The purpose of this post is mostly to introduce myself–or reintroduce myself, as the case may be.  My name is Chris Thomas, and to many of you, my story may be completely new.  Other readers may know me from my past projects, such as BrokeProfessionals.com, Debtpayer.com, or even from my freelance writing projects with FreelancePF.

My Six Figure Debt

One constant in my blogging has been the open discussion of my six figure student loan debt.  It was this debt that created the impetus for my first blog: brokeprofessionals.com.

My wife and I are both in our late twenties, both have graduate degrees, and both have a lot of student loan debt.  In fact, combined we owe $160,000+ in student loan debt.  We have already paid back close to $40,000, so we are working towards paying the debt down as fast as possible.

I grew up in a blue collar type family, where finance or money was never discussed.  I was told that education was the key to success.  Of course, now I know that not all education is created equal.  Luckily, however, both my wife and I did get good jobs out of grad school–but I must admit that the six figure student loan debt is a proverbial noose around our necks.

The Freelance Business

After making perhaps another poor personal finance decision–the recent and likely ill-timed purchase of our first house–I realized that the only way to stop living paycheck to paycheck was to start a side hustle.  Broke Professionals was actually pretty successful at that time–generating a few hundred unique visitors per day despite being less than six months old.  I hadn’t discovered a way to monetize a blog at that time.  Accordingly, I sold Broke Professionals and began focusing on FreelancePF, my freelance writing and web copy business.

A side hustle is highly recommended in moving beyond a paycheck-to-paycheck existence.  I find that too many sites focus on ways to save money at the expense of ways to increase your income. You will notice in many future posts that methods for increasing your income–and entrepreneurship in general–will be a common theme in my writing.

After a while, however, I began to miss having my own blog.  That’s when I started Debt Payer.

When life got too hectic again, I began to look for someone who could take Debt Payer to the next level.  When I was offered a chance to stay on as a guest writer at Financial Highway, and for DebtPayer’s previous posts to be merged into Financial Highway, I knew right away that it was the right decision–both for me and the Debt Payer audience, limited though it may have been.

Financial Highway

I have long been a fan of Financial Highway, and I look forward to now being a contributing member to the community.  I have a lot of things going on in my financial life right now,  so I’m sure I will have a lot of interesting posts for you in the future here at Financial Highway.  In fact, the next six months of my life will likely play a greater part in my ultimate career and financial success than any other six month period for the rest of my life.  Get ready to follow me on a bumpy ride, friends.

In the meantime, please leave comments as to any topics you are particularly interested in learning more about or that you would like to read about here at Financial Highway.

Conclusion

Just because we find ourselves in difficult financial situations, doesn’t mean we can’t get out of them.  The more knowledge we have about personal finance, the more power and control we will have over our finances.

I’m looking forward to writing for Financial Highway, and reading and responding to your comments.

Cheers!

Chris

Chris

Chris Thomas, owner of the online freelance writing and web-copy company, FreelancePF. Chris’s interest in personal finance stems from leaving grad school with six figures in student loan debt.