Get Out Of Debt Series : From One Geek To Another : How We Became Debt Free At 27

Getting out of debt is a wish for many, however, there are some who have gone through the same situation and have been successful in slaying debt – these people are called the DEBTINATORS  or DEBT SLAYING NINJAS

Our get out of debt series is to inspire others who are still in debt. After paying off our student loan debt which between Mrs. Breathe Easy and I, was upwards of $200,000. The actual amount paid with interest was close to $300,000. The strategies we used to pay it off was discussed in the article about getting out of student loan bondage. 

Our guest is none other than “G”, one of our connections through the cyberspace of twitter. I saw a celebratory post by G on twitter about paying off debt.

As usual, our very supportive group all congratulated her (our guest blog anonymously, but I think I have nailed the persona to a female but I might be wrong hehe). I was so inspired by the tweet that I asked if she would be open to an interview. 

I am very glad she said yes. Since we have been following her on twitter, we have been educated in personal finance and real estate muddy waters. So it is my pleasure to interview her.

We are particularly excited about this interview because she is not a doctor, and it is a breath of fresh air to chat with people outside of the medical profession about money. 

We also believe this would resonate with a different type of audience here. 

She blogs at fromonegeektoanother, she talks about finances, real estate and whatever comes to mind. Please check the site out to show your support. 

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What do you do for a living?

I work in real estate in new home sales. Been doing it for nearly five years. It’s been a good job, and my income has allowed me to buy my first home at 25.

With new home sales, you work for the builder directly. You’re still a W2 employee and get a 401K and insurance. You also get two days off a week. The catch is that you work every weekend, but I don’t really mind.

Mr. FOGTA works for a home improvement company and is planning on getting certifications to move into working IT this year.

 

 

Do you have a degree and are you currently using your degree?

I have a Bachelor’s degree in Management, and I do not use it at all. I did have a retail management position for a year, but I hated retail and left that as soon as I could.

I personally would have preferred a degree in Linguistics or Classics, but I was highly “encouraged” (read guilted) by my mother into a more “practical” degree.

 

Linguistics would have been awesome. Perhaps you can blog in German on the side 

 

we are looking into commercial real estate in the future, we definitely will stay in touch. This is someone who does not use her degree and became successful, showing that sometimes you have to repurpose and reinvent yourself to success. 

 

How long have you worked in your field and what is your current salary range? Only if you want to, however, it is better to give our readers some perspective. If they are low-income earner vs high-income earner, the strategies might differ.

I have worked in real estate for nearly five years now. My income has been going up every year. I started as an assistant with a salary of $36,000. Six months later I was promoted to a trainee which has the same salary, but with a $250 bonus for every sale in a community, I worked in. Two months later I became a full sales consultant and earned commission only.

Currently, I make 1.75% on every sale I close. The average sale prices in my area are $215,000. Since I am paid a commission, I am taxed higher than other W2 employees, but it’s still more income that I made previously. 😊

When I first started, with a different company, my total gross income was $75,000. Last year that was a little over $125,000. My goal this year is $140,000, but that depends on a variety of factors.

 

 Cheers to climbing the ladder in a spectacular way

 

What major debt have you paid off that you feel is a hurrah moment for you? Describe to us in detail, the strategies you used to pay off that/those debt(s)

My biggest hurrah moment was becoming debt free at 24 and again (except our mortgage) at 27.

 

Part One:

I didn’t have much in student loans compared to many people. I worked hard in high school and qualified for scholarships and grants in college. I didn’t take loans until my Junior year.

The first time I took out loans was because I had the option to do study abroad. I managed to save up for the majority of it but needed $1000 extra to pay for everything, so I took a $1000 loan in the summer.

After that, the fees for my Junior year went up by $1000 a semester, so I took that out for fall and spring.

I got a car in junior year as well (another $10,000) and realized that the interest on my car was higher than the interest on the student loans.

For my senior year, I took out all my available student loans and put as much money towards my car as I could since I was saving money in the long run. That’s how I graduated in 2012 with $10,500 in student loans.

I landed at a retail job. While working there, I got into a good chunk of credit card debt. When you need to have a credit card to get your employee discount, and there are employee incentive days every quarter, you run up a pretty good debt.

$2000 here and $1500 there. I got promoted to a manager after being there for two months, and I got bonuses every quarter based on whether the department met its goals.

Even with that, I was just paying off the card every three months until I got some self-discipline about it. I stopped carrying the card since you could print a copy at the store. I also made it a point to pay off every purchase I made at the register. Over time that leads to me using it less, but I still had a balance.

I also moved into my own apartment and then got new furniture that I, of course, charged on a no money down, no interest for five years card. Then all the extra stuff in the apartment was on an Amazon card. I got it under control, but still had balances on those as well.

