Hi, I'm Nate!
Founder of The Student Debt Destroyer Roadmap. I know what it's like to feel financially burdened and like there isn't enough money to reach your financial goals. And I know all about the disappointment that results when you question whether getting that expensive degree was even worth it in the first place.
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I considered myself an expert in the world of personal finance, and I desperately wanted to reach debt freedom, increase my cash flow, buy a home, make a bigger impact (and income), and prove to myself that I had what it took to boost my finances.
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I had so much holding me back.
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$24,000 in debt at age 23
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no idea what my next course of action should be
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a job I had no passion for
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lofty financial goals and no way to reach them
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Oh, and an internal dialogue that told me that I only had one choice: to accept reality, my dissatisfaction with my finances, and the idea that one day, I'd be financially secure if I just kept taking baby steps.
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Eventually, I hit my breaking point and made myself three big commitments:
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Get real with my current financial picture.
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To find ways to get out of debt quickly and efficiently
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To avoid lifestyle inflation by making my financial goals the top priority.
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As a result, I realized I had developed a financial process that increased my cash flow, eliminated my debt, and helped me save up a down payment on my first home, all while traveling and doing the things that I wanted to do.
I'm going to share my personal story with you. And contrary to popular belief, no journey is full of only success. As you browse through my story, I want you to remember that you're not alone in your debt. You can do this. And I want to help you.
I got my start with personal finance when I was 16.
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As I navigated my first job at McDonalds, I began saving half of what I made. And by the time I was 18, I opened up my first retirement account - a ROTH IRA.
Unsurprisingly, when I went to college, I majored in Finance, but I was completely unsure what I wanted to do with my life. I loved the idea of calling the shots, so naturally, entrepreneurship was appealing to me.
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But I was either too scared (or too risk adverse) to risk it all. So I took a job with one of America's largest financial services companies. I thought that my role would satisfy my interest in personal finance. But I was wrong. My work felt transactional, like I was working to enrich professionals, without doing anything to help those that actually needed help.
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But my desire for entrepreneurship didn't fade, especially as I found myself more and more unfulfilled in Finance.
I was working for one of America's largest financial services companies right out of college, and I was still SO unhappy.
I tried a bunch of things to help me deal with my lack of fulfillment. I went on golf trips with my dad and friends, thought long and hard about what I wanted professionally, and traveled. And all of these things were great!
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They just didn't solve what I was looking for. I was of the mindset that the quality of the work I performed would be the catalyst that determines how much free time I got to enjoy. I thought that the better I did, the more financial success I'd have. And this is largely true.
But even so, my own perfectionism prevented me from fully enjoying my time away from the office in the present. And this was an issue I had to work through.
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But I still craved more from the most time consuming part of my life - the time spent at the office. I was sick of sitting in my cubicle, feeling like I had to do this for at least forty years before I could think about doing more of the things that I wanted to do.
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In my eyes, if I'm going to dedicate my life to something, I want it to be something that I am fully passionate about and invested in.
My hobbies helped for a period of time, but I still sought fulfillment from the thing I spent most of my week doing - working.
What I was really craving was the opportunity to make a difference in the lives of people like me. I was fortunate that I studied and took a liking of personal finance from a young age. But I knew that there were others, just like me, that just weren't as lucky.
Between student loans, a competitive job market, and lack of financial knowledge, I had colleagues, friends, and acquaintances that were drowning in student debt, unknowingly wasting thousands of dollars, and had no idea how to invest for their future.
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I saw this as a chance to do what I wanted to with my life, but I didn't want to put all of my eggs in one basket. While I discovered that entrepreneurship and financially coaching others was the way I wanted to go with my life, I also knew that I needed to learn more about running a business.
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So I took a job in data analysis with a major health insurer. I figured it'd help me learn more of those intangibles, to work with data, and to make data driven decisions. Which it did.
What I still didn't know was what my path into entrepreneurship would be. But I took the plunge. I performed market research, I crafted a coaching offer, built social media profiles, and decided to build my own website. I made every mistake in the book along the way.
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Around this time, I started writing a book about millennial personal finance. It was more of a passion project than anything else, but it validated the fact that I wanted to combine my desire to help others financially with my passion for entrepreneurship.
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Looking back now, I had no idea what I was doing, and that was for the best. I struggled through all aspects of it - the actual writing, the marketing, and of course, the selling.
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But I learned valuable lessons about how to get a business off the ground while sticking true to your core values and mission statement. All of these lessons helped me as I continued to refine my ideas.
Eventually, I realized that I had a personal responsibility to do this, both for myself and for those that I knew I could help.
Eventually, I settled on starting a financial blog because it gave me an opportunity to do what I loved most - working one on one with Americans.
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I performed more market research, I worked with a business coach of my own, and I got to work. I started with friends and family, marketed my services, and started from the ground up.
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The Student Debt Destroyer Roadmap has evolved over time to be a "go-to" resource for student loan help, tips, and hands-on help. Offering 3 month coaching programs, a DIY eCourse, and student loan intensive planning sessions, I hope you can find the service best geared towards helping you say goodbye to your student loans.
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This is how The Student Debt Destroyer Roadmap was born.