Jesse was only 35 years old, but drowning in debt. He owed money for so many things, he couldnt keep track of them all. There were seven credit cards alone that added up to over $5,000. There was one credit card just for gas. Another just for this, another just for that. College student loans, car payments, mortgage payments, and a hospital bill from three years ago that he was paying off slowly because his insurance wouldn't cover it.
Jesse made a decent living as the owner of a limosuine company. Last year he grossed $78,000. For a single guy with no children, that's a decent amount of money. You would figure that $1,500 a week should be enough to get by. But a year ago, Jesse took out a mortgage on a $300,000 house. Things started to get a little tight, but still manageable, until he started getting bills for property tax, the heating and electricity bills, etc. ... the house was costing him more than he thought it would.
He knew he was in trouble when he started to receive calls from creditors, saying that he was falling behind on payments for credit cards. Part of Jesse's problem was that he didn't manage his money well. He would put off paying bills, and forget where he put them half the time. He didn't keep his checkbook in order. Jesse definitely needed some advice to get his finances on the right track!
Jesse went to his bank for advice, and they gave him two CD audio books to listen to. In his spare time, Jesse learned some things that he should be doing to help him use his money wisely and slowly get out of debt. He learned that he could actually call all of his creditors and negotiate a lower interest rate with them. He learned that he should pay the minimum payment on his school and hospital bills each month, since they are interest free, and increase the monthly payments on everything else. There were so many things that Jesse learned about finances from listening to those audio tapes that he was able to reduce his debt by 1/3 in just one year!