After working there for two years, I was finally able to pay off my car. That same year, I got a job offer to work in real estate with a new home builder. That was the beginning of everything turning around.

At this point, I now had a few credit cards that I needed to pay off in addition to my student loans. I went to my bank and got an unsecured loan for the amount I needed to pay off the credit cards with the higher interest.

It ended up being about the same monthly payment, but with significantly less interest. I was also able to build up my savings account for the first time and start saving up a down payment for a house.

Then I got promoted, and my boyfriend (now husband) moved in with me in 2015 and cut my rent in half. With the excess funds, I was able to pay off the loan and the no interest credit cards within six months and then paid off my student loans in September 2015. I still have the email from Navient congratulating me on paying them off. 😊

 

 

 

Lots of promotion here. Congratulations. Thou art a skillful soul. 

 

 

Part Two:

Sadly, being debt free only lasted until January 2016. Mr. FOGTA’s car died sooner than we would have liked. I ended getting a new car, and he got my car. We ended up with a used 2015 Toyota Corolla for me and $19,400 to pay off. Then, in July 2016 under contract for a new home with my company and got married in October 2016. It was a crazy year.

The wedding we paid out of pocket. The house was an FHA loan, but we did closer to 5% down. It cost us about $15,000 out of pocket. We closed on the house in February 2017.

That year I got a job with a different company since mine was toxic and Mr. FOGTA got promoted. After getting the house situated, we focused solely on paying off the car and building back our savings.

We were able to pay off the car in July 2018. We also got a home improvement loan in July (sort of an advance on my salary) and paid that off on 12/31/2018. Now only the mortgage remains. 😊

 

That was quite an inspiring story. Lots of ups and downs, but you got it done. Kudos!!! You have come a long way. 

 

 

Do you have any other debt left? What kind of debt? What are your goals to pay off this debt?

Our only debt remaining is the mortgage. We just bought the home in 2017 and have $224,500 to go before it’s paid off.

The current plan is to invest in rental properties and use the profits from that to pay down the mortgage faster. Plus, if Mr. FOGTA switches into IT this year, that would help as well. Even the base salary on that is more than what he makes now.

We are also considering re-financing to a 15-year mortgage while rates are still as low as they are. We’ve just started that line of thought though.

 

Do you budget? Why or why not? Which method do you use?

It’s hard to set a traditional budget since my pay is highly irregular. I get paid when a home closes. Sometimes we’ll go a month or two without a paycheck from me due to delays in closings.

Due to that, we don’t budget in the traditional sense. We set goals every month of what we want to accomplish, and that takes precedence with our finances.

Last Oct-Dec our biggest thing was contributing to the full amount to both IRAs and getting the total balance of our savings account to covering six months of bills. We made our goals. 😊

 

What percentage of your monthly income do you save?

Since my pay is so irregular, this is a difficult question to answer. Looking over the year of 2018 and averaging it out, we saved 39% of our income. That went towards increasing our savings, maxing out our IRAs, going towards our Index Universal Life accounts, 401Ks, and paying off debt.

 

To learn more about retirement account check out our post on all you need to know about 401k, how long to become a roth IRA millionaire

Here is the no BS review of the changes to retirement accounts in 2019.

 

Do you have any passive income sources?

Not currently. Our goal is to buy rental properties in the area and make that our passive income. That income would go towards paying our house off early. After that is done, then we would split it between investing and paying down the mortgages on the properties.

Of course, this is all assuming that we like being landlords. I cannot see a reason why we wouldn’t. This is even with reading all the horror stories that people have been through. Our goal is to buy our first rental property by early 2020.

Aside from that, haven’t gotten to this point yet.

 

Do you rent or own your own home/condo/apartment?

We own our home and pay the bank monthly to live here. 😊

 

Very nice way to put it. I explained how in Nigeria, we own our houses, no mortgages in my extended about me page. There you will understand where I am coming from with my ideologies. 

 

 

Which side of the argument are you in terms of paying off mortgage vs investing?

Paying off the mortgage all the way. I have no interest in owing anyone or letting the bank make hundreds of thousands of dollars extra off of us. This is the next and last thing we are working on paying off. Once this is done, we are debt free (assuming no changes).

 

At this time, we are on the side of investing the money rather than paying off the mortgage. This is a common debate in the personal finance space. It is as old as the word finance itself . To check out the post about it, see- Dave Ramsey is outdated, try our 12 toddler steps to financial freedom instead. 

 

Bio. 

I’m G, and I am the writer for From One Geek to Another. I started the blog in 2018, and it’s about my journey towards FIRE. I am still quite new at blogging and have a lot to learn. I live in Tampa, Florida with my husband and cat. Feel free to learn more about me at fromonegeektoanother.com.

 

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