Episode 217 - How This 25 Year Old Paid Off $5000 Debt In 6 Months
Are you a young adult struggling with your finances? Don't worry, you're not alone. Many people in their 20s face financial challenges, but the good news is that there are ways to turn things around. In this blog post, we'll take a closer look at the inspiring journey of Paige Snyders, a 25-year-old who decided to take control of her finances and achieve a better future. Join us as we explore her story and the changes she made to transform her financial situation.
Paige's Financial Roller Coaster:
Paige Snyders, a young adult facing financial difficulties, made the brave decision to join Roots, a program aimed at helping people gain control over their finances. Paige had always been conscious of her financial well-being, even starting with small steps such as getting a credit card to build her credit score. However, after facing emotional turmoil when her beloved dog passed away, Paige turned to emotional spending as a coping mechanism. This led her down a path of accumulating debt and worsening her financial situation.
The Turning Point:
After three years of feeling stuck in the same situation, Paige finally decided enough was enough. She realized that her debts were preventing her from living the life she wanted and that she needed help to break free from the cycle. Joining Roots was a significant turning point for Paige, a step towards taking control of her finances and building a better future.
Lessons From Roots:
During her time in Roots, Paige learned valuable lessons that she began implementing immediately. One of the key insights she gained was the realization that small, daily expenses can add up significantly over time. The realization that spending just $27 a day can accumulate to $10,000 a year was a game-changer for Paige. It made her more aware of her spending habits and encouraged her to be more mindful of her daily expenses.
Implementing Better Habits:
To regain control over her finances, Paige made several significant changes to her lifestyle. First, she locked up her credit cards in a safe, removing the temptation to use them impulsively. She also cut up two of her credit cards, although she decided to keep one due to its sentimental value. However, she made it challenging to access by storing it behind multiple safes. These measures made her think twice before using her credit card and gave her a greater sense of control.
Paige also sacrificed activities that had previously contributed to her financial struggles. She gave up participating in bowling leagues, a sport she loved dearly, for an entire year, to focus on paying off her debts. Additionally, she recognized the negative impact of gambling at casinos and reduced her visits. Although she faced challenges in making these changes, Paige's commitment and determination helped her stay on track.
The Power of Support and Accountability:
Paige found immense support and accountability within the Roots community. Sharing her progress and challenges on the platform allowed her to receive encouragement and motivation from others who were going through similar journeys. These interactions played a vital role in keeping her motivated and focused on her goals.
Overcoming Mistakes:
Throughout her journey, Paige encountered setbacks and made mistakes. She shared her experience of overspending at a convention where she bought Scooby-Doo merchandise. However, instead of dwelling on her missteps, Paige recognized them as part of the learning process. She now focuses on celebrating her progress and learning from these experiences to make better choices in the future.
Episode Transcript:
Brad:
Hey, so are you a young 20-something adult who is struggling with your finances? If so, you are definitely not alone. That's why I'm thrilled to be welcoming Paige Snyder to the podcast today. Now Paige is just 25 years old and she decided that she wanted better for her finances, and she wanted less stress and more control. Now she joined Roots and in just six months, Paige has made some amazing progress, already saving and paying off nearly $5,000. Now today, Paige is here to share her story and what changes that she's made in these last six months to help her get these kinds of results. Stay tuned.
Speaker 2:
You're listening to the Debt-Free Dad podcast with Brad Nelson. Brad and his co-hosts experienced the anxiety of living paycheck to paycheck before learning the fundamentals of financial success. They are now on a mission to empower regular people to pay off their debt for good and enjoy happier, less stressful lives. Keep listening for inspirational interviews, tips, tricks and practical advice to gain financial freedom.
Brad:
Hey, how is everyone doing today? Thank you so much for joining us for the podcast. My name is Brad Nelson. I'm your host for today's show. I successfully saved and paid off well over $45,000 and have now been debt-free now for 11-plus years and started our company man eight years ago now. We've helped thousands of people reach their financial goals, reducing a lot of financial stress, so so glad to be here today. As I mentioned in the intro, I am excited to have Paige joining us today on the Debt-Free Dad podcast. But after listening to this episode, if you want to start taking some further steps towards a better financial future, we've got an awesome free workshop to take this a step further and I'll be sharing details about that later on in the show. So I want to take a second just to introduce you to Paige Snyder. Now, Paige is 25 years old and a mom to three beautiful dogs named Ruby, Scooby and Buddy, which are her kids is what she says, right? She says she absolutely loves dogs, bowling, riding, roller coasters and dolphins. People have even been known to call her a Scooby-Doo-A-Holic, and her nickname at work is also Scooby. So, Paige, welcome to the podcast. So glad that you are taking some time to hang out with us here today.
