Family Eliminates $106,000 Debt And Gives Pointers
If you are in debt up to your eyeballs, this story can encourage you to take control of your money. The Hildebrandt family of Wisconsin was able to effectively get rid of $106,000 in personal and credit card debt over 5 years.
The family owed $89,000 on a credit card and $17,000 to a family member. They had been current on all of their payments, but their credit card companies started to increase their interest rates. That’s when the Hildebrandts decided to get to work. They struggled with covering monthly payments and realized they needed to modify the way they lived.
When many acquaintances were telling the family to declare bankruptcy, Russell and Kandy Hildebrandt decided it would be better to bite the bullet and pay back their debts. They began by meeting with a debt manager, that was able to help the family come up with a five-year strategy that would help them get rid of their debt completely.
They hadn’t lived an extravagant way of life when they went into debt. They rented a 1,000 square-foot townhome and only took trips to visit family members in the Midwest. Over several years, the family had slowly accrued debt because of unexpected expenses and medical bills. After some time, the family decided and committed to save and pay off their bills although they maintained that they would pay a 10 percent tithe on their income to their church.
By getting rid of discretionary spending, buying generic foods, purchasing necessities at thrift stores, and eliminating gift exchanges the family was able to send $2,000 each month to their debt management company and, in turn, to their creditors.
This amount was about 50 percent of Russell’s net pay, so Russell took on a second job. The family even made do with one car for a year until the family acquired a used van from Kandy’s family. Even though money was stretched, the family continually saved and, while their balances didn’t seem to be going down much, they kept their target in mind to be debt-free.
By 2008, the family only had one more year of payments to go and Russell began looking for a new home. They found a three-bedroom rambler on a rent-to-own agreement and moved in. The family is now free of debt and working on paying their house. Even though the debt is gone, Kandy is still a bargain shopper.
The Hildebrandts, through their extraordinary behavior and dedication to repay their debts, won the Professional Achievement and Counseling Excellence (PACE) 2009 Graduate Client of the Year Award.
This family showed that through hard work anything is doable. They accepted their debts and agreed that they needed to make some changes and they got to work. The Hildebrandts deserved to win the award, because they were accountable and took care of themselves. Well Done!! If you’re struggling with debt, you can do it too.
The author enjoys writing about politics, schools online, and online education. Diane Johnson graduated in Political Science from the University of Utah.
Related posts:
- Debt Buyer Beware If you receive quotes from anyone who does NOT ask...
- Here Are Some Great Creditcard Applications For Bad Credit You Need If you have poor credit, you can still get a...
- How Can Lawsuit Funding May Help To Avoid A Bad Credit Many lawsuit prosecutors have financial troubles while they wait for...
- Adverse Credit Card As the name suggests, adverse credit cards are an option...
- Cheap Loan Secured Lenders take varying degrees of risk when extending loans to...
Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.
Tags: debt, debt management, debt manager
