Welcome back to the one and only Your Loan Depot blog! You join us smack-dab in the middle of a two-part series devoted to the highlighting of inspirational stories of people who scraped, scratched, and clawed their way out of debt. In part one, we took the opportunity to discuss something we’ve touched on a good number of times over the past calendar year — Your Loan Depot is here to assist you with both your short-term and long-term financial needs.
In reference to the former, we offer the chance to get emergency cash in Texas through our payday lending services, car title loans, installment loans, and bad credit loans, among other synonyms for the same kind of service payday loan companies provide.
But why choose your Loan Depot, seeing as how there are plenty of other lending companies throughout the great state of Texas? The long and the short of it is that Your Loan Depot stands apart from other payday lenders because we put our customers first through our actions. Firstly, we don’t pull our punches — we will be straight-up with our customers, telling you exactly what you need to know about your loan type, including the fine print, so that you are empowered to make the best decision possible for you and yours.
In reference to the latter (the long-term financial assistance we were discussing a few paragraphs above), we’ll be spending the rest of today’s blog offering up a few of our favorite anecdotes about people who took a long, hard look at themselves in the mirror, tightened their belts and bootstraps, and then got out of debt one day at a time. They’ll be the first to tell you it isn’t easy, but the things in life that are most worth doing very rarely come with little effort. And let us tell you, picking away at that mountain of debt that’s piled up around you . . . that is certainly worth it.
That said, let’s dive into some good old-fashioned story-telling!
Inspirational Stories To Help You Get Out Of Debt
Let’s start with Matthew, a New Yorker (state, not city) in his thirties, who managed to compile over $70,000 in student-loan debt. Instead of bemoaning his lot in life, he tightened his belt and cut back on his spending in a major way. Not only did he delay buying a new car and watch a TV set from prior to the turn of the millennium, but he also set himself a deadline of 24 months. Prioritizing the high-interest loans above others, he slowly but surely worked his debt down. “I set small goals to pay off one loan at a time, by making multiple payments per month, and kept the interest low instead of allowing significant accrual,” Matthew told WGRZ.com.
Matthew managed to get out of debt in a matter of two years(!) because his rent was low and he was dedicated to the process he established. On top of that, he went all in on paying off the debt, throwing his tax returns, holiday bonuses, and any other money he made on the side toward making multiple payments per month. This kept his interest rates low. Ultimately, going one day at a time and focusing on needs rather than wants were both crucial to Matthew’s process. Way to go Matthew!
The Snowball Approach
The same news station provides us with another testimonial, this time coming from a 32-year-old woman from Houston named Ty’Lisha. Ty’Lisha and her husband racked up over six figures in debt after college. Using the help from a professional financial planner and the renowned Dave Ramsey’s snowball method, they were able to pay off their mountain of $100,000+ debt in less than a decade.
Yes, it took them eight years, but that is the cold reality that many people are faced with when they realize their financial problems aren’t going to solve themselves.
Now, back to the snowball approach, which is very simple; prioritize the debt you’ve ascertained by attacking interests rates from highest to lowest. Ty’Lisha explains why this method is so effective, saying “Once the first debt was paid off, we would use the monthly allocated amount and roll it over to the next debt on the list, paying above the minimum required until the next debt was paid off, and then we continued down the list until we were debt-free.”
After eight years of disciplined budgeting, Ty’Lisha and her husband were finally debt free — praise be!
The MoneyBoss, Mr. J.D. Roth
J.D. Roth is now a blogger known as the Money Boss, having written a book on personal finance in addition to his aforementioned blog. But if you were to tell him his future in 2004, he probably would have laughed at you, as would anyone familiar with his dire financial situation.
You see, J.D. had racked up over $35,000 in consumer debt alone. If you throw in the fact that he decided to buy his dream house, it’s easy to see that such ingredients comprised a recipe for disaster. Needless to say, after J.D. realized what his interest rates, mortgage payments, and everything else summed up to, he became overwhelmed very quickly.
Instead of avoiding the problem, like many of us are apt to do, he squared up to it and decided to do something about it before it got any worse. He decided to read pretty much any money management book he could find, after which he started a blog (circa 2006), Get Rich Slowly, where he updated his readers on his progress toward getting out of debt. By December of 2007, he became debt-free aside from his mortgage payments!
Instead of slipping back into his poor spending habits of old, he capitalized on the wisdom he’d acquired “the hard way” through experience. These days, he’s well-off enough to be able to travel freely. Check out his new blog, Money Boss, when you get the chance!
Philip Taylor
The final testimonial we’d like to highlight in today’s blog comes from Mr. Philip Taylor, who is now the proud owner and founder of the blog, PT Money. As you could probably guess at this point, Mr. Taylor wasn’t always equipped to be dispensing financial advice on the masses.
Like many of us, Philip accumulated a lot of his debt in college. After graduating, he had over $20,000 in student loans and more than $1,500 in credit card debt, the latter of which totaled over $3,000 a bit later on. But that’s a fairly normal situation to be in, so what gives? Mr. Taylor didn’t stop there with his poor financial decisions. Instead, he decided that he needed more credit cards, falling prey to the vague advertising scheme that “low interest rates are always good,” despite the fact that he had all the credit cards he needed at the time.
Then, in 2009, Philip and his wife decided they were going to live debt-free. Of course, it took plenty of leg work to get there, but by lowering non-essential expenses, increasing their income in a variety of ways, and sticking to their plan, Philip and his wife are proud to be debt-free!
Fill Out Your Loan Application Today
We hope you are sufficiently motivated to make a plan to get out of whatever difficult financial circumstances you find yourself in. These people did it, and they weren’t financial geniuses by any stretch. The common thread is that they all realized they needed to make a change — and then they did it!
Abrupt transition alert.
Your Loan Depot is here to help with your short-term financial needs as well as your long-term goals. We offer affordable, easy-to-understand payday lending services in Texas. If you need emergency cash and the banks and credit unions aren’t giving you any options, we can likely help. Give us a call at Your Loan Depot or fill out your online application today!
