“Live the life you’ve always wanted by losing the debt you’ve never needed.” – Orrin Woodward
The following Financial Fitness testimonial was submitted by Financial Fitness customer, Jeremy Pethke:
Almost seven years ago, God introduced me to an amazing woman! Little did we know what He had in store for us! When we met, we combined a ton of debt. (At least to us it was!) In total, we had close to $150,000 of debt. We both had dove head first into the Financial Matrix!
I had mortgaged a house that I couldn’t afford because the bank told me I could. And because I had a house, I had to have a car and truck too; so I financed both of those as well. I had 2 store credit cards and I even financed a Kirby vacuum!
“I was paying close to $800 a month just in interest!” – Jeremy Pethke
I was literally living paycheck-to-paycheck. As hard as it was, I still felt it was normal because everyone around me was doing the same thing. But at that time, I was working full-time for my dad as a mechanic, working part-time on a farm, working for two different bars, and was also on my local volunteer fire department. I was raised on a farm, so I was brought up with a good work ethic. I wasn’t afraid to work hard. The only problem was that I had ZERO time! I felt totally stuck.
Around that time, a relative of mine gave me a call and introduced the Financial Fitness Program to me. It felt like a 200 pound weight had been lifted from my chest! For the first time I had hope that things could be different. I started applying the 47 principles, such as delayed gratification, and started downsizing to reduce my debt. At the same time I also started investing in my number one asset… my thinking. It wasn’t long after I started downsized on some of my debt that I met Sammie.
At that time she was living in her grandparents duplex and she was working as a CNA at a local nursing home. Her student loans were almost all in forbearance. She also had a good amount of credit card debt.
Sammie had been taught, “Go to school, get good grades, and get a good, safe, secure job.” She struggled in high school, but got accepted at UW Fox. From there she worked hard and got accepted to UW Madison! She was well on her way to her dream of being a doctor! But while she was in college, her grandparents introduced her to the Financial Fitness Program. Through the program, they recommend getting advice from people who had the results she wanted. So, because she saw a better path, she dropped out of college to pursue a different path.
“Sammie received all kinds of criticism from family and friends, but because she had a dream, she wasn’t willing to surrender.” – Jeremy Pethke
Unfortunately, once she dropped out of college, the student loans started coming due, and so did the credit cards. She got her CNA license and started working at a nursing home, but all the while she kept her eye on her dreams.
Around that time, she and I met and I had already been on the path toward financial security. So when we started dating, we put our finances together and started working on them with each other. We moved in together, closed our personal accounts and opened one joint account. We started out in a really nice apartment, and then downsized 3 times to cut costs. During that time we got married. (We now have been married for three incredible years!)
When we really started looking at her student loans, we realized that she had been paying the minimum on them for 7 years and the principle was only down $500! We felt like we were stuck again, but this time we had each other! Slowly but surely we started chiseling away at the loans.
“We literally had to call every month to find out the balance and interest rate for each one of the student loans. They made it very inconvenient to make progress, but we were committed to being free! One by one we paid them off.” – Jeremy Pethke
Sammie had made a couple job changes and eventually wound up working closer to home. Once she got established at her new job, because she had been investing in herself, she was able to get a registration lead position where she oversaw the registration processes of three clinics and the hospital that she was working at. Then we had a big victory. We had been saving up cash to pay off the loans in big chunks.
“We had saved up enough to pay off a $12,000 loan. We realized that by paying off that one loan we saved $11,466 in interest! By that point, we had eliminated the credit card debt, my vehicle loans, my Kirby vacuum loan, and the majority of the student loans. In total we have currently eliminated about $104,000 of debt!” – Jeremy Pethke
And then the Big victory came! God blessed us with our first beautiful baby boy (Joseph)! When the time came for Sammie to go back to work, because we had eliminated so much debt, we were able to make the decision to bring her home to be a stay-at-home Mom! We wouldn’t change that for the world! We aren’t totally free yet, but we have a plan to finish strong and be totally free from the Financial Matrix!
Congratulations Jeremy and Samantha Pethke for all of your success with the Financial Fitness Program! Your story is an inspiration to many!
How has the Financial Fitness Program changed your life? Please share with us in the comment section below!
Financial Fitness: Get out of Debt and Stay out of Debt
*The people in this article are not actors nor have they been paid to participate, but are real people that have used the products and services and have signed affidavits attesting to the validity of the numbers claimed.
Andrea Klubertanz says
So proud of you two and it is an exciting journey to watch!