Paige:
No problem, I'm glad to be here.
Brad:
Yeah, so glad to have you. Now, obviously, like you said, you have these amazing dogs and Scooby. Like, how did you get into the Scooby? Is that just for being a kid or because you're 25?
Paige:
I mean.
Brad:
Scooby was like an old cartoon.
Paige:
Yeah, honestly. I think my mom or my dad, I'm not sure which one, but got me into it when I was, like I think, under a year old and I just got into it and I just watched it pretty much my whole life. I loved it. I mean, who wouldn't like a talking dog that's scared of everything and eats everything?
Brad:
So we want to talk about your journey here and obviously you joined six months ago. You joined Roots and and you've made some really great progress. You've also had some things that you've had to work through as well in your journey and overcoming some challenges, as you've kind of worked through the program and doing a lot of things that we've talked about. But how I want to kick off just today's conversation is just trying to figure out, you know, how did you learn about money when you were growing up and how did that kind of affect your finances, maybe even your late teens and early 20s as, and what kind of brought you to where you are today?
Paige:
Well, my mom taught me and I don't remember too much other than that she told me to get a credit card, to start getting a credit score. At first I did pretty good with it and I was very cautious with spending my money on a credit card. So it's been like $20 on it and then I would pay that $20. Basically just to build credit. I did pretty good with it for a while until my dog Duke passed away and then it went down from there.
Brad:
Okay, so like would you say emotional type spending and things like that started coming up.
Paige:
Oh yeah yeah, emotional type spending. That was. My only way of coping with losing him was shopping. I felt like the more stuff I could have at the house it would comfort me. It would basically comfort the pain that I'm feeling, and it didn't.
Brad:
So can you tell me how like did? Were you budgeting at the time? I don't know when you, when you became an adult, were you practicing any budgeting habits? Were you doing some of the things that we kind of share and talk about, whether it's on this podcast or even inside Roots? Were you doing some of those things?
Paige:
I actually was. At one point. I did like make my own little like paper that had, like it said budget on it. It didn't say how much I made, but basically it just said bills when they were due and how much they were Right. That was pretty much it. I couldn't like keep the commitment to it. I would do it here and there and then I would stop for a while and then forget about it and then I would find it again in my drawer or something and start doing it again and but I wasn't consistent with it and it wasn't really helpful anyway.
Brad:
So consistency was a struggle, which is for a lot of us.
Paige:
Yeah.
Brad:
Now ultimately so. About six months ago, I think, you joined in our, I believe, on the in summer right, summer of 2023. So it's about six months ago, as we're kind of recording this right now, and you ultimately decided to join Roots. So can what like? What prompted you to say I want to? I want to do this because most people don't wake up and say you want to know what. I'm going to go out and get some help with my personal finances today? You know it's it's usually something that's avoided, but what prompted you to say, yeah, I need to step up and do some more? You know, work on this and get some help with it.
Paige:
Well, the fact that I knew I was not going to get anywhere in life with being in all this debt, and that if I don't start taking action now, then I never will be debt free. I guess I was always in denial, thinking I could do it on my own and that you know I will get the debt paid off and I don't need help, like I can figure it out myself. Three years later, I'm still in the same situation. I haven't gotten really any of the debt paid off and actually my debt has worsened because you know, I got, I had to get a few other credit cards, since my one credit card kept getting maxed out because of the medical bills from Duke and it just you know one thing after another. I decided you know what. I'm so stressed out. I cannot keep going like this and I'm not getting anywhere. So I said screw it. You know what. I'm going to have to spend the money, but it's going to have to go on my credit card, but that will be the last thing that I spend on my credit card.
Brad:
And and so share a little bit like when you first started, maybe even over these last six months, because saving and paying off nearly $5,000 just in the last six months, I mean that's that's amazing progress. What did you learn and Roots that you started to implement, that really started to help you?
Paige:
Well, the biggest thing that sticks with me every day is when you said that it only takes you spending $27 and some changea dau date you've spent $10,000 a year. I never thought about that, and so now, every time I'd buy something, like just today, I spent $20, $27 or $28 and I'm like, oh my gosh, you know I just spent over $27 today. Another thing is the budgets, and that budget platform, honestly, has been so helpful and I know that you also said just spend 15 minutes a day, you know doing checking your budget and checking your expenses and stuff, and I've been doing that too, but I will admit there has been times where I overspent and I went over my spending, money that I shouldn't have.
