In the midst of a pandemic, Steve jumped into homeownership. He spent money to fix up his new house and furnish it, then the 30-year old HVAC unit went out. Originally, Steve thought it would take 20 years to get out of this new consumer debt, but he contacted MMI and became debt-free in just over 2 years!
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Tara: Hey, today I'm talking with Steve Lundberg from Kansas. Working with us here at Money Management International, Steve paid off over 30,000 in debt in just over two years through MMI's debt management plan. Steve is here today to share his debt payoff story. Steve, welcome to the show.
Steve: Thank you so much for having me excited to tell my story.
Tara: I know, I'm excited to actually to hear your story and I'm really happy that you're here with us today. So Steve, why don't you first tell us just a little bit more about you, where you live, what you do.
Steve: Born, raised in Kansas. And my younger years just kind of going back and forth between jobs, trying to find a, like a good career fit. And you know, within that time frame, there's always questions about personal finances. So by the time that I have met mmi, I have been working it for a couple of years and that since after mmi, I've moved up into that career field and I'm currently a cybersecurity specialist.
Tara: Oh, that's interesting. I bet you see all kinds of stuff in that job.
Steve: Definitely.
Tara: So why don't you tell us a little bit about what was happening before you reached out to us and how you found us.
Steve: Absolutely. So this would be from, you know, kind of the pandemic time whenever things started getting pretty crazy. But at the same time I was in a spot where I really wanted to start moving forward with some things in my life. Homeownership. That was one thing that I wanted to, you know, finally step into, especially being a millennial. How sometimes it's always difficult to get into that. Being single at that, that time as well. And especially not really getting, jumping into a, like a big career until a little bit later as well.
Steve: It was, you know, something that I felt, hey, yeah, I got this. Let's go ahead and finally get into a home. Even when like the world's kind of on fire. So I wound up getting a small home and I had a bunch of open lines of credit and I'm like, oh yeah, this, this seems great. Let's go ahead and start doing some of the renovations or you know, some of the things that we needed on the house to make it just a little bit more relivable. So at that time it was, it was pretty easy being able to rack that up very quickly. Yeah, just like having to like scrape paint off the house. Cause it was slut based.
Steve: That's an expensive project. Um, being able to do like some of the knickknacks, furnish it, you know, some in there, you know, that was all, all nice and dandy. And there was some time where I had to wait some, some time before some of the, the furniture would come in. And then all of a sudden my H vac goes out. Ah, whole system was pretty much 30 years old, so I knew I was gonna replace it. But it was definitely an immediate, like, oh, man. Hey. Now here I'm at a place where I have to use it up.
Steve: All my available credit.
Tara: Yes. So life stuff, but then just regular expenses. And like you said, particularly when the pandemic started and still just those regular expenses are so high, they never came down. Yeah, right. And so I think a lot of people find themselves in a similar situation, which is another reason I was so excited to talk to you today. So how did working with the debt counselors here at MMI help you see a path forward out of that debt?
Steve: Knowing that this is the largest amount of debt that I've ever taken on, my anxiety was off the roof. You know, it was, it was, it was crazy. When I was able to get in touch with MMI. I'd already looked at a couple other, like, options of trying to tackle, like, understanding, okay, well, how can I manage this without taking forever, taking, you know, what I would think 20 years to get out of this by paying minimum payments on all this and basically living this life of no flexibility. There is a lot of options about doing debt consolidation. And they would just say, hey, we're gonna, we're gonna, you get to stop paying on all of it. But then, you know, your credit's gonna take big, big hits. You know, you won't be able to do anything that looks, looks terrible on your credit, but we're going to get pennies on the dollar for negotiating with these creditors. And I'm like, well, that's, you know, I really can't do a lump sum as well.
Tara: Right, right.
Steve: I'm okay. But the interest rates on all these credit stuff is so high. We're talking between 16 and 25% on interest rate just on credit cards on those loans. So talking with mmi, finally getting to there, like, calm and ease my fears because I'm, you know, tech guy, I'm a numbers guy. I want to see all those spelled out. And it made so much more sense that they are able to grab all those interest rates, work with the creditors individually and get those interest rates down to such a much better level. We're talking 10% and below. So nothing was higher than that.
Tara: Okay. So bundled all that Debt sort of lowered the interest rates, gave you a convenient monthly payment and let you get out of debt in that two year timeframe, which is amazing.
Steve: And not having to like have to reach out to each of the creditors for payment as well. I could pay just you guys. It's one thing in the back of my head, not 12 good.
Tara: You know, I'm glad that you, that you said, oh, you know, this was sort of the highest amount of debt that I'd ever had and it caused a lot of anxiety. You know, I think that again, a lot of people feel that way, but we don't talk about it. We'll talk about that in just a minute. But I'm glad that you mentioned it. But before we do that, I just wanted to ask, you know, what was the credit counseling experience with MMI like? And what would you say was the most important thing that you learned throughout the process?
Steve: Yeah, so they gave me some good study material to go through to understand a little bit more about how creditors work, but then also how well I can actually put that back into control. So they did provide me a breakdown of like your kind of your four walls. Right. It's a budgeting method to say, okay, here's what you really actually need to spend money on to survive. So that's food, shelter. Gosh, I forget the other two, but they're, you know, those were like the main tart wants to say, okay, here's what you, what you really need. Everything kind of else is, is going to be a little bit more, do you really need that? It starts to helping you think, do you need to really purchase that extra, I don't know, soccer ball or you know, weights or whatever or for me, shoes.
Tara: Right?
