Where It All Started

Estimated Reading Time: 5 minutes

I met the ‘Spender’ on an early fall day. For those keeping meticulous notes it was Saturday – September 23^rd, 2006. And my beloved Florida State University was playing Rice in football. She hates when I tell the story, but I remember like it was almost yesterday. At the time I was Co-President of the FSU Alumni Association in Phoenix, Arizona and arrived early to setup our weekly game watching parties. I entered the bar with my hands full of boxes and couldn’t get half way to the room that was designated for us when I noticed this jovial young lady come walking towards me. She had a garnet shirt on (it was an FSU one of course) with blue jeans and a Miller Lite in her hand. I set the boxes down and she proudly introduced herself and shook my hand. But that was really it. I didn’t think anything of it simply because I had moved from Miami eight months earlier and was hung up on another girl. We exchanged phone numbers and emails and I don’t recall anything else from the day other than FSU beat the shit out of Rice 55-7…Go ‘Noles!

Two weeks later I was going to Italy on a solo vacation to get over said girl but before I left, I got a message from the ‘Spender’ thanking me for putting the events together and that she enjoyed it and planned on coming back for others. She suggested getting together to hangout and I told her that I’d connect once I returned from Rome. Italy was fantastic – it was my first time there – and as promised I got in touch with the ‘Spender’ when I returned home. She was interested in going to a hot air balloon festival where the Blue Angels were performing, and it just so happened to be on a Saturday after FSU played Boston College. So we made the plans. That day is another story and one I will leave for the ‘Spender’ to tell!

Flash forward nine months later and the ‘Spender’ and I were an item and it was starting to get serious. Who knew? We had some incredible moments. Neither one us made amazing salaries but both of our jobs had some rewarding perks. I had the free airfare. She had the hotel hookup. We went to Napa, Las Vegas, Turks & Caicos and even a few local adventures including the Grand Canyon. Our passion for travel was solidified. Outside of that glamour we really didn’t live lavishly. A weekend might include going over to some friend’s house and playing cornhole on Friday or Saturday night and a bottle of wine while watching Entourage on Sunday evening. My monthly budget for entertainment was a mere $130 give or take. In those days I was already contributing to my 401K a decent percentage of my pay, so I didn’t know what I was missing and tried to spend sparingly. Although in retrospect in looking at my budget and actualized costs below I could have done things way better and if given the second chance I probably would (that’s another post).

You’re How Much In Debt?!?!

In those nine months she used her super powers to seduce me and I fell for it. She seemed to have her life together. She was a go-getter, a glorified do-gooder, responsible and well accomplished. For all intent purposes she appeared to be living a good quality life in what appeared to be a financially savvy way. So, you can imagine my reaction when the conversation ensued about finances and I learned that she had over $50,000 in debt and most of it not “good debt”. My storybook romance came to a screeching halt.

Admittedly I wasn’t perfect. I had a modest amount of college debt because I paid out of state tuition my first year of college. I had a mortgage on a 2-bedroom condo [what a nightmare that turned out to be – more on that another time] and my trusty old 1992 Honda Accord with 192,000 miles on it finally decided it had seen better days, so I had to replace it. I ended up with a car payment for the first time in my life, but I bought a used vehicle and still drive it to this day. Outside of those items I lived a clean financial life and I had plenty of cash in savings – both in the way of a rainy-day fund as well as retirement. I was twenty-four years old and was building the foundation of my life. I knew it wasn’t going to be easy and would require taking a few steps back from time to time. Short-term pain for long-term gain. I made a concentrated effort to make sound decisions in the best ways possible. Total non-mortgage debt: $28,939.

Enter the ‘Spender’. Pretty much the polar opposite of the above. Apparently, she was living the good life. Must have been nice. Throughout her college days and post-graduation excursions she did some damage. To the tune of: $54,384. You can read about the specifics in her post here: 23 Years Old And $50K In Debt

The scary part was all but a fraction of her education was paid for via scholarships and grants so let’s not fool ourselves on what this was really spent on. I still don’t want to think about it.

The Debt Summary

I pretty much told her I wasn’t going to marry her. Definitely not in that financial shape. Okay, maybe I didn’t say it quite so bluntly at the time. But my mind certainly meant it. I tried to counsel her. We put a plan in place. We buckled down. We got crafty. We curated an iron tight approach. Most importantly we worked as a team. Slowly we chipped away at things. It was rewarding to see progress and I felt confident that if we approached our life in this fashion as a married couple it was simply impossible not to encounter success in all other facets. In less than five year’s time we paid off:

• The Spender’s first credit card: $2,604
• The Spender’s second credit card: $7,437
• The Spender’s third credit card: $7,642
• The Spender’s “college loan”: $36,701
• The Saver’s first college loan: $5,076
• The Saver’s second college loan: $10,015
• The Saver’s car loan: $13,848

Grand total of debt erased: $83,323

I don’t think I’ve mentioned in the midst of all of this I also paid for an engagement ring in cash and we funded 95% of our destination wedding in Kauai, Hawaii. That’s another $13,896 not including the ring (I won’t disclose the amount because she thinks I paid a lot more than I did 😉).

5 Years Later and $100K Erased

So in effect in less than 5 year’s time we walked away married as husband and wife having wiped out $97,219….let’s just chalk it up to a round $100K…and most importantly debt free (excluding the condo mortgage) while still saving for retirement and an emergency fund on very modest and normal salaries. If you’re wondering our combined annual salaries were much less than the $97K debt figure. Way less. This just proves you don’t have to be a big earner to get ahead financially in life and while we made sacrifices, we weren’t living on ramen noodles either.

Looking back, while those times weren’t always easy there was something magical about them. Maybe it was the simplicity. Maybe it was climbing the mountain and overcoming adversity. Obviously, we have prevailed. Every so often I long for those times. But really, I yearn for what’s ahead.