When You Cant Afford to Get a Ticket Again Meme

How this family got into $109,000 of credit bill of fare debt while earning 6 figures — and paid it off in 4 years

The IT manager who brings dwelling house $120,000 a year noticed something alarming while planning a family vacation. All five of his credit cards were maxed out, and he had no available cash

Sep 30, 2014 • September 30, 2014 • four infinitesimal read • Join the conversation

Debt Bailiwick

In June 2010, Brian Brandow was planning a summer trip for his family when he noticed something alarming: All 5 of his credit cards were maxed out, and he had no available cash.

"I went to my wife and said, 'We can't afford a vacation. We have to do something virtually our finances,'" remembers the Long Island, New York-based male parent of iii. "We make as well much money not to be able to afford a vacation."

At the time, Brandow was working every bit an It director bringing home near $120,000 a yr, and his wife was taking intendance of their then viii-year-sometime and 11-year-quondam twins. That summer, they had a staycation, and Brandow started gathering data near his situation.

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His family was $109,000 in credit card debt. "It wasn't any 1 thing. Information technology was really just our lifestyle," he explains. "We didn't have a good handle on money and overspent for a number of years. We lived paycheck to paycheck, using credit to cover ourselves. I recall always having a credit carte and using information technology for whatever I needed."

Brandow says his parents taught him financial basics like balancing a check book, just he doesn't call up learning about credit and debt. So he set out to teach himself almost money.

"I hit the internet and started looking for information," he recalls. "There had to be some clandestine out there I'd been overlooking for years, some get-out-of-debt-quick scheme they forgot to tell me in college. I came across Dave Ramsey, and since I didn't have any cash, I went to the public library and picked up his book 'The Total Coin Makeover.' I read it in three days."

debt discipline 5 Brian Brandow / Debt Discipline

Information technology's important to Brandow that his three children, now ages 12, xv, and fifteen, acquire nearly managing money well before they need to.

That book kicking-started the family's journey out of debt. First, they cut upward four of their credit cards. And then they called up the remaining visitor and had their credit limit dropped to $1,000.

He fabricated an Excel spreadsheet and wrote down every single little expense the family had each month and cutting out luxuries like the satellite radio he enjoyed on his commute to piece of work and the kids' subscription video game service. They stopped going out to consume immediately.

The kids got involved, too. "I of the showtime things I remember talking to the kids near was the ice cream truck," says Brandow. "Water ice cream is their favorite dessert, but if we got ice cream for the v of the states it could be $10. I told them, 'Nosotros could have ice cream just this night for $10, or nosotros could take that same coin and go to the supermarket and you can have ice foam all week. What would you like to do?' They said, 'Let'south become to the grocery store!'"

Brandow also realized their local credit union offered a debt direction programme, and he gave them a telephone call. On their behalf, the credit union called their credit card companies, consolidated their debt, and reduced the involvement rate. "On 1 menu, the charge per unit was xviii.five%, and they were able to reduce it to 1.5%," explains Brandow, "so a lot more coin was going to debt every bit opposed to interest."

Brandow'southward wife also made a major change: She went back to work in retail, increasing their household income to about $160,000 a yr.

Over the grade of the entire repayment, their average monthly debt payment was $2,100. In 2013, Brandow started a blog, Debt Subject field, to certificate their progress, stay motivated, and remain involved with the online personal finance community.

debt discipline 1 Brian Brandow / Debt Discipline

Brandow and his wife in New York City'due south Times Square.

During this process, they maintained an emergency fund with about $1,000, which covered the dishwasher and the car breaking downwards. However, when Brandow's wife got in a machine accident and had to have surgery that took her out of work for a yr, they rolled her medical bills into their overall debt repayment.

"Our income was reduced, but we were used to making changes within our upkeep and nosotros had a program," Brandow remembers. "Our chief business organization was her health, so we just managed within my salary at the time. When she went back to work, we increased our payments again."

Coincidentally, the settlement from the accident's lawsuit came in just when they were wrapping up the debt payments, and they diverted that money straight into their emergency fund in order to cover three to 6 months of living expenses.

Ultimately, information technology took the family l months — only a little over four years — to completely pay off their debt. "It feels amazing," Brandow says. "Nosotros await back as a family and wish nosotros would take done it 10 years ago. We sit with our kids at the dinner table and talk virtually money and budgets considering we and then want them to start their financial lives on the right foot."

The family volition get out to a prissy dinner to celebrate, and take a big trip side by side year for the twins' 16th birthday. Brandow is now focusing on edifice retirement savings and the kids' college funds, and hopes to work with the schoolhouse district to help implement some sort of financial education program for kids and teens.

"I never wanted to say that we couldn't afford a family vacation or go out to swallow once a week or once a month," Brandow says. "We work too difficult and make too much money not to exist able to afford the things we want, if we're smart about how we spend our coin."