Darin Wilson is a military veteran from Madeira, California. With four kids and a wife recently retired from the Coast Guard, the family needed help finally taking care of the various debts that had lingered for years.
After hearing about MMI on a message board, Darin and his wife were able to pay off $25,000 in less than four years with a debt management plan.
Tara: Hello, welcome to our podcast. Today I'm talking with Darin Wilson from Madeira, California. Darin is a military veteran and his wife is also retired military, so they're a military family. They heard about MMI through online connections and military message boards and groups, got connected. Darin was able to pay off about $25,000 in debt in less than four years on MMI's debt management plan. So Darin is joining us today to share his debt payoff story. Debt. We've all heard of it. Most of us have it. Debt seems to be an unavoidable reality of life. But what happens when it starts consuming life? Here at Money Management International, we believe that financial challenges aren't meant to be faced alone. On this podcast, we hear stories of people whose lives have been changed by MMI. Their stories are unique, personal, and inspiring. Stay tuned. We're sharing each guest's long story. Short. Erin, first, thank you again for your service, and welcome to the show.
Darin: Thank you, Tara, it's good to be here.
Tara: So why don't you just tell us a little bit about yourself, where you live, what you do?
Darin: I'm girl dad, I've got four girls. I'm going to school currently to be a school counselor and school psychologist. I'm in a master's program. My wife just recently retired, as you said, in July this year from the Coast Guard. So we've had a plan for, oh gosh, maybe 10 years that we kind of get her through retirement. So I've been a stay at home dad working part-time at my girl's elementary school coaching and doing like campus monitor or campus security type stuff for about almost 10 years. It's been a while. But the plan was my wife would retire and I would go back to work. And yeah, that's how it's worked out. So I'm hopefully finish up my master soon. And yeah, that's me in the nutshell.
Tara: Well, that's exciting. I'm sure being a girl dad keeps you busy and on your toes and learning something new every night.
Darin: Yes, yes, very much so.
Tara: So tell us a little bit about what was happening before you found us, sort of how you came to us at MMI and what was going on before you reached out.
Darin: Yeah, that really gets to the heart of it. Well, if I could go back a while, I grew up in a low financial responsibility situation. I love my parents, they're awesome people, but they still kind of struggle a little bit with money to this day. And so I just, I'd never learned financial responsibility and just wasn't able to get myself into that much trouble early on, didn't have good credit score or built any sort of credit history or anything like that. Until my early 30s and met my wife, started a family and started being a little bit more responsible. And she was always, she's always still is really good with money. And she was taking care of everything. And so I didn't really have to think about it that much. But along with that responsibility came access to debt. And with my history of not really knowing what it was off to the races, to get me interested in gadgets and all that stuff and trinkets and all that. And before I knew it, I'd just gotten myself into a hole. And I think one of the things that I'm really beginning to understand is that spending became a security blanket. So even though I would get out of trouble, or oftentimes we would get some sort of financial windfall or something like that and it would come in and sort of get everything back to zero. It was always this yo-yo effect because I would get anxiety and guilt from having to sort of start over from scratch. And the response to that would be to go and buy something or spend money, or even if it was just going out to eat, lived in Brooklyn for six years and everything there is expensive. So we could easily spend $5,000 on credit cards, just going out to eat for a few months. But then we moved out here to Madeira and really tried to take control. We lived in a mobile home for a little while. We bought a mobile home and tried to build some sort of footing, some sort of foundation. And in that process, really the pressure, like the stress kind of just came into focus. And luckily, my wife found MMI, like you said, on a message board. And we were really willing to try anything. We had sort of stayed away from any sort of like debt consolidation or bake ropes, he talked or anything like that. My wife's really strong person. So she was like, I can do this. I can get us out of this. So we kept doing that. But we were at our wit's end and MMI were like, okay, we'll give it a try. We'll call him and Sarah had heard my wife Sarah had heard a lot of good things about it on the message board. And so we called them and it was an eye-opening experience. Really welcoming, wonderful people who could really walk you through the process and explain to you that you can't do it on your own. You need someone in your corner. You need someone who's advocating for you, someone who's working for you.
