Service Members Take Swift Action To Wipe Out Debt
By Michelle Singletary
Sunday, June 8, 2008
Like the service men and women they are, the participants in my yearlong money-management challenge have hunkered down and are attacking their debts with mighty force.
In less than four months, Kim and George Colón have drastically cut their household expenses and have managed to pay off more than $8,800 in consumer and tax debt. Kim, 43, is a senior master sergeant in the Air Force. She's been in the military for almost 20 years. George is 52 and retired from the Army after serving 22 years.
Tarek and Evibeth Bathiche, both 24-year-old Army personnel stationed at Fort Meade, have paid off more than $16,000 in consumer debt since being put on my debt diet by cutting expenses and using Tarek's re-enlistment bonus. Evibeth is a sergeant, and Tarek was just promoted to staff sergeant.
Amber and Trenton Holmes have paid off more than $1,200 owed in credit card and retail debt. Trenton is an aircraft mechanic and tech sergeant with the Air Force. Amber is a paralegal specialist with the federal government.
In this year's challenge, I wanted to work with military personnel. Throughout the year, these three families in the Color of Money Military Challenge will open up their financial lives and follow debt-reduction plans I've laid out for them.
So why focus on military families?
Several reports by the Defense Department and the Government Accountability Office have found that many military personnel are in financial trouble, and that in turn may be affecting our country's military readiness. Given the current deployment of our troops in the Middle East, it's key to have soldiers who are focused on their duties and not their debts.
Family separations resulting from duty-station changes and deployments often put additional financial stress on military personnel, said Janet Pearson, publisher of Military-Money-Matters.com.
"I think the other part of the problem is a lack of financial education," said Pearson, who spent five years as an attorney in the Navy's Judge Advocate General's Corps. As a Navy attorney, she frequently provided advice to service members and their families on financial issues.
Serious financial problems can have a negative impact on service members' careers. They could lead to loss of security clearance and other adverse personnel actions, including discharge.
Concerned about military personnel in financial trouble, the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority's Investor Education Foundation created SaveAndInvest.org, an excellent online program initially funded by $6 million in fines collected from a financial services company that used misleading practices to sell investment plans to military personnel.
Last fall, the securities regulator teamed with InCharge Institute of America to launch BrightScore, an online credit-management tool. The resource is free to active-duty personnel and their spouses to help them manage their credit wisely. Service members can obtain access by visiting the personal financial manager (PFM) assigned to their installation.
Unchecked spending and the overuse of credit are what landed these three military families in trouble.
The first step in their plan was to give up their credit cards. To participate in this challenge, all three couples were required either to cut up or store their cards. When you are in debt, you cannot continue to add to your problems by using credit.
Cutting off their credit supply forced the families to budget better.
"Not a lot of people can say that they are a cash-only family," Tarek Bathiche said, adding: "At the same time, it has been hard to discipline ourselves and our spending habits."
George and Kim Colón have found that paying off their debts with the lowest balance first has motivated them to stick to their payoff plan. With this strategy, you ignore the interest rates. You list your debts in order, starting with the lowest balance. You take all the extra money you can find by cutting your expenses or from a second job, or both, and then apply it to that debt, making just the minimum payments on the other debts. When you pay off the first debt, move on to the debt with the next-lowest balance and so on.
Their original strategy of paying off the highest-interest debt first does make sense mathematically. But people in debt often get discouraged and abandon their payoff plan when the list of debts remains the same for too long.
"We didn't see progress," Kim said. "Now we're just knocking them off."
By attacking the lowest-balance debt first, the Colóns and the other couples were able to cross off entire bills in a matter of months. That in turn motivated them to cut back their expenses even further and find more cash to throw at their debts.
"It was like we had a dark cloud over our heads," George said. "We see light now."
It's that same dark feeling of overwhelming debt that has forced Amber and Trenton Holmes to stick to their plan.
Unfortunately, they had some needed and expensive home repairs, which slowed them down a bit. However, the biggest impediment to their plan is their mortgage on a second home.
Like many people in recent years, the Holmeses decided to trade up to a bigger home. They thought they would have no problem either renting or selling their first home. They were wrong.
The housing market tanked, and they're now stuck paying about $1,000 a month on the second property. They have renters, but the rent doesn't cover the $2,800 monthly mortgage payment.
"I'm still frustrated because, for me, this is out of my comfort zone," said Trenton, who isn't used to being so cash-strapped. A lifelong saver, he's struggling with the notion of being buried under so much debt, which includes $20,000 in loans from their Thrift Savings Plan, about $10,000 left on credit cards and a home-equity loan for one of the houses. Plus, Amber has about $55,000 in undergraduate student loan debt.
"I feel frustrated to see him frustrated," Amber said. "But we are so blessed. Things are happening, even if slow. I feel good to be able to have some results."
The Holmeses have made progress. Like the other couples, they have reduced their spending tremendously. They've negotiated to reduce their cable and cellphone bills. They're eating out less. Trenton hasn't golfed as much as he wants -- a huge sacrifice for the avid player.
Overall, I'm pleased with all the challengers' results so far. These military families are displaying the kind of discipline any drill sergeant would expect and require.
Research assistant Charity Brown contributed to this column.
· On the air: Michelle Singletary discusses personal finance Tuesdays on NPR's "Day to Day" program and online athttp://www.npr.org.
· By mail: Readers can write to her at The Washington Post, 1150 15th St. NW, Washington, D.C. 20071.
· By e-mail:singletarym@washpost.com.
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