Hello! Today I’m sharing a post from my friend James. He and his wife paid off $62,000 in debt in just seven months.
Shortly after we married, my wife Andrea and I got serious about our finances and eliminated all our debt.
This is the story of how we turned a profit from our wedding, combined our finances, and paid off $62,000 of debt in seven months.
Related:
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- FREE Debt Payoff Plan Worksheet
Where did all the debt come from?
All of the debt was mine. I made some poor choices when I was young and assumed I could always out-earn my mistakes. One day it became clear I couldn’t.
Even with a generous three-year military scholarship at an expensive private college, I still accumulated student loans to cover:
- housing costs (about $12,000 per year for four years)
- freshman year tuition (around $30,000)
- a summer study-abroad program (roughly $15,000)
Shortly before graduation, USAA offered me a $25,000 “Career Starter Loan” at a very low 2% interest rate. I used $15,000 to refinance the study-abroad loan, bought a new laptop, and put the rest into savings.
When I graduated, my total debt exceeded $100,000.
Did I immediately sit down, create a strict budget and start attacking the debt? No.
I bought a sports car instead.
I was 22, only four months into my Army career, and I had accumulated about $115,000 in debt. All I had to show for it was a diploma, an older Mazda, and more than $1,100 per month in required payments.
My wake-up call
As can happen in the military, I got hurt. I always knew it was a possibility, but never expected it to happen to me. The Army ended up “retiring” me, and just like that my promising career was over two years after it began.
Luckily, the Army’s slow bureaucracy gave me some time to adjust. Unluckily, my injury happened during the 2008 financial collapse when the job market was brutal.
I didn’t know how long I’d be without a steady income, but I still had to find $1,100 each month to make debt payments.
I opened a spreadsheet and made my first basic budget, subtracting monthly needs from monthly income. To my surprise, I had more leftover cash than I thought. I saved as much as I could and built a small emergency fund.
Six months after leaving the Army and nearly exhausted my savings, I convinced a Fortune 500 company to put me in charge of a $15M-per-year operation. With a decent salary, I kept one month’s expenses as an emergency fund and went after my debts with renewed determination.
I finally understood how much my debts were hindering my future and I wanted them gone.
If you’re interested in the tools and tactics I used to tackle debt, there are resources that lay out the exact steps. Following that plan, I could have paid off about $80,000 in roughly three years on my own.
But there was something else I needed to do first.
Will you marry me?
My debt was no secret to Andrea. To her credit, she didn’t care. She valued me more than my financial mistakes and appreciated how I worked to get back on track. The struggles actually drew us closer.
After five years together, it was time to move forward. I paid off a few more smaller debts, kept current on the rest, and saved for an engagement ring.
In September 2011 I asked Andrea to marry me; she said yes, and we were married a year later.
During that year we paid only the minimum on remaining debts and saved every extra dollar to cover the wedding and honeymoon.
To stretch our budget we:
- Booked a daytime wedding, which was much cheaper than evening rentals.
- Rented centerpieces rather than buying them.
- Made invitations and programs using craft-store kits.
- “Hired” friends and family who were already in the wedding industry.
- Had bridesmaids’ dresses made by Andrea’s aunt, a seamstress.
- Enlisted a friend to be the DJ/pianist.
- Used a friend as our photographer.
We had a beautiful wedding, a great honeymoon, paid for everything in cash, and even had some money left over.
Joining forces
After the honeymoon we moved into a rental house and began combining our finances. Seeing all income and expenses flow through shared accounts made it easier to rebuild our budget.
We earned similar incomes, but as a married couple our expenses were lower because we shared housing, utilities, and other costs. That left a significant surplus each month.
By then the debt had dropped to about $62,000 and it was time to attack it together.
We both wanted the debt gone quickly, but disagreed about how aggressively to use savings that included leftover wedding cash and some of Andrea’s personal savings. I felt ashamed of the debt and wanted to throw most of our savings at it, leaving just a small emergency fund. Andrea preferred a larger emergency fund for security.
