that moment that I realized who I had become.
Here I am with lots of debt, with uncertainty, but feeling the love of my kids, their support, the beauty of the chao. I have experienced pain and worry and stress, but that’s what the world is about. That’s why we chose to come, to experience these things.
A friend of mine recently told me, that we get to experience these things. In the 2nd level of 633 Money Systems, I share how the reason we value money is because we didn’t have it at some point. The same with everything in life. Sometimes, the only way or reason you value love, friendships, family is when you don’t have them or you haven’t had them. So, when you do have them they mean the world to you.
If it wasn’t for stress we wouldn’t know what peace is. If it wasn’t for disappointment we wouldn’t know what love is, and so on.
So this was the biggest miracle of all. To be in the middle of the storm, yet feeling peace, feeling trust, believing that my story isn’t over. I am where I need to be, and wether that means that I have to move out back to my parents house, or if I have to not pay some credit cards for the while being, or if I have to pay $20k additional closing costs in the property, it doesn’t matter. Because at the end of the day nothing in this world can destroy the house that I’ve built inside. Not because of the knowledge or who I am, but because of who I’ve built it on, God. He is my rock, my foundation. Things will work out.
Blessings.
Until soon,
Aracely Chavez
Founder of Seven Streams CashFlow
Seven Streams CashFlow is more than a platform for wealth-building tools and youth entrepreneurship skills. It is a faith-driven movement and a thriving community where like-minded families grow, give, and build legacy together.
Seven Streams CashFlow was born out of a personal mission to rebuild life, finances, and legacy after divorce, not just for myself but with my two boys by my side. What started as a way to teach my kids about faith, money, and business turned into a powerful movement that equips families everywhere to do the same. Together we created more than a platform. We created a vision for the next generation.
Check out SevenStreamsCashFlow.com to find out who we are.
