"Helping people fearlessly face their finances."

As I was growing up, my parents were fairly affluent, so I didn't really want for anything. I wasn’t spoiled, per se, but I had more than my fair share of toys. However, partly due to the nature of my father's career, my parents ran into some financial difficulties when I was in junior high. They had to declare bankruptcy when I started high school, and that meant moving to a new place and starting over.

I had to work through most of high school in order to help out with the family's expenses. I think I was pretty good with my money at that point in time. I helped my parents out with some expenses and bought some things for myself. But I never saved any money. There was always something I wanted or something that needed to be paid, so I never even considered it. Upon the dawn of my college career, I was introduced to the wonderful world of credit cards.

I was fortunate enough to get accepted to a private college that paid a large portion of my tuition, and I had a few scholarships that helped offset most of the rest of my tuition. But my parents did have to pay some part of the cost, and, of course, I had to take out some student loans. Unfortunately, I had to put some of my tuition on my newly acquired credit card, so part of my eventual considerable consumer debt was caused by college.

Even though college tuition was the initial reason for my credit card application, I also got caught in the instant gratification trap that results from the availability of credit. I mean, I could buy something, anything, and NOT have to pay for it right away. The fact that I would eventually be paying way more for my purchases at a later point in time did not really cross my mind. I rationalized that since I was making my minimum payment, adding an extra purchase (or several) wouldn't change my monthly payments THAT much. So why not get that new gaming console that I really wanted? And so the downward spiral that was my credit card debt deepened.

By the time I finished college, I had three credit cards, two of which were close to maxed out, and one which had no balance. I got a decent paying job, but it was in a high cost-of-living area, and I had to have a car to commute to work. This was back at the height of the tech boom, so interest rates on loans were criminally high. So, with no real assets, I put the down payment for my car on my credit card with no balance, and ended up adding a $400 car payment to my monthly expenses. Between the car payment, the credit card payments, groceries, and rent, my paycheck was spent. I really did try to pay more than the minimum payments on my cards, but after my basic living expenses were taken care of I didn’t have enough extra cash to put much of a dent in the balance of any of my cards.

After about a year of living on my own surviving paycheck to paycheck, my future wife moved in with me and we were able to split the rent. I started getting some of my expenses under control, and even started planning on how to tackle my debt. Unfortunately, this was right when the bottom fell out of the tech industry, and I lost my high-tech job. I was living in Silicon Valley in California, one of the hardest hit areas in the country. With less than two years of work experience, job hunting was like prospecting for gold (mostly fruitless). Those were rough times for everyone. Beth kept her job and was able to keep a roof over our heads and food on the table. I took on some temp jobs that enabled me to keep making my car payments and the minimum monthly payments on all my credit cards. But I didn’t have any extra cash to pay down the principal on my cards so the balances kept going up.

After about a year, Beth got a job offer on the East Coast and we decided to relocate in the hopes that it would be easier for me to find work in my area of expertise. I found a job within two months after moving. It didn't pay great, but it did allow me to stay on top of my car payment, living expenses, and my minimum credit card payments. I guess the best thing about that whole period of my life was that I was really forced to weigh the value of things I wanted but didn’t need. Not that I didn't buy a few things that weren't strictly necessary for my survival, but I was very thoughtful about those purchases and kept them to a very limited number compared to my previous spending habits.

A year later, I was offered a much better-paying job, and with the extra money, I decided to pay off my car as soon as I could because the interest on the car loan was really high (almost 10%).  It took awhile, but I paid my car off well before the 5 year loan period was up. Getting rid of that $400 monthly payment was such a great experience that it inspired me to come up with a plan to get rid of all my debt. I was able to secure a personal loan for the bulk of my credit card debt at a lower rate than any of my cards. It did raise my monthly payments, because it was a 5 year loan, not a credit card with payments meant to keep your balance high indefinitely. But it did force me to make payments that would eventually wipe out the loan, so it was more than worth it. I kept a few credit cards, but I made sure that if I ever used them, that the balances were paid off monthly. I stopped buying things that I couldn’t afford.

Over time, I paid off my personal and student loans, and I am now debt free (aside from our mortgage). Now, instead of just paying off interest with my money, I earn interest from my investments. Throughout this whole experience, I did a lot of research, and learned a lot. My hope is that I can help other people with the knowledge I gained. My wish is to help people avoid some of the mistakes I made, or, at the very least, help them correct those mistakes.