- When I finally sat down and totaled everything up...
- I think we were at $96,000 in student loan debt.
- The thought of paying off a student loan until the age
of 50, 55 just drove me nuts.
- It seemed normal. Every time we talked about it,
like when we brought it up with our family they would say,
"Student loan debt is a good debt."
- A good debt, yeah.
I would say before Financial Peace, I felt, um...
Like I was on a marathon that was never gonna end. Like
I knew the debts would be paid off but it just felt
like this was a lifetime.
- I felt just worried and wanting to hide from what
we had gotten ourselves into.
The minute we decided we were gonna do this,
we literally ran with it.
- Now after Financial Peace, I feel like there's
an end, right, there's hope.
- I feel like a sense of peace, literally, has just
washed over me.
- More so than anything we definitely feel more connected
to her than ever.
(soft music)
- Alright you guys, thank you so much for being here.
I so appreciate it because your story when I heard about it
I was like, "Ah, I want them to come on the show
and talk about your journey," because you're on a very
significant journey right now in life.
And so, tell me a little bit about where all this began.
- I mean basically we had a mound of debt
and we realized, well, more Melvin realized
that we really need to get rid of it and eventually
he got to the point where he was so frustrated
with our student loan debt, our credit card debt,
and probably frustrated with me
(laughing)
- So you're the free spirit?
- Oh definitely.
- Total nerd.
- He's your nerd.
- We're on the same team, yay to free spirits.
Okay, so that is one thing I get a lot,
the reluctant spouse. The spouse that like won't
come on board, and since you were the reluctant spouse,
what would you tell a spouse that is like Melvin?
Who wants to be on board, what would you say? Okay this is the best
way to get your free spirit honed in.
What were things that helped you?
- I mean, he really wanted me to get on board,
but he also gave me my space to make sure, you know,
I joined him on my own terms instead of just
trying to drag me into it, and honestly,
with him, seeing the worry and the fear, and I don't want
him to feel like that, I want him to realize he's doing
a great job providing for us, so I wanna make sure that we
were, I made him feel like that.
And if me being on board was gonna help him and us doing
this together was gonna help out our family then
that's what I'm gonna do too.
- Yeah. So the why behind it was huge.
- Absolutely.
He got to the point where he said we need to change and
he talked about ordering Financial Peace University
over and over again and
eventually one night I told him, I said, "If you want it
so bad just go order it."
- It was kinda towards the tail end of a pay period,
we didn't have anything maybe but $150 left in our bank
account and so we're like, "Look, if I'm gonna do this,
gotta do it now."
- Okay so what I think is so significant is that
that could've just been another night, right?
Like you could've just bought something online,
it wasn't a big deal, but you remember the night.
You remember the time of day, you remember exactly where you guys were.
- Oh yeah.
- So this was a huge pivot, like it'll be a memory
that you probably have for the rest of your life.
That moment that you decided to make that commitment
to do something different, is what it amounts to.
So you guys started Financial Peace University.
You got into the dumping debt section about getting
out of debt and then, tell me what happened from there.
- I think that dumping debt lesson just lit a fire in me
and I just got out of bed, I said, "This is dumb,
we can't do this anymore." I got the scissors, I said,
"We're cutting all these up."
So you know, sometimes it's hard to admit that we had
seventeen credit cards, you know, and it felt so good
to get ride of them. It really did.
- It became a whole Saturday ordeal, so literally
from, it must've been 7AM by the time we were done
with the lesson, getting the two girls up, breakfast, and
then literally laying all the credit cards, letting our
girls see that and they're like, what are these?
And what is this for?
I still remember our four year old asking us, what are
we doing? And just seeing ... Giving her that experience, so she knows
not to go down this path.
- And that's it, and that's like what I always tell people
when they're getting out of debt, and those of you getting
out of debt currently, you probably have felt this
because we say you have to be sick and tired of being
sick and tired.
Like it's this point, like, we're done.
Like I talk to some people, and they're like,
"Yeah, I think it'd be kinda fun to get out of debt."
I'm like, "Yeah girl, that's gonna take you a long time.
