Twentysomething overcomes mountain of debt

So, you were an idiot who spent more than he made and it took you years to realize it and do something about it. Not very inspiring.

I was born in a third world country. Immigrated to Canada before 10; paid for things such as my clothes, schooling, books, etc. since I turned thirteen (never received an allowance because my parents needed the money for basic necessities like food); and at the end of this year, when I turn 30, my home in overpriced downtown Calgary will be fully paid off.

And I didn't need an MBA to learn how to handle my personal finances. Common sense is sufficient.

Good idea and you could title your book "I Have $356K Less Than When I Came Here"

I am astounded by such negative comments towards the author.

Instead of seeing the positive side of writing a book about a topic that is not taught in the public school system, rarely comes up at the dinner table with parents and is learned (for the most part) by taking initiative and developing personal interest to learn on one's own time, is instead misconstrued as some money grubbing, pity case story.

If this book makes a difference in a few lives and prompts those between the ages of 15-30 years old to take an interest in personal financial management then good for you Adam.

I believe it was the head of the European Central Bank who was quoted in an article not too long ago on how simple it was to avert the financial crisis had people practiced the simple concept of spending/living within one's means. Apparently, how to spend and save does need to be written in layman's terms because a good chunk of the population decided that living off of cheap credit and conspicuous consumption.

The topic of this book is timely and I hope it reaches its intended audience to avert future financial mismanagement in younger generations.

I think that many people are missing the point. When most people are in their formative years how do they learn about saving and investing? Do we listen to our parents and/or take advise from them? In today's world where increasingly people do not have a defined pension plan, we need to find reference material to guide us through the myriad of information especially at the beginning. Often times, we learn through tiral and error which is not necessarily the best way to invest for the future. How different our financial picture might look if we had the right resources to facilitate the process so we made less costly mistakes. As someone once said hindsight is a costly way to learn foresight is more rewarding. What does the future financailly hold for you?

Just another smuck trying to sell a book. When will the media stop posting this crap?????

Kudos, Adam, to putting yourself out there and sharing your story. Going debt-free and spending less is always easier said than done. As an MBA who also sucked it up and went home to pay of debt after school, I say congrats on your way to a debt-free life. This doesn't mean collecting ketchup packets at McDonald's to stockup at home, but I guess you could do that too. :)

Quick poll, how many reading this article:
- pay car payments
- have a cell phone
- have a mortgage
- pay cable tv, phone, internet (the "money-saving" bundle)
- buy clothes every month
- buy expensive groceries
- use credit card for everything
- go on lots of trips/vacations
- get $15 martinis every weekend
- (you get the gist)
If you answered yes to everything above, you must be rolling in dough! Unfortunately, many of us do all of this and are living month-to-month, off future paychecks (read: credit card). Try saving - it's hard. Society tells us to spend, spend, spend or you are a loser (great little clip here about living sustainably: http://www.storyofstuff.com). Because of the ability to spend, we become slaves to the spending society - and waste the environment too.

Get debt free, and help the Earth a little too.

a topic that is not taught in the public school system

Why does common sense need to be taught? It is not obvious that spending more than you make is wrong? If people need pictures to go with that simple concept, SNL had a skit where they promoted a book titled Don't Buy Stuff You Can't Afford. It's only one page long.

http://consumerist.com/consumer/clips/snl-skit-dont-buy-stuff-you-cant-afford-252491.php

People, save yourself some money and just check out the video.

- pay car payments -> No. Paid for my car in cash because I don't believe in financing anything that will depreciate in value.

- have a cell phone -> Pay as you go. $10.50/month. And I don't have a landline.

- have a mortgage -> Will be paying it off this year. So, the mortgage will take me four years in total.

- pay cable tv, phone, internet (the "money-saving" bundle) -> No landline, no cable, no satellite. Need the internet...but it's mainly for work, so it can be written off.

- buy clothes every month -> Spent a total of $80 on clothes last year.

- buy expensive groceries -> $150/month.

- use credit card for everything -> Use credit card for everything because I get 1% cash back...and I have automatic payments on it so I don't EVER carry a balance.

- go on lots of trips/vacations -> Last non-work trip was five years ago.

- get $15 martinis every weekend -> Uh, no. I prefer water and juice.

~ Society tells us to spend, spend, spend or you are a loser ~

So, if society told you to jump off a bridge or be called a loser...?

1. Car payment. Me no own the SUV outright, fiancee has another year on her car
2. Blackberry storm. Keeps me connected which is priceless. Ditto the fiancee.
3. 4 mortgages actually. Monthly payments about 4.8K but rental income is 3.7K
4. Satelite TV/radio, highspeed net, home phone/fax.
5. Don't buy a ton of clothes, already own everything I need. Ditto the fiancee. Love the electronics though
6. Buy the best groceries available. Not a bad investment in my books.
7. Use a credit card for everything. 1.5% cash back is great with autopay!
8. 3 Skiing trips this winter and plans for Costa Rica next fall and Peru the spring after (honeymoon).
9. Not really into the booze scene.

