Hi, I'm Sal Fiorilli.

I've probably been where you've been.

Trying to live the American dream, but failing, miserably...

Debt into the tens of thousands and renting my dreams to big creditors...

How did it all begin?

Seventeen years ago, my wife and I bought a dog. A pure bred mini-Dauchand.

Within his first year of life, he got mysteriously deathly sick.

We took him to an animal hospital and they said if they didn't treat him, he would die. We didn't have money in the bank to pay for it, so we decided to charge $3,000 on a credit card and start making minimum payments.

Then, it happened again. Another $3,000...

That was the beginning of debt that would spiral out of control.

My wife and I are also New Jersey Public School teachers were not bad. But I wanted to do better for us.

I wanted a salary increase beyond the usual incremental increases, so I spent 5 years of time-consuming work on Master’s degree (after my teaching and coaching hours).

I had just finished 5 years of work. I was looking forward to start paying off my Master's student loans.

But then, the unexpected happened.

New Jersey passed a new healthcare and pension reform law for teachers that wiped out that salary increase and then some!

In fact, we lost $12,000 worth of yearly income from that law!

There were several reasons for this, but it's 100% true.

Not to mention, we were already near the top of a federal tax bracket.

When the Master's salary increase starting coming, it was just enough to push us into the next federal tax bracket.

Consequently, we lost another $5,000 of yearly income!

So much for trying to do "better"...

As a result, we realized we could no longer afford our home.

The bank had to take back the house and it went through a short sale.

Five years worth of house mortgage payments - GONE!

Plus, all the time and work put into improving the house went with it.

The loss of income left us short each and every month.

We were burning through credit cards and racking up new debt every month just to pay for living expenses.

Not expensive vacations, or new wardrobe. Just to eat and pay the bills.

Not to mention summer after summer, we ran out of money and racked up more debt.

We were working summer jobs, but it couldn't replace $12,000 worth of income.

With the new debt came the price of higher monthly minimum payments.

The pattern was unsustainable.

The outcome was unavoidable.

Eventually, we could no longer afford to keep up with our credit card payments minimums.

Our credit card and new student loan debt totals were well over $60,000 in a relatively short period of time.

I tried to negotiate with creditors...

I called them, over and over.

I pleaded with them.

I figured I would call them before they started calling me.

Pleading didn't matter.

They wanted their minimum payments.

One monthly credit card minimum payment alone was $400 per month!

Another minimum payment was $250 monthly!

We had 3 or 4 others credit cards too!

Our MONTHLY MINIMUM BALANCES totaled over $1,200 per month!

I couldn't afford to pay for my student loans either.

The loan compay agreed to put my student loans on forebearance for as long they allow anyone to, even though interest was accruing monthly.

Something had to be done.

We were desperate.

Eventually, I spoke to a credit counselor with 25 years experience.

After she looked at ALL our income and expenses, she could see no other way to make it out of debt (and restore our sanity) - other than file bankruptcy.

Yet, after speaking to 2 bankruptcy attorneys, we learned we couldn't file bankruptcy.

Why?

We made too much money.

It DIDN'T MATTER how much debt we owed.

The Bankruptcy law says we made too much money to qualify for Chapter 7.

However, the Bankruptcy attorney said we could have gone thru Chapter 11 (repayment plan).

But when the bankruptcy attorney did the numbers, he figured the MONTHLY REPAYMENT PLAN would AS MUCH or MORE MONEY than continuing to pay all the credit card monthly minimums!

I thought, great.

If we could have afforded to keep paying every creditors monthly payments, we would have...

But now, we lost a significant portion of our income.

Nearly $12,000 yearly.

We lost our hard-earned income - to a new law requirement and higher federal taxes.

We lost our house.

We were losing our dignity.

As the husband and provider, I felt I had failed.

My wife and I felt stuck, hopeless and desperate.

We were in way over our head with no visible way out.

We tried, and tried, and tried.

Then this feeling set in.... "this is our life - just accept it."

The financial stress was crippling us, personally and maritally.

We felt hard-pressed at every side.

Even worse...at every turn, it felt like financial disaster would happen unexpectedly, again and again - without warning.

It was if we could never break free from the grip and unrelenting stress of debt; or worse - the hope that one day we could we could experience what life would be like if we COULD somehow break free from all the hardship we had gone through.

And then, start living life on new terms.

On OUR terms.

At the time, I could only imagine what it would FEEL like to finally have Financial Freedom.

Freedom from the stress.

Freedom from despair.

Freedom to make decisions that would make my family much happier.

And have TRUE FINANCIAL FREEDOM that would allow my family and I to have a new life together.

A future so bright, our past would all be a distant memory....

Something had to be done.

But what?

Everything we tried to do, failed...

After speaking with a credit counselor and 2 bankruptcy attorneys, I realized one thing.

I had to find a pathway out.

A way to fight our way out of the mess we were in.

Not to mention, right around this time, my wife became pregnant with our 1st child!

It would just be matter of time until more expenses like formula, diapers, daycare would be settling in.

I needed to get things figured out fast.

I determined to set out on a journey, to find a way to change my family's financial future.

To change the financial legacy that my children would benefit from for the rest of their lives.

Not just so they could benefit from it monetarily, but also by modeling and teaching what financial success is and how to have it.

I prayed to God every day with utter desperation. It's the place from which there is not other place to turn but UP...

Then I told my wife, "we are getting out of this debt within 5 years. I want us to be able to retire from teaching and I want us to be TOTALLY financially free."

Her reaction was as you'd might expect.

"This is our life. We tried to get out this mess. We can't."

But, I was determined.

I prayed, planned, and figure out anything and everything we could do to improve our financial position in one way or another.

Shortly after beginning this new journey, I figured out when and how we would be debt free.

Then, I discovered many other changes, some little and some big, that somehow sped up the process of Financial Freedom.

The prayer is being answered.

The plan was working.

Our committed and unified actions were starting to add up.

The tide changed, the course corrected, and a new financial trajectory began to emerge.

Within the next 3 or 4 months, we really started seeing the light at the end of the tunnel.

Our conversations changed from hopeless chatter to plans about where we'll go and what we'll do when we are debt free!

It continued to grow with EACH AND EVERY BENEFICIAL FINANCIAL DECISION we put in place - no matter how small, trivial or seemingly inconsequential it seemed at the time.

I must admit, much of the changes that were coming which told my wife was out of the mainstream. No one we knew or heard of did it the way we would be doing it.

And, as often is the case, when you're the disuptor of status quo, my ideas were met with some reluctance.

But as each decision brought more and more peace of mind to us, more clarity, certainty and confidence, and NEW unprecedented level of financial freedom - that reluctance began to turn into "ok, this is the next thing."

Now, we have so much peace of mind, joy, and satisfaction around money that we no longer stress out about money!

Debts start rapidly being eliminated.

We have money for vacations, and many other things we want to give, fund, or venture.

Money is now a source of blessing and enjoyment, and not the source of stress, marital arguments, or conflict...

That's my story.

What will yours be?