ERS Walk & Talk Podcast
ERS Walk & Talk Podcast
From $40K Debt to Financial Freedom: Kari Karber's Journey
Ever wondered how a single mom can pay off over $40,000 in credit card debt? Join us as we bring you the remarkable story of Kari Karber, Assistant Director of Customer Benefits at the Employees' Retirement System of Texas (ERS). Kari opens up about her inspiring journey from financial struggle to stability, sharing the practical strategies and mindset shifts that helped her achieve this incredible feat. As a single mother of two daughters, Kari's story is not just about numbers: it's a testament to resilience, determination, and the power of small, consistent steps in transforming one's financial future. Discover how she balanced her role at ERS, helping state employees navigate their retirement and insurance benefits, while also benefiting from those very services herself.
In this episode, we dive into the nitty-gritty of managing finances during tough times, especially when it comes to supporting children's needs without breaking the bank. Keri reveals how leveraging community resources and being transparent about financial constraints can lead to creative, budget-friendly solutions. Learn about the practical tools she used for debt management, from setting percentage-based goals to visual progress trackers. We also explore the emotional highs and lows, including the joy of buying a wedding dress and preparing for future expenses like college and weddings. Tune in for a treasure trove of insights and actionable tips that can help you achieve financial stability and success.
Resources to Support Financial Well-being:
Baby-Steps to Financial Freedom Webinar
Budgeting & Debt Reduction Webinar
Retirement Planning from New Hire to Retiree Webinar
Texa$aver by Empower Website
OCCC's Budget Worksheet
I was looking at just over $40,000 in credit card debt, with minimum payments totaling just minimum payments totaling $700 a month. I didn't know if I was going to have enough money to cover all of my bills and all of those minimum payments from that debt and to cover my mortgage and school supplies, and basketball shoes and gas and all of the things. So now having the money in my budget to not only pay that debt but then to contribute to my savings and to helping others, I think you know it's completely changed my mindset.
Speaker 2:Hi and welcome to the ERS Walk Talk podcast, where we explore stories that inspire, motivate and connect. Today, we are going behind the scenes at Employees Retirement System of Texas and you're going to hear from one of the amazing people that I get to work with on a regular basis. I'm thrilled to introduce you to Keri Carver, who is our Assistant Director of Customer Benefits at ERS. Keri has over 16 years of experience with the agency. She started out as a benefits counselor and her dedication to our members is unmatched. I can tell you that no one cares more about our ERS plan participants and members than Keri.
Speaker 2:In this episode, keri will open up about her personal journey with paying off over $40,000 in credit card debt as a single mom with two daughters. We're going to dive into the strategies she used to overcome her own financial challenges and how she used that experience and how it transformed her mindset around money and especially in today's world, where it often feels like we constantly need more. I think Carrie's is one of resilience and empowerment. She talks about how she was able to develop a lot of discipline through her experience, and I think she offers some really valuable insights for anyone looking to take control over their financial future. So, without further ado, here's my conversation with my friend and colleague, ms Carrie Carver.
Speaker 2:Carrie, welcome to the ERS Walk Talk podcast and thank you for being willing to be a guest on the show. Absolutely Happy to be here. Yeah, I've already introduced you to our listeners, talked a little bit about your bio, but I was hoping you could just share with folks a little bit about what you do here at ERS. What does your day look like normally and how long have you worked here?
Speaker 1:Well, I am the assistant director of benefits counseling within our customer benefits division and typically when someone asks me what I do for a living, I say I change lives. So within customer benefits, you know getting to assist folks every day with their retirement and insurance benefits, it's life-changing stuff and I'm super proud to be a part of that.
Speaker 2:That's great, and you have really worked your way up through the ranks at ERS. How long have you been here?
Speaker 1:A little over 16 years now. I started out as a benefits counselor myself.
Speaker 2:You can't see her, but she looks very young, so she started very young. I started out as a benefits counselor myself. You can't see her, but she looks very young, so she started very young I did.
Speaker 1:I started pretty young, Actually. I remember starting in benefits counseling and the maximum age that you could cover a child at that time was age 25. At that time was age 25. And I started with ERS at 24. Wow, and thought man must be nice if your mom or your dad are still carrying you on your insurance, because I'm definitely covering myself.
Speaker 2:Yeah, just jumped out there and started in the real world. I've been able to work with you in some projects and I've been in several meetings with you over the years and you're super passionate about what you do. Can you just share with people what you love about your job and kind of what keeps you here at ERS?
Speaker 1:Yeah, absolutely. I love helping people. I love talking about our retirement. My very favorite thing is educating on our retirement benefits and I think the thing that keeps me here is, as a state employee, we're really part of a big family and I love that. I love that I am part of this family with state employees. I love the ERS family as an agency and I love the family that I have even within my division of customer benefits, and I think one of the most special things about ERS as a state agency that's really different is that we are our members. So I'm a state employee, I'm enrolled in the exact same benefits that I get to administer and there is so much passion behind that. I think whenever you are looking at benefits and educating on benefits that you know impact you as well directly Like.
