Are you struggling with debt? Do you wish you could figure out a way to stop living paycheck to paycheck? Today I'm honored to feature my friend Lindsay's story. She and her husband were stunned by their student loan debt, and she developed a plan to get out of debt that's working! Here's Lindsay's story:
April, 8th 2014. That is the day that forever changed my family's life. At first I thought it was for the worst – but now looking back it has been for the better! It just so happened to be my birthday. My Husband and I have always agreed to spend our birthdays together – even taking a personal day at work to ensure it. Well, after a nice day out and about we came home to a letter in our mailbox … thee letter … thee life changing letter.
See six months prior my Husband had graduated with his (executive)MBA. The letter was from the student loan company informing us that payback of the loan was going to being next month, and that it was significantly larger than what they had told us when we spoke with them about taking out the loan. It was $412 more a month than our mortgage!
The truth is I panicked. I had no clue how we were going to be able to survive. I literally worried how we would pay this (and other bills) and still put food on our table. I called the student loan company, and by the end of the phone call my feelings were even worse, we found out that:
- Over the course of the loan we would be paying $249,882 in just interest payments along
- It would take more than 24 years to pay the loan off (It would be forgiven, before the balance was actually gone)
- Our youngest son who was only 3.5 years old would graduate college before the loan was paid in full
If that is not bad enough we also had a mortgage payment, a car payment, and 10,000 in undergraduate debt from my schooling. We were over $300,000 in debt. Terrifying.
So after coming to terms with our new reality – I got to work. I searched high and low for system to help me organize our finances, help me breakdown our true financial picture, and most importantly come up with a concrete plan for our family to dig ourselves out from underneath this mountain of debt. Sadly, I could not find one. Not anywhere. So the Soon-to-be debt free workbook was born, in 2014. It has been my catalyst to becoming debt free. (We are not there yet- but are well on our way, thanks to this financial planner!)
See, my story is not uncommon. We are not (and were not) living a “Keeping up with the Joneses” lifestyle, but were still quick to rack up more debt than we ever imagined – by just trying to improve our lives through education. See in America:
- 75% of citizens live paycheck to paycheck
- only 32% have and keep to a budget
- only 30% have long-term financial goals
- 50% have less than one month saved for emergencies
- and 26% have absolutely no money saved what-so-ever
Even if this is the life you are currently living, it does not have to be your reality forever. There is always another option. If you work hard enough – and you want it bad enough, you too can be debt free!
If you and your family have debt, worry about your financial future, or maybe you just want “better”. Then you need to take control – get a true picture of your financial health (Like I did 2 years ago), maybe cry a little (Or a lot like I did) then brush yourself off, and start formulating our debt payoff plan! The 2017 Financial Planner walks you through all of that, and so much more! As a special thank you I wanted to extend a discount to all of you amazing readers over here on Organizing Moms (Seriously! Katie is amazing, isn't she!?) Just use the coupon code: OrganizingMoms during checkout to snag 10% off your entire purchase! You can hop on over here to checkout the entire Financial Planner and explore all the tiers available! Tier 1 is less than $5.00 with the coupon code!
I hope that today is the date you will forever have ingrained in your mind – as the day you decided to take charge of your finances!