Tara: I love that you said all that because one of the things that we talk about on this podcast is really this stigma behind debt. You know, the fact that it's something almost all of us have, but none of us talk about. But I think there's another stigma there when we think about financial wellness. And it is this psychology of money. And I'm glad that you talked about it because I feel like it's not discussed enough. We all come from different financial backgrounds and experiences and we sort of carry that baggage with us like we do anything else in life and it affects every decision that we make. As you said, it affects our families and our children. It's another thing we don't talk about. And so I love that you sort of shared that with us because it's something we all experience but we don't quite know how to put our finger on it and say, I don't know why I feel like I have to go spend money or why I have to spend thousands of dollars at a restaurant over the course of five months, but I do. And I love that you said that because I think it goes a long way in helping people achieve those goals, overcome those financial attitudes and struggles. So glad too that you reached out and found us. So tell us a little bit more about how working with us here at MMI, sort of that sense of community helped you and Sarah see a path forward.
Darin: Yeah, definitely. So one of the things that, again, I'm really beginning to wrap my head around now is something that military families experience at a higher rate than most other people is this isolation. You're bouncing around from place to place on average every four years you move. And so you don't really, you make fast friends, but it's not rooted. You're not rooted into any sense of community. There's always this sense of ticking clock on that relationship. And so It's hard to really share with people things that are just in sort of average communities, a taboo, and money is one of those things. Talking about money in general, but especially debt is one of those things that it's just not good on either end to bring it up.
Tara: Right. It's one of those topics that, you know, we hear people, the topic of money comes up and they say, "No, everything's great. Everything's fine." In that vein, understanding the importance of community and being rooted in something sort of bigger than yourself, what would you tell others that were in a similar situation that you found yourselves in?
Darin: Definitely reach out. If you're watching this, don't even think twice. Just call and get a plan going. Taking that first step is the hardest part. Everything else is downhill from there. But having someone who is genuinely excited about getting you started on the right path, there's not many things like it in the world. Having, like I said, someone in your corner who's advocating for you, who's going to reach out to, you know, we haven't really even touched on the debt cycle and interest rates and stuff like that. But it's having someone who understands those things and is going to get in the trenches for you. It's not many things like it.
Tara: Well, I'm glad we could do it together because it is also a learning process. You know, once you do understand the debt cycle and compounding interest, gosh, you just never want to find yourself in that situation again. And so it is important. So it sounds like you had a very positive experience on this journey. What would you say was the most important thing that you learned throughout the process?
Darin: There's so many good things. I would just go back to the most important thing is there's not a lot of things that you can do of this magnitude on your own and a lot of us have this mindset, especially if you're you know, have any sort of go-getter or Self-motivated positive thinking personality type you want to try to conquer that challenge but getting out from under that ball of stress just opens up a whole new world and you're operating in Gosh, it's like a superpower. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know how to break it down into a simple catchphrase but having someone advocating for you and knowing that that's in your back pocket is It just opens you up to other things. So The I think the most important thing I've learned through this process That's really touched on some of the other areas in my life that we I don't know if we have time to get into but yeah, just Having a community, the power of community is irreplaceable. It's just, it's a superpower. Community is a superpower. It takes the village that cliche, right?
Tara: But it's true. And I think once you experience it, what I love so much about this conversation we're having and your story is the excitement that you have about this power of community and this power of working together to overcome a big obstacle. And this idea that you're just simply not alone. And I feel like it's something that we all need a little bit more of in the world today. We talked earlier about this sort of idea of breaking the stigma. You know, debt is so common, you really are not alone. Everybody is managing it, but it's something we just simply do not talk about. So how do you think debt counseling nonprofits like MMI are working to break that stigma? What do you think is happening to break that stigma?
Darin: This is a great step in the right direction. having conversations, I think there's a little bit of a sense of a respect for debt that needs to be there. So it's understandable that it's a difficult subject to broach. But having educated people, having people who are skilled in the area, having conversations about it and spreading the word and building a community, right? The thing I think I was trying to say is like, if you get into a conversation with two people who really don't know what they're getting into, it can go in the wrong direction with debt. There's lots of great advice out there about debt. There's also a lot of sketchy advice out there about how to buy a house with zero down or all that kind of stuff. So you can get yourself into a world of hurt really quickly. So there is a level of respect that comes with it, but having the skilled conversation, having the educated conversation about it is really important. I think that's where MMI is really carving out a niche that is super important. Getting people who are together, who all they're really motivated by is finding strategies to get people in control of their finances and that's really important.