Like you can wander your way in, you cannot wander your way out.
It has to be intentional and there has to be a lot
of sacrifice, so you guys started paying off that debt.
You cut up the credit cards, you started down this path,
and you guys... Currently, you've paid off all your credit
card debt already, right?
- We are, we're completely out of credit card debt.
- Which was how much?
- Maybe about $10,000 in credit card give or take.
- Yes, but since we started Financial Peace, we've paid
off $19,000 in our whole total debt.
- You guys, that's in a couple months, isn't it?
- Yeah, it's ten weeks.
- Okay so what do you attribute that to?
Do you look at it and you're like, "We just
were not intentional before and now we're budgeting?"
Is it that you're making life self-sacrifices?
Like how do you pay off $19,000 in a few months?
Like, that's insane.
- We have definitely ran with the envelope system.
I think that's been the biggest thing that's helped us,
because we overspent a lot in going out and
restaurant money, and when that envelope runs out,
you're done.
- It's out. If you guys don't know what it is, it's like the best
system, so you cash out categories in your budget that
you tend to overspend on. Most people, restaurants,
groceries, clothing, all of that,
so you actually have physical cash, and it's a great
accountability because you see the cash and when it is gone,
like you said, it's gone, and you have to make a different
decision on what you're going to do.
- Now it's like we're on the same page, we're looking
at the same budget, we know how much we're spending
for every category and the discipline that comes
in behind it, after awhile you come to say, I really
spent that much in that area? What am I buying?
It just really gets you to start questioning certain areas
and like you said, definitely having the same goals.
- Totally, that's what I always tell people, when you can
agree on your money, you're agreeing on more than money.
You're agreeing on your goals, your dreams, where you
wanna go as a family, on your fears, so much is tied
into money, so what in your marriage has changed
throughout this process?
- Definitely our financial communication
and it was funny, a few months before we started,
he actually wanted to sit down
and he asked me what are our goals
for the future? And I was just like, "I don't know.
I'm not sure."
But now I don't get frustrated with that question anymore
because I know exactly what we wanna do,
and when we get out of debt, we wanna make sure
our girls have money for college so they're never
in the student loan debt that we're in.
That's another big part of what we're struggling with
is our student loan debt, and we don't ever want them to
be part of that.
- Even if you're past the steps, maybe you're investing
or saving for kids' college. Whatever it is,
no matter where you are, you're like, "Okay we have a goal." So now
every dollar, we're just gonna be intentional with
where it goes and it adds up so much over time.
So you guys, how much debt do you have left in your...
- When we started Financial Peace University,
we had $116,000 and now we are down to...
- A little south of a hundred.
- So you're trucking. Do y'all have a date in your mind, like have you tracked
it out where you're like, our goal is...
- Yeah, so if nothing else were to change today right,
we're thirty-six months out, but now it's really
just being more intentional about what else can we
adjust here? Do we really need to spend? We're really
having more of those discussions.
- So would you say you're in like a totally different
mind, emotional space than you were six months ago,
a year ago?
- Absolutely, I think the biggest thing I keep telling him
is even though we're not even halfway through with our debt
snowball, we're not quite there yet, I have a sense of
peace and just relief, and I don't feel the weight
anymore because we have our plan, we know what we're doing,
and it's just an amazing feeling.
- Well thank you guys so much again for coming on
and sharing your story.
I mean, aren't they so incredible? Like right now,
if you don't wanna like run through a brick wall,
I don't know what your problem is, people. Seriously,
it is just remarkable when you gain control of your money,
they are living proof of it, that you have control
and you have peace, you guys, and they still are in their
journey getting out of debt, but the peace of mind that
comes with having a plan and knowing what to do
changes everything and Financial Peace University,
it is seriously one of the best things you can do.
If you have not signed up, sign up,
click the link below, get more information,
and if you wanna know more about the envelope system,
which is amazing, too, I'll put a link down below
of a video that I shot earlier on that,
so make sure to check that out.
You guys, you're awesome.
Thanks so much again.
- Thank you.
(upbeat music)