Austin Eliminated Nearly $18,000 in 42 Months
I relaunched my website and blog on April 1st of this year after working on the site and planning for a while. The significance is that APRIL IS FINANCIAL LITERACY MONTH! So......as a shoutout to that I am placing a spotlight on three people/couples. These people are friends and are great examples of being financially literate - they navigate the cash Route WELL. There will be blog post for the remaining Thursdays of the month where these great people will share with you their debt free story.
First up we have....
AUSTIN HOPE
WHAT IS YOUR AGE AND WHERE DO YOU CURRENTLY RESIDE?
- 27, currently residing in San Jose, California
HOW MUCH WAS THE TOTAL DEBT THAT YOU ELIMINATED?
- Eliminated approximately $17,821 in debt.
HOW LONG DID IT TAKE YOU TO ELIMINATE $18,000!?
- 3 years, 8 months, 14 days
IF YOU DON'T MIND, PLEASE SHARE THE RANGE OF INCOME DURING THAT TIME?
- First three years: $82K, Last 8 months: $160K
STORY – WHAT HAPPENED TO ACCUMULATE THE DEBT?
- All of my debt was a result of student loans taken out to pay my way through Georgia Tech. It got to a point where my parents felt that if I took ownership of paying for school, I'd put more effort into performing well (and they were right). Thankfully, I was considered in-state for tuition purposes, otherwise, the debt number would more than likely be 2x-3x what it was.
WHAT IS YOUR WHY FOR CREATING THIS GOAL OF DEBT ELIMINATION?
- I grew up hearing constantly from my parents that debt was a bad thing, so much that I didn't even get my first credit card until I was 21 due to fear of getting in debt (I didn't learn how important it is to build a credit history until I was almost done with college). I knew that I never wanted to owe anyone money, whether it was a person or corporate institution. I also wanted to set a strong foundation for myself and my future family to build on.
IF ASKED, WHAT WAS THE TOUGHEST PART AND WHAT WAS THE KEY TO GET IT DONE?
- The toughest part of reaching my debt free goal was that the money I was paying each month toward my student loans (I paid 2x what I was required to pay) could've gone toward so many other things: saving up to buy my first home, traveling across the world, hobbies, etc. The key to accomplishing my goal was understanding that even though I'd have to pass on some of the things I wanted to do at the time, later I'd be able to enjoy those things and more. I also used the Mint app to create a goal and hold myself accountable. Every month I could see the debt amount get smaller and smaller, which was really encouraging because I knew exactly what day I'd be debt free thanks to the projected goal date they provide.
How did you handle saving/investing while eliminating debt? No saving or investing, a dedicated percentage of income, company match only, etc?
- I always contributed enough to my 401(K) to get the company match, especially because that's pre-tax money that I'm not going to see come out of my bank account. For saving and investing, I set my accounts up to automatically deposit a set dollar amount every month that I knew would help if I ever had to dig into savings. Once I had 4 months of income saved up, I decided to set up an investment account through Betterment, a robo-advisor. I didn't really have the time to look deep into trading myself, but still wanted to put my extra income somewhere so that it was working for me. The key to me being able to take this step was being comfortable with the progress I had made toward paying down my student loans. I knew how much I had coming in each month, and once all my regular expenses like bills and food budgets were allocated, I still had enough to spread across for saving and investing.