Sean Pyles

And we hear from so many of our listeners about how they get into debt in their early 20s because they're given access to a credit card at college or they just quote unquote need one to go on a trip and then they spend years and years paying it off.

So I am grateful for my job.

Thank you, NerdWallet, and the education it gave me.

But I wonder really what it would have taken otherwise if I hadn't gotten this job to get me on the right track or if I would be in some deep debt hole.

Sometimes when I'm like having trouble sleeping at night, I just think about that alternative universe version of me that like...

didn't get this job or like just kept going down this avoidant rabbit hole because now I think I have this almost hypervigilant other side where I check my accounts like at least weekly to make sure I'm paying off my credit card balances my spending is in check because of how wild I was a decade plus ago I have so many follow-up questions and I have these follow-up questions because I think your story is so relatable I think there are so many people out there

Anecdotally.

Yeah, and people like our friends that we talk to.

Yeah.

I would say there was a lot of anxiety, tightness in my chest and my shoulders when I was logging in because, of course, I couldn't remember my password.

Which is really bad.

And then...

There was an immediate moment of relief when I saw my balance.

It wasn't as bad as I had expected, but I knew I didn't have enough to cover my bill.

So I have a friend who's a CPA and she was able to get me on this payment plan.

Thank God for her help.

It didn't stop at that point either.

You know, like I had that log in to break the habit.

Yeah, but I would still after I got my payment plan, I would still avoid checking my account every so often because I knew I wasn't going to like what I saw.

And I know that I still have problems.