Stories from the Field
During the course of a month, I speak to a lot of people about money.
On top of the university classes and coaching sessions, every time any money topics come up, my friends sarcastically say “What would Fast Start Finance say about that???”
So today I thought I’d share three stories with you.
While these are other people’s stories (names anonymized, of course), I’ve got a feeling you can personally relate to at least one of them.
1. “Forget ‘The Math’, Get Me out of Debt”
John and his wife graduated with good jobs. But like over 50% of college grads, they had student loan debt.
For debt with a relatively low interest rate (3-8%), many people will try to balance paying off the debt and investing for the future.
Not them.
In their mind, missing out on a few years of investing was bad, but having debt hang over them longer than necessary was worse.
So, aside from their 401(k) match, they put all of their non-spending dollars towards their debt.
The stock market has done great the last few years, they would have done well with more money in the market if they put less to their debt.
But the hypothetical investment returns didn’t matter to them.
In 3 years they were 100% debt free.
The certainty of getting out of debt in a 3 year time frame was worth more than potentially earning a few extra thousand dollars in their investment accounts.
I’ve still never met someone who regrets how quickly they got out of debt.
2. “We can’t get off the credit card hamster wheel”
Ben and his wife got into credit card debt to get married. This may be shocking to you, but 56% of couples have gone into debt for their wedding.
I get their rationale: They wanted to make the moment special and both had great jobs - paying it off wouldn’t be too hard.
But they didn’t execute their repayments exactly right.
Even though they set up auto payments to go to their credit card balance, they realized their total debt wasn’t dropping.
When they looked into it they realized since they were still using and adding to their credit card, the additional interest was preventing them from getting ahead on the payments.
They were on a hamster wheel making zero progress despite putting in the work.
The interest was starting to get painful.
The interest payments alone ballooned up to $4,000 per year - $4,000 per year just for the luxury of holding that much debt.
How’d they get out?
They ended up moving all regular spending to a debit card.
No more using the credit card.
That way, when they paid towards their balance, they knew every dollar they were paying was going to their wedding debt.
It finally let them confidently see how many months they had until they were debt free.
They had the right idea, just needed a little tweak and ended up saving about $10,000 in interest over a few years.
3. “When Are You Getting to Credit Scores?”
I gave a class back in March to a group of undergraduate engineers. They were very well-educated and, since they were engineers, loved structure.
The class was pretty quiet at first (not every class is a riot - that’s show biz baby).
Then, I got my first question: When are you getting to credit scores?
Everyone in the class sat up a bit.
That’s when I realized: This entire group had the belief “high credit scores = financial success”.
And I get it. To them money was complicated, but a score was a structure they could aim for. Plus, I’m competitive. If there’s a score related to money, wouldn’t I want it to be high?
The short answer is you would want it to be high. But worrying about credit scores without the basics is like wearing designer shoes but forgetting pants - put some clothes on before you worry about an accessory.
Making a budget, planning student loan payments, automating retirement savings and brokerage accounts - if those aren’t all set up and running, you’re not ready to worry about credit scores.
Everyone’s financial situation is different, but hopefully these trends show you you’re not alone on your journey with money.
Any story hit close to home? Let me know - happy to send a quick tip to help out!
