{"id":50881,"date":"2026-05-21T09:11:41","date_gmt":"2026-05-21T09:11:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/agooka.com\/news\/usa\/i-moved-back-into-my-parents-basement-at-26-to-pay-off-my-10000-credit-card-debt-it-was-embarrassing-but-im-now-almost-debt-free\/"},"modified":"2026-05-21T09:11:41","modified_gmt":"2026-05-21T09:11:41","slug":"i-moved-back-into-my-parents-basement-at-26-to-pay-off-my-10000-credit-card-debt-it-was-embarrassing-but-im-now-almost-debt-free","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/agooka.com\/news\/usa\/i-moved-back-into-my-parents-basement-at-26-to-pay-off-my-10000-credit-card-debt-it-was-embarrassing-but-im-now-almost-debt-free\/","title":{"rendered":"I moved back into my parents&#8217; basement at 26 to pay off my $10,000 credit card debt. It was embarrassing, but I&#8217;m now almost debt-free."},"content":{"rendered":"<figure><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i.insider.com\/6a0df46dbe2e5e1daf8910c6?format=jpeg\" alt=\"a man poses at a baseball game\"\/><figcaption>Danny Stewart.<\/p>\n<p>Courtesy of Danny Stewart<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<ul>\n<li>Danny Stewart paid off $10,000 in credit card debt by moving back in with his parents.<\/li>\n<li>With strategic budgeting and help from a friend, he regained control of his finances and moved out.<\/li>\n<li>His financial goals now include buying a house and repaying his student loans within seven years.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><em>This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with <\/em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/danny-stewart-abb233181\/\" rel=\"noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\"><em>Danny Stewart<\/em><\/a><em>, a 28-year-old public relations professional who paid down $10,000 in credit card debt. The following has been edited for length and clarity.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>After graduating in 2019, I moved into my parents&#039; basement while working different jobs in the communications industry to save money.<\/p>\n<p>When I was 25, I got my first apartment in Chicago. I was working full-time as a PR associate, trying to manage all my expenses while also paying $1,500 in rent.<\/p>\n<p>I had never had a credit card before. With rent being such a large expense, I decided to get a credit card so I could defer some costs and avoid draining the little savings I had.<\/p>\n<p>It didn&#039;t take long after opening that first card to open a second, and within a few months, I started racking up debt. I spiraled, and by 26, I had close to $10,000 in credit card debt.<\/p>\n<p>Here are the lifestyle changes I made to pay it off.<\/p>\n<h2><strong>I had control over my money before I got a credit card<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>I took out student loans for college, but I had two jobs, so I had enough cash to pay the rest of my expenses. I didn&#039;t save very much money, but without a credit card, I had no choice but to live within my means, and I did.<\/p>\n<p>I had my mom&#039;s credit card for emergencies, but I never used it and returned it to her when I graduated. I still felt like a college kid playing an adult and waited to take the steps toward bigger purchases and greater responsibilities.<\/p>\n<p>Graduating a little less than a year before the COVID-19 shutdowns made it easier to crash at my parents&#039; house and not take those steps. I got my first credit card and bought my first car in 2021.<\/p>\n<h2><strong>I didn&#039;t do a lot of research<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>I picked a credit card recommended by a credit score website based on my credit score. I decided to use it only for emergencies.<\/p>\n<p>When I opened my second credit card in 2023, it wasn&#039;t because I wanted to buy anything extreme. I wanted to pay my rent, split some of my expenses, and have a decent social life.<\/p>\n<p>My salary was stretched thin, and after paying rent with my usual expenses, I didn&#039;t have a lot of extra cash left for fun. After opening that second credit card, I was incentivized to spend $1,000 in the first three months to get bonus miles. I started using it for more than gas and a few takeout dinners.<\/p>\n<p>That same year, I had to attend six weddings that required travel, accommodation, and gifts. After spending to hit that bonus promotion on the card, it made it easier to keep spending.<\/p>\n<p>I started putting everything on my credit card, from groceries and Uber rides to baseball games, music festivals, and theme parks. I stopped carefully checking my checking account balance and started spending more recklessly. My debt started to climb into the thousands.<\/p>\n<h2><strong>It got even harder to keep up with my monthly payments<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>Once the balance on my cards started to increase, the minimum payments grew, too. I was only able to make the minimum payments each month, and interest was compounding at such a rapid rate. Everything got out of control.<\/p>\n<p>All of a sudden, I was almost $10,000 in credit card debt, most of it due to interest. I just kept knocking off the minimum each month while the interest climbed.<\/p>\n<p>My heart would drop every time I got a credit card statement in the mail. I kept telling myself that eventually I&#039;d get a big promotion or find a second job and be able to pay off the debt fast, but months would pass, and that wasn&#039;t happening.<\/p>\n<p>In January 2024, I realized that if I didn&#039;t do something about my debt, it would only get worse. Even though I loved living in the city and having my own apartment, I knew that I had to give it up if I wanted to fix my situation.