Jul
18
King and Queen Paid Off $35,000 Worth of Credit Card Debt in One Year
Filed Under Success Stories | 1 Comment
Dealing with debt alone is difficult, but dealing with debt as a couple can be even harder. Yes, the wedding was wonderful, the canapés were perfect, and the most romantic vows were exchanged, “for richer or poorer, in sickness and in health blahblahblah…” They lived happily ever after. The end.
But suddenly things take a different turn. The groom loses his job and for a while the couple is forced to survive on one income. There are student loans, credit cards and a mortgage to be paid, not to mention groceries, phone bills and car insurance. Financial and emotional stress start to take its toll on the relationship and soon things are looking a little ugly. It’s a very familiar story.
Here’s a couple who did things a little differently. Self-coined King of Debt and his Queen graduated from college with over $100,000 worth of debt, the bulk of the sum from student loans. Despite working full-time jobs for four years since then, the debt continued to creep to a staggering $150,000. Together, they decided that it was time to face their debt head on and although they still have some way to go, their action plan saw them paying off $35,000 worth of credit card debt in a year!
Find out how they did it after the jump.
Jul
17
Easy Expense Tracking with Expensr
Filed Under Free Stuff, Finance Apps, Budgeting | 2 Comments
We’re a bunch of geeks on WBD and although blogging is our first love, we like nothing more than to spend our free time messing around with the latest web apps that the internet has to offer.
Expensr is a free expense tracking and budgeting app, and after using it for over a month now, we could easily recommend it to those who’d like to find out where their money goes every month.
Sign up for a free account here.
Jul
17
We were wondering who would do us the honor as our very first success story on We Beat Debt! It was heartening to come across so many stories from people who had faced the debt demon and overcome it (which also means lots of stories to come!), but when we chanced upon krystalatwork and her remarkable story, we knew we didn’t have to look any further.
After graduating from college in 2006, krystalatwork found herself saddled with $20,000 worth of student loans and credit card debt. Like many college students, she had gotten used to the ‘charge now, worry later’ lifestyle. It wasn’t until debt collection agencies came knocking on her door that she decided that enough was enough. And in an amazing turnaround, she cleared $17,223.10 worth of debt in 10 months and is now working towards a down payment on a condo. She’s only 24.
Learn how she eliminated debt after the jump.
Jul
17
Welcome!
Filed Under Site Stuff | 1 Comment
Welcome to We Beat Debt!
Why this blog?
We created this blog not to scare people with statistics of the debt epidemic that’s plaguing almost every one of us right now. Then again, with screaming headlines, finance experts and debt collectors in our faces every minute, it’s hard to ignore the fact that as a nation, we have seriously bad money management skills — so just this once. From MarketWatch:
A surge in credit-card debt in May [2007] pushed outstanding U.S. consumer debt up at a 6.4% annual rate, or $12.9 billion, to $2.44 trillion, the Federal Reserve reported Monday. Credit-card debts rose at a 9.8% annual rate in May, the most in six months after a revised 0.2% gain in April. (link)
The mind boggles. The numbers are rising and the only ones getting richer are the banks. We want to change that.
I get the idea, but what makes this blog any different from other personal finance blogs out there?
We realized that people were tired of listening to the horror stories of being in debt. It’d be like telling a smoker that he’s going to get lung cancer from smoking — the fear would only drive him to smoke more. What we need is a good dose of inspiration and what better than real-life stories of folks who climbed their way out of the debt quagmire! We also love a good success story, it makes us all warm and fuzzy inside.
Apart from personal stories, we will also focus on personal finance tips and tricks and the occasional book review.
Are you just trying to make money from advertising?
As lovely as that sounds, this blog is still new and blog millionaires aren’t made overnight. It’d be great if we could cover our hosting costs though, hence the presence of ads on this site.
I have a good success story to tell, can I submit it for publication?
We would love to hear from you. Just pop over to the Submit Your Story page to find out more about story submissions.
A little disclaimer…
The writers of this blog don’t profess to be financial experts in any way. Any financial advice that you choose to adopt is done at your own risk. We would encourage you to do your own research to find out what advice works best for you and your financial situation.
Now that we’ve done our little dance, we hope you’ll enjoy the ride.