Justine Nelson

speaker

315 appearances 1 recordings 1 series first heard Feb 2026 last heard 26 Feb

Justine Nelson’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.

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recordings per month · last 12 months

Recordings per month over the last 12 months — 1 in all, peaking in Feb 2026 with 1.

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Inspired Budget · #249: How Justine Paid Off $35K on a $37K Salary · 26 Feb 2026 podcast

What we're doing right now in paying off the debt and creating the emergency fund savings, this is all temporary.

This is not a land of permanence.

This is something that we are temporarily getting through and we can make this as long or as short of a journey as we want to.

You can make this a marathon or you can make it a sprint and that's your choice.

So my debt journey was not maybe too uncommon than what many of us have dealt with.

So I had graduated with $35,000 in student loan debt and

And that was a compilation of federal loans, private loans, and I actually owed a family member some money as well.

And I remember very clearly starting my very first job, I was making $10 an hour.

And I got the notification from the Department of Education saying that I owed $123 a month, plus this $50, plus this $300.

And I was thinking, oh my gosh, I'm

I can't possibly realize my dreams of living in a high-rise apartment, doing the happy hours, going on the sushi dates, and owing all this money, making $10 an hour.

And so it was hitting that rock bottom of this is not how I wanted finances to operate in my life in order to do something about it.

So I started reading personal finance books.

I started figuring out, okay, what is a budget?

How do I – how much am I making and how much am I spending?

I had no clear idea of how much I was spending.

I remember thinking I drove a 2002 Ford ZX2 Escort.

Basically, it's a go-kart with doors.

Oh, my gosh.

Small little car.

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