<\/p>\n<h2><strong>I moved back to my parents&#039; basement when my lease ended<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>It was humbling to move back to my parents&#039; basement. I was angry and embarrassed, but grateful that my parents let me move home so I could figure things out.<\/p>\n<p>Without paying $1,500 in rent every month, I was able to put most of that money toward whatever payments I could afford. Once I started paying off those huge chunks of debt, the interest began to decline. <\/p>\n<p>I moved back home in June 2024. Right around Christmas that year, I got that debt down to under $1,000.<\/p>\n<h2><strong>I also reached out to my best friend, who is a financial advisor<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>It was hard for me to push aside the embarrassment of being in debt, but it helped make the situation feel real. One of my best friends is a financial advisor. I confessed my situation to him, and he helped me see a clear path toward getting out of this debt.<\/p>\n<p>He suggested I open a second checking account. I allotted $750 to the second checking account and put the rest of my paycheck in my original checking account, which was only for bills. The $750 was considered my fun money.<\/p>\n<h2><strong>I&#039;m willing to cut back so I can stay out of debt and be strategic with my money<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>I cut back on going out to bars and dinners because those things really add up. In one weekend, I was spending over $200 on average. I also stopped reaching for my credit card if my checking account wasn&#039;t in a place I was happy with.<\/p>\n<p>I didn&#039;t want my social life to go on hold because I was trying to be careful with money, so I started suggesting cheaper alternatives to my friends. Instead of a ballgame, it was a movie. Instead of a night out at the bars, it was a dinner and an earlier night.<\/p>\n<h2><strong>Doing all of this helped me pay off my credit card debt by my 28th birthday<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>Now that my credit card debt is paid off and I&#039;m back in my own apartment after almost a year of living with my parents, I&#039;m still carrying over a lot of those lifestyle changes.<\/p>\n<p>I only go out to bars if a large group is going, and I&#039;ll get dinner once or twice a month. I say no to a lot more things now, like weekend trips and happy hours after work, because it&#039;s more important to take care of my finances.<\/p>\n<h2><strong>I want to buy a house and pay off my student loan debt next<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>My two big financial goals in the next seven years are to buy a house and pay off most, if not all, of my student loans. My financial advisor friend helped me put together a plan to make all of this happen.<\/p>\n<p>If I have to stay home and watch a basketball game rather than spend money at a bar, or say no to taking a vacation with friends, it&#039;s worth it to me now that I have concrete money goals I&#039;m working toward.<\/p>\n<h2><strong>I&#039;m not anti-credit cards. I just changed the way I use mine.<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>I don&#039;t have the same type of anxiety using my credit card that I did in the past. I used to panic when I&#039;d check my statement once a month and kept digging myself into that hole.<\/p>\n<p>Right now, I have about $700 in credit card debt, but I plan to pay it off with my next paycheck. Things come up, from emergencies to friends getting married, and I don&#039;t want to live life afraid to use my credit card. I know how to get out of debt and stay out of it. I&#039;m more strategic.<\/p>\n<h2><strong>Getting into credit card debt at 25 was a blessing in disguise<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>Getting into debt was the first time I felt like my life was off track. I didn&#039;t learn how to handle my money in college, so it was a rude awakening when I was a few years postgrad. I view this as a blessing because if I didn&#039;t learn this lesson now, I don&#039;t know if I ever would have.<\/p>\n<p>I wish other people struggling with debt would realize that it&#039;s not the end of the world, and it&#039;s not going to affect your life forever. Even if it feels hard to do, reach out for help because you don&#039;t have to handle this alone.<\/p>\n<p>Read the original article on Business Insider<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Danny Stewart. Courtesy of Danny Stewart Danny Stewart paid off $10,000 in credit card debt by moving back in with his parents. With strategic budgeting and help from a friend, he regained control of his finances and moved out. His financial goals now include buying a house and repaying his student loans within seven years. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":50882,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-50881","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-usa"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/agooka.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50881","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/agooka.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/agooka.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/agooka.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/agooka.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=50881"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/agooka.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50881\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/agooka.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/50882"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/agooka.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=50881"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/agooka.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=50881"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/agooka.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=50881"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}