Credit Card Paid Off at Last!

For the first time in a long time, Natalie is ahead with her finances!


What Natalie did is not going to work for a lot of us older 'married with family' people, but it is still a great success story!

In 2002 Natalie purchased her first property, a two bedroom unit which she described as pretty daggy.

Natalie was lucky enough to receive the first home buyers $7000 grant, which was a big help. The unit
came with an existing tenant who she kept on for the first 10 months and gave them notice in time for her to renovate the unit and move in within the specified 12 month time frame for the grant.

The renovations took a while but at the end of the day she was the owner of a brand new apartment
which she is proud to say would feature in any Interior Decorator magazine! Moving in to her own
place was exciting, but paying the bills wasn't.

Inevitably her pay (which she received monthly) would run out and she'd need petrol or groceries, so bits and pieces would be paid for on Visa.

Over 15 months she managed to clock up over $8,000 in Credit Card debt, and was really struggling to pay it off. She'd make monthly payments of what she could afford (say $200-$500 per month), but then
by the end of the month she'd be out of money again so would probably put another few hundred on the
card. She was going backwards pretty quickly.

(Note from me here:- I reckon a copy of my Simply Budgets software put to good use would have been a great help here!)

One day Natalie heard about a friend who had been living with relatives, but due to certain circumstances had moved out and was now sleeping on a friend's couch until she found a place to rent. It occurred to Natalie that they both had a problem.

'She needed a place to stay and I needed cash to pay off my Credit Card bills'.

Natalie suggested to her friend that she might like to rent her place for a few months (Natalie had the option of moving back to her parent's house) and her rent money could help pay off the Credit Card debts!

Natalie was really only thinking out loud when she suggested it, but the friend jumped at the idea and moved in soon after.

This arrangement was initially going to be for about 3 months, but 3 months turned into 9 and by the time her friend moved out, she'd paid Natalie $10,000 in rent and that paid off the credit cards and now apart from her mortgage, Natalie was debt free!

'Living without the cloud of worry about the Credit Card debt hanging over me is great' says Natalie. 'I decided that being ahead financially and actually saving money for the first time in ages felt great.

Natalie is now doing fine.