Have you ever felt trapped by money or debt?
When I graduated college I was determined that I was going to be rich. A few years later I felt trapped by a mortgage, car payment, student loans, and credit cards. I had done what everyone else around me was doing but everything was going fine so I wasn’t too worried about it.
Then my sewer line broke. The $6,000 bill to get it fixed wiped out my savings, had me putting some on my credit cards, and borrowing from a family member.
I was determined not to let this sh!t happen to me again. I sat down with our bank account statement and began making cuts to everything we spent money. It wasn’t a lot at first, but I was able to immediately free up $227 a month in expenses by cutting subscription services, converting my student loans to an income based repayment plan, and a few other small tweaks.
Then we switched to paying with cash until we got things under control. It made it more difficult to buy things when we had to go to a bank to withdraw money (we avoided ATMs to avoid the fee). It was also psychologically harder to give up the dollars. This helped us keep at least a hundred dollars in our pocket each month.
We rebuilt our savings first. Then we attacked our debt. At first we used a shotgun approach to paying down debt until we realized it was barely making a difference one each individual loan. So then we focused. A small credit card went down first, then our cars, then our student loans.
A lot of other things happened in the background, including getting much better jobs, but we stayed focused on getting these things paid off. It was a few years alter that I learned of Dave Ramsey and his 7 Baby Steps. His first 3 steps are what I had already done so it resonated with me.
In 2022 I made the decision to become one of his certified Financial Coaches so that I can better help people who are in the same tight position that I was once in. If that’s you, reach out today to set up a free consultation.
Joshua Fulenwider 