Personal Finance
- At the time, Brandow (the father) was working as an IT manager bringing home about $120,000 a year and his family was $109,000 in credit card debt.
- They had 5 credit cards. There lifestyle was one of the main reasons they were so deep into debt. They lived paycheck to paycheck and using credit to cover themselves.
- Brandow went on the internet to look up more information about money and if there was some get-out-of-debt-quick scheme. He found Dave Ramsey and picked up one of his books
'The Total Money Makeover' in the public library,since he didn't have any money. - First they cut up four of their credit cards. Second, they called up the remaining company and had their credit limit dropped to $1,000. Third, he made an Excel spreadsheet and wrote down every single little expense the family had each month. Fourth, he cut out all the luxuries they had. Finally, Brandow also realized their local credit union offered a debt management program, and he gave them a call.
- The kids helped by going to the grocery store instead of going out to eat. His wife went back to work in retail, increasing their household income to about $160,000 a year.
- His credit union offered a debt management program. Their credit union called their credit card companies, consolidated their debt, and reduced the interest rate. The rate was 18.5%, and they were able to reduce it to 1.5%.
- Brandow started a blog, Debt Discipline, to document their progress, stay motivated, and remain involved with the online personal finance community.
- During this process, they maintained an emergency fund with about $1,000. Brandow's wife got into a car accident and the settlement from the accident's lawsuit was put into their emergency fund in order to cover three to six months of living expenses.
- It took the family almost just a little over four years to completely payoff their debt. The family sits down in dinner and talk about money and budgets. They want their children to start their financial lives on the right foot.
- The family will go out to a nice dinner to celebrate, and take a big trip next year for the twins' 16th birthday.
- Brandow is now focusing on building retirement savings and the kids' college funds.
- Some advice that I learned reading this article was to not overspend and be smart on how I spend my money. I really like how this family made a list of all their expenses to keep track of all their money.
