Debt Free Journey: Thomas  (FI Cop)

This interview series has been developed in collaboration with my friend Steve Cummings from The Frugal Expat. We are excited to bring you a series in which we explore real-life stories on people working towards or who have already become debt-free.

Highlights

Personal Name: Thomas Wood Age: 31 Gender: Male Location: Reno, Nevada Debt Debt paid amount: Approximately $45,000

About Thomas Wood

My name is Thomas Wood. I am a 31-year-old single male living in Reno, Nevada.  I have been a police officer for a total of 7 years.

After graduating college, I received a job with Fox Television in the marketing and advertising department. After working at Fox for about a year, I moved into the insurance industry.

I first started to accumulate my student loan debt during my first semester in college. Every year I applied for financial aid. After graduating, I bought a used car. The remainder of my debt came from credit cards.

Introduce us to your debt. Where did it come from? How much was it? How old were you when you first acquired the debt?

Was the total debt always the same amount, or did it grow over time? What was the interest rate?

My debt grew over time because every year, I was taking out more and more student loans. The interest rates on my student loans varied at the time from 3%- approx 8%. My car loan was approx 4%.

Why did you choose to get into debt? Were you fully aware of everything you were getting yourself into?

Not going to college was out of the question in my household. I was not fully aware of what I was getting myself into. I always assumed that I would have to pay back my debt.

Debt Eliminated!

Did you already eliminate the debt, or are you still working on it?

I wanted to eliminate the debt sooner because I was tired of paying every month.

If ahead of schedule, what made you want to eliminate it sooner?

As mentioned above, I paid the minimum amount on my student loan and car loan until early 2020.

Did you have a strategy to pay off the debt? If so, what was it?

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