It is too simplistic to say debt is bad. Deficits are usually bad (spending more than you earn to live) however debt from investing is usually a good thing. Many people wrongly concentrate on having no debt when a proper debt leveraging can be very profitable. Looking at the above items I seem to be living well (and we do) but we also manage to increase our net worth by about 50K a year (yup the recession hurts). We are both 20 somethings (and will be for a few more years) and neither of us started with anything or had much help from the parents.

Personally I think Adam totally missed the boat as 2004-2008 was probably the best investment period in the last 50 years and he squandered it just getting back to even when he should have gotten ahead at least a hundred thousand with any planning at all. Again I wonder how this financial 0 can hold himself up as a shining example.

I get a laugh at reading these posts. I can actually tell who is a personal friend of Adams and how is giving there honest opinions.

First off, what the heck is wrong with people?! This guy works his butt of to get out of debt, learns some helpful hints along the way of getting his MBA, and decides to write a book about it in an effort to share the knowledge and help others. What's the problem? So what if he lives at home? He's smart and probably better off than some of you on this thread as a result of his planning and actions.

Folks, is there any real need to crucify him? Some of you on this thread need some serious anger therapy to workout your underlying issues. If this was all really that easy then less people would be in debt and more of us would be living within our budget. Adam, I commend your efforts and applaud your successes. Kudos to you and good luck!

Education is a good investment, but I think the youth of today should learn how to spend their money wisely. It is important to pay off your debt first before buying items of not necessity - "discipline" is the key.

It is also important to note that sometimes learning from our parents are not true because they to are "in debt trouble" and unable to manage their own money, that is a BIG ?

deybz
Toronto, ON

~ It is also important to note that sometimes learning from our parents are not true because they to [sic] are "in debt trouble" and unable to manage their own money ~

Uh, then wouldn't someone with common sense do the opposite of what their parents did?

hey, here's an idea: how about... oh, I don't know... actually reading the book before forming opinions about the author's life/choices/etc. Crazy concept, I know.

@ Erin Jackson

From the article: "But that would be considered 'good debt' compared to the amount he racked up thanks to his love of new cars.

"Between the ages of 19 and 24, Goodman bought eight or nine of them.

"Today he leases a no-frills economy car."

What is wrong with everyone???!!! The moral of this story (regardless of who you are and what you do) is learn from your mistakes and manage your finances...because no one else will!!!! In the last year many of us (probably some who have responded to this blog) may have been spent way above our means...We probably have ALL spent on useless crap. A credit card, line of credit, even a mortgage became way too accessible for too many.

I don't see anything wrong with someone sharing his story. ...which I'm sure had the objective of helping people...make people THINK before spending! No matter how OBVIOUS it may be to SOME. It is NOT OBVIOUS for many..and hopefully this book can come in handy to those..

Congrats Adam!

What is wrong with everyone???!!! The moral of this story (regardless of who you are and what you do) is learn from your mistakes and manage your finances...because no one else will!!!! In the last year many of us (probably some who have responded to this blog) may have been spent way above our means...We probably have ALL spent on useless crap. A credit card, line of credit, even a mortgage became way too accessible for too many.

I don't see anything wrong with someone sharing his story. ...which I'm sure had the objective of helping people...make people THINK before spending! No matter how OBVIOUS it may be to SOME. It is NOT OBVIOUS for many..and hopefully this book can come in handy to those..

Congrats Adam!

Nothing is wrong with these comments. People are finally waking up to the picture that they are being scammed out of their money everywhere they turn.

This book is a good example of that. So the author stayed at home, mooched off his parents, got an MBA, and if your read his profile, has a pretty good job, with a good salary from his MBA.

He probably had a privileged life growing up, and I'm pretty sure he parents arent broke either, they are probably highly educated with high salaries themselves. So why does he need to write a book, the answer is easy, to pay off the rest of his debt.

I'm sure if I (or others here) wrote a book and got it published they would be able to pay off their debt as well. To the person who wrote this news article, you want a story people can admire and look up to in these financial times? Find someone who went from homeless on the street with nothing to multimillionaire, now that person's advice and tips would be golden and worth listening to.

Hey, it's great that he got out of debt, don't get me wrong, but it was his own doing that he got himself into debt. He did not fall on hard times, etc. It was out of his own need for material things. Student loans are another thing...most people I know now that are in university have to get student loans because of the cost of an education nowadays. Not everyone though has the luxury of a higher education. Try writing a book for those living on a low income with no way out. A lot of people come to this country with nothing more than clothing and will never be able to get a degree. Those are the ones I feel bad for, not this guy. That being said, it would make a lot of sense to have mandatory financial management classes in high school now. There are a lot of people like Adam out there. I'm not bitter, just realistic. So for those who commented saying we're envious...no, we're just shaking our heads that this is one more story of a person with no self control. My husband and I are not rich. We both worked out way through college/university and rented for many years before saving up enough to buy a home. We have a mortgage now, yes, but we have no other debt whatsoever. We drove cheap cars/took transit to save up for nicer cars. Now we both drive newer vehicles that we bought outright. We have average jobs, bringing in about $50K each, but we excercise self control and work off a budget. By sticking to this, we can afford small luxuries now and again. We can take a trip every year, put money into our investments, etc. We're not special in any way, just smart with our money.