Steve: Yeah, yeah, exactly.
Tara: Non necessity items that I, you know, I think we don't think about and then they add up quickly. So really just sort of prioritizing those expenses.
Steve: Yes, absolutely.
Tara: What advice would you give to somebody in a similar position where you know, they didn't necessarily have a job loss or you know, a medical expense or something like that, but just those regular increased expenses, you know, what advice would you give somebody in a similar position looking to manage their debt?
Steve: So really piece out, like I said, there's four walls and put some of your, your expenses into buckets and then figure out a percentage of your income and figure out that, that dollar amounts based on to that, that percentage and stick with it saying, hey, okay, this month I'm not spending more than $500 on or sorry, for a single person probably closer to Three or four hundred dollars on groceries. I know with dual with families and such, that's, that's probably not possible, but base it around a good percentage. But then you, you make the other percentages of your, your budget all add up to a hundred and see where you can take away from those percentages over there. That way you can, you know, address it to more of your four walls.
Tara: And I love that you said that because I think oftentimes, you know, the tendency might be to say, oh, you know, I've taken time and I've built this budget and now I can just sort of go about my daily life. But, you know, what you were saying is that it's really sort of an ongoing situation. It's a journey. And so you've got to be changing those, you know, allocated items and expenses throughout the month so that you can stay within those four walls like you talked about. So I love that. I wanted to ask you, you know, because we are in a situation, I mean, to put you on the spot, but because we are in a situation where those expenses are still so high, those regular expenses that we, you know, incur every day, just even at the grocery store. Any, like, tips or tricks that you have found to live within that budget and manage those inflated expenses?
Steve: Yeah, we're talking about grocery store stuff. Honestly, I find that off brand stuff is just as good as on brand stuff. So I know America, we like our box cereal. We have, you know, lots of nostalgia eating Froot Loops or, you know, Cinnamon Toast Crunch. But when they come to being like $6 a box, I'm okay with getting a bag cereal that tastes just as well, but they're closer to two or three bucks and you get more. You can make that last a lot longer.
Tara: Yeah. Yes, they last longer. And I agree with you. It tastes just as good, sometimes better. And I think those little things, when you add them all up, it can make a big, big difference. So I appreciate that. I wanted to go back to something that, you know, you said a little bit earlier or that we talked about a little bit earlier, and that is the conversation around debt and managing money. So, you know, debt is.
Tara: It's just something that's very common. It's so common that it's something that we typically don't really talk about. So how do you think debt counseling nonprofits like MMI are helping break that debt stigma?
Steve: Yeah, it's really moving forward to the way that you don't have to feel like you have to have debt in order to be able to live A prosperous life. So you know, we can always, always make choices about keeping some credit cards around. But there are, I would say the type of education that's, that MMI has been able to provide out to the world was making us smarter as a country. We don't get personal financing through high school. We, we don't have those classes, we don't have any of that stuff. It's getting better, right? I know that there's good programs out there that they're starting to require it in, in high school and even beforehand, but we've got a lot of makeup time for that past of getting this education out there. So the way that MMI and companies like MMI are able to educate the rest of the populace on just hey, what's a dollar? What's it worth? Where should that actually go towards within your budget? I think that is at the root of it, um, the best way a person can live their life and not be so just indoctrinated into the credit card companies mentality, staying, hey, here's all this free money, free with quotations around it that, that is now for you to be able to, to use to live your, you know, American dream, but from the front door in what you don't know is that that is the contract. They don't really care too much about your anxiety once it gets high.
Steve: It is all just about how much money over the longest period of time can we make off of you the contractor?
Tara: So conversation, you know, I think you're right. Conversation and just talking about it as early as we possibly can and so I just appreciate so much you sharing that story and starting to, to further that conversation. So last question, and it's the most fun question. What does being debt free mean for you? And now that you've been able to achieve this goal like, like we said over $30,000 in a little over two years is incredible. What do, what comes next? What are you going to do next?
Steve: So I've already been able to go back to school for a bachelor's. That's another thing that I never pursued. I, you know, would consider myself not non traditional student.
Tara: Okay.
Steve: And in the last couple semesters, even through this I paid out of pocket so I'm, I'm on my final semester and just knowing that you can pursue education in that way and then being able to build up and see like hey now I can actually budget and you know that I've got all my, my four walls in a tight knit bucket that I know that I'm going to be able to survive. I can start finishing up know that dream that, that get my, my bachelor's but then I can also start saying, oh, hey, here's how I can actually whittle my way into a better house, into a little bit better of a car or a little bit better of vacations. Things like that. Like go and be able to explore versus not being able to think that I'm going to go do all this stuff now but Han, I'm going to regret it later. Yeah, that type of freedom is huge.
Tara: So it's really achieving that American dream that you talked about without the guilt or stigma of debt attached to it, right? Absolutely amazing. Well, Steve, I appreciate so much you being here again today. Thank you so much for sharing your story and your insights and your savings tips. I appreciate it.
Steve: Absolutely. Thanks so much for having me, Tara.
Tara: You're welcome.
Tara: This guest is a real MMI client whose success is the result of hard work and dedication. While MMI cannot guarantee results, taking early action can increase available options and improve long term outcomes. Thanks for listening to this episode of Long Story Short brought to you by Money Management International. To learn more about our work and how we're helping people in all walks of life repay debt, balance their budget, and find lasting financial peace of mind, visit moneymanagement.org.
If you're struggling through your own debt story, we're here to help. We offer confidential counseling and powerful debt repayment tools to help take control of your finances. Learn more to see if our services are right for you.
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