Brad:
Yeah, well, I think what you bring bring is is real transparency into this process, is that it is a learning process. A lot of people go into something like wanting to take control of their finances or pay off debt, I'm going to be better, I'm going to be better, but yet they set themselves up for failure, thinking that they're always going to do it perfect and if they don't do it perfect like they're bad. Well, the reality is, you're not going to do it perfect, especially in the first six to 12 months, and I've been doing this now for man years and years well over a decade. I still don't always get it right, and I think your journey over these last six months show s that, yeah, you're gonna have some mess ups, you're gonna have some things that aren't gonna go well, but you're also gonna have a lot of things that are gonna go right. I mean, yeah, you've overspent in some areas, but you've also made some really great progress too, and I would say, hey, let's look at the progress and not necessarily the mistakes, you know.
Paige:
Yeah.
Brad:
And I think that's great. So talk a little bit about some of those mess ups, though. Did you notice like anything consistently, like bad behaviors, habits, things that were like, oh man, I guess I didn't realize like these things were really keeping me down and if I can control these, I actually do have more money to, say, save or pay down debt.
Paige:
It was always a dream of mine to meet the voice actors of Scooby Shaggy and Scrappy do. It was always a dream of mine to meet Scott Ennis, and I finally got the chance because he literally was only 30 minutes from my house. When I went there my original plan. I went to the bank. Before I went there I only took out $100 cash. I said to myself there is no way I'm going to spend any more than $100. So I ended up spending almost $1,000 at that booth. I shouldn't have done it. I regret it now, but like it's too late, I can't return it.
Brad:
Well, I mean we all have our Scooby stuff, right, I mean and I'm saying Scooby like it may be something different than Scooby, but we all have our vices, you know, and I think what you're learning now is you know you have one and that there's nothing wrong with it, but that experience you'll probably do better next time. I bet, just from knowing the pain of going through what you're going through right now and just being aware of it, not being willing to brush it under the rug, you know, and just being understanding of like okay, I know what happened last time, I just need to be better prepared for next time, and that's all part of the process. It's like almost like you I call it, like you know, you fail forward, you fail your way to better results with your finances by trial and error and learning along the way, and I think that's some of the stuff that you're doing. So, outside of this kind of you know little side step that you've had, has there been anything else that you've noticed that has helped you? Just in regards to you mentioned budgeting, have you become, you know, more aware of your daily spending, whether it be on just you know groceries and you know just things that you're going about. Have you noticed any different habit changes or improvements along the way over the last six months that have kind of helped you? You know, get some of these numbers that you're getting.
Paige:
I have more control over my credit cards. I actually I locked them up in a safe, so I did get rid of two of mine. I cut them up, but then I did keep the one, which is probably the worst one. I should not have kept it. I only liked it because I had a dog on the card. I have to get through five safes to get to that, wow.
Speaker 2:
So I made it very complicated.
Paige:
It's not like I can just take my key and open up my safe and it's right there. And I've also sacrificed a lot of stuff, especially one of the biggest things I sacrificed was my summer bowling league and my fall winter spring bowling league. I'm a bowler and I've been a bowler for you know well, for probably nine years now competitively, and I compete in tournaments and all that type of stuff Like bowling is my life. I literally sacrificed doing leagues for a whole year to try and get this paid off. That was probably the hardest sacrifice. Another one was gambling at the casinos.
Brad:
Yeah, oh yeah.
Paige:
That's a big one. My grandma got me addicted when I was 21. She took me to all six casinos out here and immediately I was addicted, and then I also limited myself from going to bingo every week. That was also very hard. Grandma got me into that too, and bingo is very fun. I think the biggest reason bingo is so fun for me is because it's something that grandma and I do together every week. I also limited my shopping, okay. So that's hard, Brad, that's hard.
Brad:
All of those, all of them, I mean, and you've done all of that in six months. I mean you're talking about things that, like you mentioned bowling. I mean you love it and you've been willing to sign. That's huge, Huge sacrifice. Yeah, you know, I mean just the overall going. You know, like you said, casino, but just the relationship with your grandma and just doing an activity together. You were willing to make some changes. Was your grandma like upset or anything about that when you made that change, or did she understand her?
Paige:
No, I was more upset about it, yeah, and plus, now I see it in a different way now, like I don't want to go in there and lose all this money, when I could use this money for spending it on something I truly want, like something, you know, signed by Matthew Willard and other. Scooby Doo actor or something I mean I want to give you.
Brad:
I mean that's a such a huge win because I mean that connection. There are so many people who struggle with us. I mean we all struggle with it. Because there's such a human connection there. We go out, do at this activity. It builds our relationship. We're spending time together and there's this new term kind of going around on social media right now that's really popular. It's called loud budgeting. You know, loud budgeting is, you know, just saying out loud that it's not that I can't afford it. It's just that I'm choosing not to spend the money on things and you're consciously making those choices. That is, I mean at 25 years old, to start making some of those changes now. I mean it's only going to benefit you and your entire future as an adult. What would you say to someone who maybe is in your situation or was in your situation and you got started? Maybe they're a little reluctant, you know. I mean, even though you've had some ups and downs along the way. What would you say to yourself six months prior to starting this?
