Baker’s note: This post is by Joan Otto. Joan’s been a full-time member of the MvD team for over three months now. This is her story in her own words. 
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Joan and Chris were doing all right.
And they were TIRED of it. Tired of living paycheck-to-paycheck. Tired of having a six-figure household income and never having quite “enough” to do more than pay the minimums.
Tired of going to jobs that demanded too much of their time, working part-time jobs that sapped their energy and took time away from their amazing 11-year-old daughter, and tired of being broke and tired.
They knew they could do better, but it seemed that every time they tried to make a change, “something” came up. The house needed a new roof. Then a new heat pump. There were car repairs. Braces. It seemed endless, and the treadmill was exhausting.
Oddly, it was almost as if they weren’t doing “bad enough” to make a change.
They didn’t qualify for lowered interest rates or special programs. They could feed their family and put gas in their (shared) car. But there was no wiggle room. They were just comfortable enough to stay stagnant.
When their daughter, Sarah, was diagnosed with Asperger’s syndrome in early 2011, everything changed. Chris and Joan had always wanted to “be there” more in her life, but now, that became an absolute necessity.
They know that if the whole family is going to make it through Sarah’s high-school years, at least one if not both of them will need a work-at-home, flexible-schedule career. And more immediately, they were committed to being able to homeschool their daughter, which brought with it some great possibilities but some unexpected expenses.
When the “why” got big enough, their motivation grew. They started by knocking down $10,000 of their $89K credit-card debt. But they knew they couldn’t stop there…
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See how I’m not QUITE smiling in the photo above? That was taken on one of our lowest days, late in 2010. We went to an expensive amusement park with our best friends – even though I knew we had a negative checking-account balance – and only had enough room on our credit card to buy a few snacks. My best friend’s husband took pity on us and bought Sarah and me sweatshirts when the evening got too cold for our T-shirts. Not too long after that was when things finally hit rock bottom.
I’m Joan, and at its worst, my family’s consumer debt was almost $90,000 – and that was BEFORE our $209,000 mortgage.
Now that we have that out of the way… Hi. Nice to officially “meet” you.
I’m part of the team here at Man Vs. Debt, serving as project manager/community leader/Joan of all trades. And in some ways, I’m kind of the “anti-Baker.”
[Read more about me and our fight with debt!]
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