How One Marine Paid Off His Debt &
Now Saves 50% Of His Income!
The next debt-free story is about how a marine paid off his debt and now saves half of his income. We all know that those serving in the military do not make money. His story is inspiring because he not only paid off all his debt and his ex-wife’s but he now saves half of his income. Not many people can say that even after becoming debt-free. He now has the freedom to give generously and do whatever he wants!
This is David’s story….
1. Quick intro, age, family demographics, career, income if comfortable sharing, anything unique about yourself.
My name is David I am 32. I am single and in the Marine Corps. I make about $50K after taxes.
2. How much debt did you have when you started your debt-free journey?
Well I had around $40K in debt.
3. How long did it take you to it pay off?
Took me about 4 years to pay off all my debt and the X wife’s.
4. Did you do anything extreme to pay off debt?
I cut back a lot of things. I started to give plasma. So nothing too extreme to me.
5. What kind of comments did you get from others while paying off debt?
I got a ton of people not really understanding why I was doing it.
6. Do you still have a mortgage?
I actually don’t own a home. I currently rent a small apartment.
7. Do you follow Dave Ramsey and if so, why and how long?
I followed his steps to get out of debt and build an emergency fund. Yet I’m much more educated now and currently don’t invest how he recommends.
8. Have you ever bought a brand new car? If so, would you again?
Yes I have bought a few new cars. No I don’t think I would unless my net-worth was substantially high.
9. What can you do now that you couldn’t when you had debt?
10. What are your current financial goals?
My current goals are to build my wealth as much as I can. My main goal is to be able to quit working in my 40s if I desire to. So far I’m on the right track to do so.
11. What piece of advice would you give someone who is currently in debt and/or working to pay it off?
So many things I could advise. To win with money we must change our behaviors. Think of the journey as buying your freedom. The more debt you pay off and the more you save the closer to freedom you are.
Yes, try to focus on saving a high percentage of your income once out of debt. Don’t up your standard of living because you have no debt. Shoot for a 50% savings rate.
The true interesting thing about my journey is not my debt payoff. It’s my wealth building over the last two years. I now save about 50% of my income and live on $25K a year.
Could you live on $25,000 a year by choice?
To learn how we paid off $45,000 in 17 months, click here!
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So awesome to hear stories like this! You really can accomplish anything if you put your mind to it!
This is an amazing story! We live debt free other than our house. It took a few years, but it was so worth it!
What an inspiring story! Especially considering the fact that he didn’t even make that much money to begin with. He has made some serious accomplishments!
Nice article! Paying off debt seems so insurmountable to me – it’s great to see that someone did it, and didn’t have to completely cut himself off from everything to do so.