I graduated from nursing school in May of 2014 with, wait for it, $100,000 in student loans, plus credit card debt, and a car loan. Then surprising I made another great financial decision! Shockingly, I took out a $25,000 loan through the Career Starter Loan just for joining the Navy.
This is what most would consider pretty normal. Financially illiterate and drowning in debt. But hey I looked good while I was doing it. Nice apartment, pretty car, and I always had the perfect outfit. The problem was I was only making 60K a year as a brand new military nurse and was carrying a whopping debt of $130,000!
Funny thing is I didn’t notice how bad it was for a while because the $25,000 loan was helping to supplement my inflated lifestyle. I bet you don’t know ANYONE like that. You know that person living beyond their means.
It wasn’t until the loan ran out I realized what a mess I had made. Fortunately, I found Dave Ramsey and read The Total Money Makeover. It changed my entire future and how I thought about money. I must have listened to the Dave Ramsey podcast daily for two years!
Every time I listened to his show I got inspired by others just like me that became debt free and it gave me the determination to continue going forward.
Fast forward to present day, I’ve paid everything off except for the mother of all student loans, $70,000 with Great Lakes. Now, because I’m in the military I’m blessed with a 6% cap rate under the Servicemember Civil Relief Act (SCRA). However, I’m getting out in less than 2 years, which most likely means higher interest rates down the road. Think of it as an ARM mortgage loan. You know those adjustable rate mortgage loans that contributed to the real estate meltdown in 2008. Yeah, that’s not good. This realization got the ball rolling.
Then, recently, I was applying for a mortgage VA loan and the lender said my debt to income ratio was too high all because of this one student loan. That’s the only debt that’s left. I decided at that moment that was it! I’ve had it with debt and student loans! I’m not going to drag around this ball and chain around anymore. Not another year, not another day, not another second in debt!
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| Step 1. Get Pissed! |
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| Step 2. Take Action |
So I’ve decided I’m going to pay off $70,000 in 13 months or less and I’m going to do it by only living on 38% of my income. I can hear it already... “That’s not possible.” “Wow, I couldn’t do that.” “She’s full of shit.” All of these are false. It is possible and I’m going to show you how! Over the next 13 months, I’m going to detail my journey to becoming debt free and how it’s possible for you to do it too. Then, and this is the exciting part, you get to start building wealth. When you wake up and realize your student loans and debt are stealing your future the only thing left to do is get pissed and take action. It’s time to change our futures.
Find you BIG reason why and use that to get started:
My reason why is I want to build a nest egg of FU money.
That’s right I said FU money. Also known as financial independence. Why wait until 65? So I can work for the rest of my life in a job that maybe on good days I like and on bad days I hate every second I’m there. You know that feeling when you wake up in the morning and your first thought is,
"Ugh, I don't want to work."
"Ugh, I don't want to work."
Do you really want to live the rest of your life like this? By the way, this is actually a choice. I don't know about you but I'm tired of being a slave to debt, money and especially my job.
With FU money I can live the life I want, how I want, and when I want! If I find myself in a job I'm not passionate about, then I have FU money to walk away and find something that is meaningful and makes a difference in the world. Life is about to change like I've never seen before so later I can live like no one has before.
Watch this 90-second video by J. L. Collins, the author of Simple Path to Wealth, for his badass description of FU money.
*Warning: Lots of F bombs are dropped here.
So stick around. Maybe even get inspired to kick your debts to the curb! Student loan (aka Great Lakes) this is your eviction notice.
Kristine
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