We needed to balance speed with safety. Our conversations shifted away from dollars and cents and toward the life we wanted: travel, charitable giving, meaningful work, and flexibility. Paying off the debt would give us the freedom to pursue those goals while a healthy emergency fund would protect us from catastrophe.
Our plan for paying down debt
Here’s what we agreed to:
- Use some savings to pay off a couple of my smaller student loans entirely, while keeping enough set aside to maintain Andrea’s comfort level.
- Keep our combined monthly expenses under half of our combined income. We could have chosen a more luxurious lifestyle, but instead elected to live modestly so leftover cash could be applied to debt reduction. This also provided protection if one of us lost a job.
- Stay focused and aim to eliminate the rest of the debt within a year. If any balance remained by our first anniversary, we would use savings to finish the job.
If things went as planned, by the end of our first year of marriage we would be debt-free with a healthy emergency fund.
Finally debt free!
Everything went according to plan. Seven months later we were debt-free: about $62,000 wiped out and we still maintained a healthy emergency fund.
To put it another way, over five years I eliminated approximately $115,000 of debt—about a year faster than if I’d done it alone. I paid off around $53,000 on my own during four years, paused to get married, then Andrea and I finished the rest together.
Even more important than the money, Andrea and I learned how to set a shared direction for our lives and take meaningful action to reach it. Facing the debt challenge brought us closer, helped us communicate about difficult topics, set goals, and work together to accomplish them.
Now it’s your turn
Maybe you’ve never discussed hopes and dreams with your partner, or maybe you haven’t set personal goals for yourself. It can be tough, but starting with the “why” behind your financial decisions makes a big difference.
Instead of only defining a “what” and “how” (for example, “Let’s pay off our loans by cutting expenses”), begin with why you want the change. Ask yourself or your partner:
- How would it feel to have an extra $100, $500, or $1,000 at the end of the month?
- How would your career choices change if you didn’t need to work just to pay loans or credit cards?
- How much more fun could you have?
- How much more generous could you be?
- What new options would open up in your life?
With a clear “why” — for example, “I want to take a job for the love of it, give more to charity, buy things without guilt, or stay home with our children” — the “what” and “how” become details. A strong why helps you stick to your goals when distractions arise.
Pessimism can be helpful
If you struggle to find a compelling “why,” try thinking pessimistically: list what you fear and then reverse it. Turn “I’m afraid I’ll be stuck working just to pay student loans” into “I want to pay off loans so I can work for a nonprofit.” Flip “We’ll be too broke to travel” into “I want to save so we can travel the world with friends and family.”
Once your why is clear, the steps to get there become easier. You’ll resist temptations and be less distracted by “shiny” purchases. Working toward a meaningful why with your partner helps you discuss money without fighting, because you’re not just talking about money — you’re planning a life together.
I hope you and your partner take on your financial challenges, decide what you really want from life, and pursue those goals together. Aggressively paying off debt brought Andrea and me closer and strengthened our marriage. We learned to handle tough conversations, set goals, and collaborate to achieve them. You can do the same.
Author bio: James helps couples talk about money without fighting at loveandmoneymatters.com. Enjoy his post about paying down debt.
What’s your family’s biggest financial goal? Why is it important to you? Are you currently paying down debt?
If you’re new to this blog, here are a few practical ideas to make and save more money and to build momentum toward your financial goals:
- Find ways to make extra money — there are many options available if you’re willing to try different approaches.
- Cut recurring entertainment costs by evaluating subscriptions and choosing lower-cost alternatives, such as using a digital antenna for free local TV.
- Consider starting a blog; it can become a meaningful income source with time and effort.
- Know your credit score and monitor it regularly.
- Sign up for reputable survey and rewards sites to earn small amounts of side income in your free time.
- Use cash-back services when you shop online to recover a portion of your regular spending.
- Save on food by meal planning and cooking at home—small monthly steps add up to big savings over time.
- Explore rewards sites like InboxDollars for small earnings through surveys, shopping, and simple online tasks.