Tara: It is important. So I have one last question for you and I've actually been wanting to ask it to you pretty much throughout our conversation because you keep talking about this idea of community as a superpower. And so this is my favorite question. What I want to ask you is you and Sarah were able to pay off $25,000 in debt, which is incredible. And you did it with the help of a community. What does that mean for you? So now that you are debt free, what does debt free need to you and what comes next?
Darin: Well, it means stability. We bought a house. So because of the knocking down of the interest rates, that's where it all started. MMI was able to negotiate down my interest rates from 20 to 25% on average down to some in some cases for don't quote me on this, but I think one went down to zero. That would be wild. I'm not sure about that. But anyway, it knocked it down enough where it didn't seem like this great monster under the bed. And that just gave us the confidence and the courage to start knocking it down. And you said under four years, the plan originally was five or more because of that confidence. We were able to take on our jobs here and there, work a little bit harder, and we were able to save up some money. And eventually, I think we paid it off a year and a half early, and we were able to do it in a lump sum right there at the end. and I think it was maybe like $5,000, we were able to close the books with one final large payment. And within, I want to say six months, maybe even a shorter period than that, we put down payment on a house, we're well into financial stability. And like you said, that community started it all. Having someone in our corner really opened us up to the idea of reaching out to people near us and we started going to a church in the community and there's a whole nother angle to that. My spiritual journey has been wild as well. But that confidence to be able to step out and not be hiding behind this wall of debt that feels like it's gonna step on your head any second. Just change everything. And my wife is an incredible person, But that common understanding that-- what is it, like 80% of marriages and then divorce now? And the number one cause of divorce is financial insecurity. So we were hit by that bug, that it was taking its toll on us. And she's so strong that she fought through it. But I don't know what would have happened to us without-- hey, what am I, really? The community was there. but also her being able to see me buy into an idea that was really informed by this process that MMI laid out for me. It's like, okay, this is something that I can sink my teeth into and really get excited about and see on the website the number go down. That was exciting. And to see her being able to see my excitement for it really gave her confidence that this wasn't one of those yo-yo things again. And that's been the case. So, yeah, I don't know if that answered your question completely, but...
Tara: It answers my question completely and perfectly. I have loved talking to you today and listening to your story. I feel like I know your wife actually through this conversation. It's been wonderful.
Darin: Yeah, you guys would get along, I think. Yeah.
Tara: What a wonderful family and what a wonderful story. And I'm just so happy that you were able to come on and share it with us. Is there any last thing that you'd like to say or any last things?
Darin: Just thank you. Yeah, this has been a great experience. MMI is an awesome company. I was I don't know if I have another have time for another story, but just yesterday I was getting my haircut and I just told my barber what I was doing and he was instantly intrigued. He was like, oh, I've got friends, you know. So yeah, I'm just I want to get the word out and let people know what MMI is doing and get people signed up. It's a, there's so many people out there that need this. You know, there's a lot of programs out there that are in a similar vein, but there's always this sense of out for something to it. And I don't, there's not a hint of that within my, like it is really a community of people who their primary concern is about helping people understand that and get them under control. And that's not the primary concern. That is a great concern, but the primary concern is getting people out from under it. And that's amazing.
Tara: Well, you are certainly an advocate for this idea of community. You're telling your barber shop, you're telling your neighbors, you're telling your church. I love it. (laughing) Thank you again for being on with us today. And best of luck as you continue on your journey. I hope that maybe we can keep in touch and I look forward to seeing where you guys go next.
Darin: I love that.
Tara: Thanks so much.
This guest is a real MMI client whose success is the result of hard work and dedication. While MMI cannot guarantee results, taking early action can increase available options and improve long-term outcomes. Thanks for listening to this episode of Long Story Short, brought to you by Money Management International. To learn more about our work and how we're helping people in all walks of life repay debt, balance their budget, and find lasting financial peace of mind, visit moneymanagement.org.
If you're struggling through your own debt story, we're here to help. We offer confidential counseling and powerful debt repayment tools to help take control of your finances. Learn more to see if our services are right for you.
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