Paige:
Don't give up. It's worth it, and I was very skeptical. Skeptical of this at first, but after listening to so many of the podcast, I then decided to start and it was the best money I spent.
Brad:
What about the support and accountability Because you mentioned? You know you, you went back into shopping to kind of make some situations feel better. You know inside Roots, you know we have a lot of support and accountability. Like you said, we message, we've messaged back and forth several times about some of these things. How, how has that helped you throughout this, do you think?
Paige:
It's honestly helped me so much. I've posted a lot of stuff that has happened within probably the past month, and it's really nice hearing other people you know tell me to keep on going like you got this, like it's. It's very motivating for me.
Brad:
Well, Paige, I mean, like I said, you know, I think what you bring obviously to this episode and to share with people is just the transparency of what a lot of people struggle with. And you know, we're going to have the hiccups in life and you've been definitely been experiencing those over these last few months. You've talked about some of the habits, the choices of behaviors which we all struggle with, but at the same time, you're still willing to make progress. You're still willing, I should say you're still willing to take action, to make progress, and you've made some tremendous progress, even though you've had to overcome some challenges here along the way in these first six months. So I just want to commend you. I think you've really you've really done your best job, sticking with it, even though you know you've dealt with some of these things. But here you are, you're still in a better situation. I appreciate your transparency and just sharing. Hey, you know this stuff's not easy and you're still working through it. So I just want to say congratulations to you, hey. So if you want to pay off debt, start saving more money and start to take control of your finances, just like Paige shared with us here today and what she's doing, then sign up for our Life Without Payments workshop right now so that you can start to have less stress, more happiness with your finances over this next year. Now all you have to do is head over to debtfreedad. com, click on the menu, link tools for your free Life Without Payments workshop. So the totally awesome debt freedom planner is helping so many people make consistent progress with their finances, whether that be building emergency funds, paying down bills, budgeting, tracking paydays, saving up for larger purchases, goal planning and planning for those irregular yearly expenses that always seem to catch you by surprise. Now the debt freedom planner will help you take the stress out of managing your money. And if the thought is running through your mind, hey, I just need to have a simple tool to get my finances together. This planner is perfect for you. Head over to therealdebtfreedad. com, click on the Debt Freedom Planner in the menu at the top of the page and order your Debt Freedom Planner today. Alright, that to time for the celebrations of the show and again. Just a huge shout out for Paige for being willing to come on in such an early part of her journey in just six months. And finances are such a taboo topic and it's tough, you know, to open up and honestly kind of share with the public like hey, what you've been struggling with financially. So give her a huge shout out and just a huge thank you for coming on and being willing to be so transparent about things that are going great and things that you know we're still struggling with and working on, and that's all part of the journey in reaching our financial goals. So, to kick it off here today, Ann says so. I didn't realize this, but apparently I have paid off $7,800 in the last six months. Here I was thinking I was slacking, but obviously I'm making some great progress. That was really happy news. Ann, congratulations and also showing the value of tracking every single expense and your progress, so, so effective and keeping you motivated. Next one is Kim. Kim, I have started tracking my spending this month and writing down what we spend every single week and I got to say this has been one of the best activities that you can do. If there's one thing that you can do just over the course of this next year, if you're like Brad, what's one thing I could do? Just track your expenses, track your spending. Where is your money going? It will help you improve your behaviors immensely, I can guarantee it. So congratulations, Kim. Christina, monthly budget is done. I had a few no spend days this week too, and I got my budgeted massage as well, which is awesome. I love that, because a lot of people think I got to cut everything out, including massages. Not so true. You just budget that right in there. So great job, Christina. Janice, I took my lunch to work every day this week and I didn't go out once. A little prep and planning is all it took, Janice. What a great reminder. You are absolutely correct. So, as always, congratulations to all of you guys who are working on taking a stand for your financial life and are wanting better. We get that. Getting out of debt is not easy, but with our help and with your consistency and discipline, we promise you that this is going to be some of the best work that you'll ever do in your entire life. Thanks for joining us here today and we will see you guys on an upcoming episode. Take care.
Speaker 2:
Thanks for listening to the Debt-Free Dad podcast. Connect with us on Facebook, tiktok, youtube and Instagram. Just search Debt-Free Dad. If you found value in today's episode, please leave us a rating and review. We so appreciate it. For resources, show notes and links mentioned in today's show visit debtfreedad.com. Catch you next week.
