AIE 138: Wake Up Call $600k Settlement to $220k in Debt
Adulting Is Easy: Making Personal Finance & Real Estate Easy
English - August 08, 2023 11:00 - 25 minutes - 22.9 MB - ★★★★ - 7 ratingsSelf-Improvement Education Homepage Download Apple Podcasts Google Podcasts Overcast Castro Pocket Casts RSS feed
Justin received a settlement at 24 years old from his grandmother’s death from mesothelioma. He had just started dating his now wife (Haley) at the time. Not only did they spend all of it, but they also ended up in debt (although they did put a down payment on a house). Vacations, an engagement ring, a time share, but where did the rest go? They don’t really know. This situation was not sustainable, and they realized it when they bought pumpkin muffins while Haley was 8 months pregnant. Justin did some soul searching on the way to work, then they got on the right financial path. It took about 3 years to go downhill and about a year and a half to get back on track. Justin is very open about their struggles on their journey, and how they felt at the time, including the shame and guilt. One thing that helped was positive affirmations: I deserve to have wealth, etc. Until we know better, how can we do better? Justin goes into some tactical details of how they got rid of the debt: cashing out their Roth contributions (not really recommended but something they did), downgraded both of their cars, threw stimulus checks at it, sold items they weren’t using, he got a second job as a bartender, and trimmed their budget. Finally, Justin shares some examples from his and Haley’s financial coaching business.
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About Justin Brown-Woods:
Justin and his wife Haley are a millennial couple that began their debt-free journey in the Fall of 2019. After blowing through a $600,000 lawsuit payout and racking up over $220,000 worth of debt in three and a half years, they got serious about changing the narrative they had created for their lives. Within 18 months, they had paid off over $130,000 of debt and restarted their wealth journey.
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