My Story

Anna Debt Free Road

A little of my story…

If you are on this page, you are a bit curious about the person behind the blog. This is my 2016 updated background since a LOT has happened since I started tracking my Debt Free Road progress back in 2009.

First and foremost…

WE ARE DEBT FREE!!!  

In 2011, 18 months after starting on our journey we became consumer debt free. We paid off all our car loans and credit cards by sticking to a budget and putting extra income into our debt which totaled $40,000! We still had our mortgage and a home equity line of credit (HELOC), but no consumer debt.

At the beginning of 2014, we decided to squash our HELOC. We spent the year pouring  extra income, bonuses, etc into that debt. In December 2014, we discovered my husband’s company was going to shut down his division and he would no longer be employed as of May 2015. Merry Christmas! By the grace of God, we were able to pay off the last of our HELOC loan before the end of 2014 and no longer owed $40,000. Now we are working on our mortgage.

Being debt free has given us TONS of options and choices.

None of this would have happened if we hadn’t gone through the pain of crushing our $80,000 debt. Rather than run out and find another job, my husband was able to decide to pursue his passion of acting.

YES, acting!

You know the thing that people don’t think you can make a living at. He had been acting in commercials and industrial projects as a side hustle while he had a “real” job, but now he was free to really dive in.

We were also able to open our own company called Herring Creative which is a creative consulting firm specializing in talent career training and consulting, entertainment industry navigation, and online presence creation and logistics. Along with acting, my husband coaches other actors and consults with companies who need help executing creative projects. I am the implementation and execution specialist for online presence creation and logistics. Basically, I am a tech consultant for creatives who need to create and build their online presence, but don’t have the patience to do it. 🙂

If you think you can’t do it. YOU CAN! We are just an average family who fought to become debt free. My hope is that through this blog, you can gain some insight to our journey and hope that you can be debt free, too!