25-50-$25,000

Let's start where my financial journey began, I was 25 years old, 50 pounds overweight and buried in $25,000 of debt.  I was married in August of 2008 and had our first child the very next year! Big changes in our lives, well besides what we were doing financially. The system remained the same, pay bills one week to the next and try to find the money we needed to raise our son.

Time is the only thing that moves past you without being noticed. I blinked my eyes; 2 years had gone by…no changes. My son was now 2 years old, we were broke, just able to pay bills and live in our cheap rental house.  The words savings account, 529 plans, and investing were not in our vocabulary. Instead, our plan included credit cards, overtime, and loans to acquire the financial resources we needed just to get by. I was working to make money, not for me and my family but instead, I was making money for the cable company, Visa credit cards, bank loans, and a motorcycle I couldn’t afford.  I was working for a paycheck but I never had any money left.  I knew I needed a major change and it wasn’t going to be easy.

I was going to stop working for my money, and start putting my money to work.