George Jetson, It Was Madness:

This week’s inspirational person wants to stay anonymous due to their work. They don’t want friends and family knowing their personal business. So we will just call this man (George Jetson). And I will tell you he is 44 with one child.

George wrote to me to inform me that he is turning his budget around. He said he is working through the steps in the book to get back on top. Plus he is keeping all his receipts and tracking EVERY DOLLAR.

George, tell me about your budgeting days before you tracked every dollar?
Together with my wife Jane, we lived the first 20 years of our marriage with all sorts of debts.

Give me an example?
Credit cards, car loans, home loans, interest free loans, home equity loans and even personal loans. We thought we were living like all our friends and neighbours.

What loan do you think got you in the most trouble?
For sure the car loan. We would update our car every 4 to 5 years. We would take out a new loan, right after we paid the old one out. Sell the old car for a fraction of what we paid for it. Then start paying for the new one all over again. MADNESS.

You say its madness but why did you do it at the time?
I’m a car person and always have been. In my mind there’s nothing better than having that new car smell. And Jane would look forward to the new models as well. We both convinced ourselves that in fact it was good economic sense. As we believed it would save us money from servicing and breakdowns as new cars need less than second-hand cars.

What about the interest free loans?
Well we treated interest free very much like the car loan. We took out an interest free loan on a TV for example. Once we were close to paying the TV out, we would start looking for something to replace that payment with ... our next item that would soak up that money.  It’s quite easy to find the next item you need, time and time again.

Why did you decide to change your ways?
I had been working at the same job for 17 years. There was another guy who had worked at the same place as me for around the same time. One day without any warning he was let go due to cut backs.

In my opinion he was actually better at his job than I was at mine. So it came as a complete shock. I thought that could easily have been me. Then I got to thinking. Wow if I had gone instead of him how would I have been able to pay the mortgage that week? We just would not have the money to pay it! Not enough to pay a mortgage and all our other weekly costs. This was a big wakeup call for me. I was a fifty-fifty chance of having to go to friends and family for money just to pay basic food costs.

I really didn’t sleep well for about a month. Then I realised I needed to change.

Tell us about the lifestyle now?
I’m happy to say we have over $6000 saved. Plus our debts like interest free, credit card and car loan are gone (or just about gone). We are happier and more secure. At least now if I was to lose my job, we would have time to work things out.

We track all our spending by keeping our receipts. Plus we have made and continue to make cutbacks.

Tell us the “wasteful” things you have spent your money on, that you wish you could go back in time and not do?
That’s an easy one ... overseas vacations. We would take a 2 week overseas vacation every 2 years. Around about 10 in total. Of course they were all on personal loans. And it seemed each vacation had to get a little more glamorous or expensive. One year we even flew first class. What a waste of money. Nothing at all to show for it but some photos.

This year we are off to Melbourne. Nice and cheap. But because the whole family is there, it will still be a great vacation. Plus of course we will pay 100% cash.

And what about your car?
Well the car is still only 3-years-old. However we have paid off the car loan. Are we going to get a new one? No way. There is going to be at least another 7 years in this one. Plus when we do upgrade it will be one that’s already 1 to 2 years old. So we are not paying a premium for the new car smell.

Any final words to people who are in the same boat as you were a few years ago?
I can’t really preach to these people due to me being there before. However what I will ask people to consider is what happens if you lose your job tomorrow. If all your incoming cash stops cold. How long could you keep paying the bills? A week, a month or a year. Do this exercise in your mind. Start now, not tomorrow.

Thanks George Jetson. We do appreciate you doing this interview and understand why you don’t want your real identity revealed.