Just because everybody’s doing it doesn’t mean you have to follow the crowd. You know exactly what we’re talking about: student loans, and the long-term effects of living with them.
Your financial freedom largely depends on what you’re bringing in and how much is going right back out. By paying off your loans as soon as possible, you’re drastically minimizing the paycheck to paycheck cycle, and your financial future will be totally up for YOU to decide!
On today’s episode of The His & Her Money Show, we’re thrilled to have Gary here with us to share his incredible debt-free journey. Gary is a blogger and IT professional, and once he was swimming in student loans.
But not anymore! With hard work and determination, and a few pretty big sacrifices along the way, Gary put his money smarts to the test straight out of college and cut his $60,000 debt down to nothing in just three and a half years!
Gary’s debt came from typical fresh-out-of-college expenses: moving costs, a car, and of course, $55,000 in student loans. While he was in school, Gary took out student loans without really thinking about them.
But when he started getting the bills right after graduation, he knew he had to reverse the cycle. He didn’t want to be held down financially for the next 6 to 7 years.
So with the help of his big sister getting him on the right track, Gary tackled his debt head-on, and first on the agenda was cutting down expenses. He didn’t have a lot, but there were a few big ones that were holding him back – like groceries and rent.
So he got a roommate, sold his new truck for a much smaller car loan, and on top of canceling monthly expenses like cable and his gym membership, he even traded eating out for batch cooking on Sundays.
Whatever it took! Gary also applied one of our favorite smart money strategies of having multiple bank accounts to keep better track of his cash flow. And it all paid off – now Gary is living totally debt-free and saving to invest in a duplex to start his “house hacking” journey!
All this money that I was throwing at student debt, now I can actually do something meaningful with it.
Follow Gary at DebtFreeClimb.com!
What You Will Learn
- Expense reduction hacks
- The importance of budgeting and optimization
- How to formulate a plan and keep up the momentum
- How Gary cut his expenses down to basic living costs to crush his debt
- The benefits of having multiple bank accounts
Resources Mentioned
- Mint.com
- The Debt Reduction Calculator
- I Will Teach You To Be Rich by Ramit Sethi
- The Millionaire Next Door by Thomas J. Stanley
- Buy Buttons by Nick Loper
- ChooseFI
Thanks For Listening!
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Today’s show was sponsored by Teach Me How To Budget. If you are ready to gain freedom in your finances once and for all then enroll in our brand new personal finance course Teach Me How To Budget.