Speaker 1:the eligibility I'm discussing with you is the exact same eligibility that applies to me.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's great and I know that passion comes through. It trickles down to your staff. Everyone seems to be just so kind and patient through that customer service aspect of the agency. So I know you have done a lot of things at ERS, but you also have another life outside that. You have family, and that's really. What we're here to talk about. Today is a little bit about your personal experience with debt reduction, because last month, as we were chatting, you were talking about financial wellness and I know this is a topic that's really near and dear to your heart and I was hoping that you could share that story. Just talk to our listeners, because I think so many people do have a lot of financial struggles and sometimes it seems overwhelming. And your story when you were telling me about it, I was thinking man, this would be a really great thing to share, just to inspire people that might be feeling that overwhelmed. So do you mind sharing with folks the moment where you decided you needed to do something to change your financial habits?
Speaker 1:Yeah, absolutely. So I would say that it started really while I was married. So I was divorced in March of 2018. And prior to my divorce, I knew that our financial journey was not a healthy one. My then husband was having difficulty with work and had a period of time where he didn't have a job, and as a result of that, you know you, when you're living an entire family on one income, finances were were tough. So we used credit cards and things like that. Well then, whenever I was getting divorced, prior to my divorce, I didn't realize that all of those credit cards were in my name, with my then husband as an authorized user. Wow.
Speaker 1:So whenever I was getting divorced, my attorney notified me that, really, all of this credit card debt would be transferred to me during the divorce, transferred to me during the during the divorce. So I very quickly realized that I needed to do something to be able to just live after my divorce. You know, a single mom, um, with a mortgage and all of all of these debt payments. So I, uh, I started a plan. We had previously taken Financial Peace University, and one of the things that Dave Ramsey says in Financial Peace University is you know, when the creditors start calling you.
Speaker 1:You say you know you're not above the line, right? Everything above the line is everything you have to pay to keep a roof over your head, to keep your car running, to keep clothes on your back, and anything that falls below the line just doesn't get paid. So with that kind of mindset, even before I was divorced, I contacted every single credit card company and said I don't know what you can do for me. I don't know if there's anything that you can do for me, but if there is anything that can be done, I would appreciate it. And there was actually a couple of the credit cards that I had. I had a total of, I believe, of seven credit cards at that time even like small.
Speaker 1:You know retailer credit cards up to big like visas, and a couple of those cards were actually able to do something for me. You never know until you ask. I think that's a really key point, especially when I'm speaking to friends or family just ask, you never know until you ask. So once I had spoken to every single one of them and kind of laid out a plan, I was looking at just over $40,000 in credit card debt, with minimum payments totaling just minimum payments totaling $700 a month, and you'll never get it paid off at that minimum payment right.
Speaker 1:Definitely did not feel like I would, that is for sure. Whenever you added my mortgage and these minimum payments, my regular bills, I had very, very little money left within the month and you have two kids.
Speaker 1:I have two daughters, yes, which I think daughters are definitely more expensive. So I had two daughters and lots of expenses for sure, right, so I think starting out that plan of you know paying everything that absolutely had to be paid first, as state employees, you know we only get paid once a month typically, and that actually helped me quite a bit with my budgeting.
Speaker 2:That's great. So you or going through the divorce and you find out all of this debt is going to be transferred to you, or you're going to end up with all of the debt from the marriage. And at that point you decided I'm doing this, I'm coming up with this plan At some point. I'm going to guess you probably had some challenges in there, right? Yeah, definitely. Along the way can you share what kind of challenges you might have faced as you were going through?
Speaker 1:that For sure, yeah, can you share what kind of challenges you might have faced as you were going through that? For sure, yeah, one of my biggest challenges, I think, was determining what's truly a want and what's truly a need. Right, and really getting down to the root of necessity, because whenever you have no extra, there is no room for wants, and one of the things that I did as a result of that was I started a list of wants, oh, yes, so that whenever there came a time where I could build in some of those wants into the budget, I knew for sure which ones really meant the most to me, and making that list made a huge difference, because several things that I wanted in the moment a month later, two months later fell off of the list.
Speaker 2:And.
Speaker 1:I no longer even wanted those things.
Speaker 2:Well, I don't want to skip too far ahead in this story, but it's a happy ending. It's a very happy ending yes, you end up paying off all your debt. How long did it take you to get there? Two years, wow. So you paid off $40,000 of credit card debt in two years on a single income. Yes, with two kids. Yes, on a state salary.
Speaker 1:Correct yeah, february of 2020 is when I paid it off. That's incredible.
Speaker 2:You should celebrate that Every year Absolutely Debt-free celebration. So let's talk about, if you don't mind, kind of sharing. I know that you're an Excel guru. You love spreadsheets Not everybody loves spreadsheets but is that how you track? Like? What did you do? How did you keep track?
Speaker 1:You know, I wish I could say that it was cooler than that, honestly. But yeah, I really actually used Excel to track it. I tracked it on my budget. You know, I was raised where we still had the classes when we were in high school on how to do a check register and I essentially did a check register in Excel. So every single transaction that I had I would track it and deduct it from my total amount of money. You know, one of the things that Dave Ramsey says is give every dollar a name. Every dollar has a name. I had names that I wanted to give to dollars and I did not have the dollars to give them the names at times. But tracking that in Excel helped a lot, and there's an app actually on an Apple device that is numbers, which is essentially Excel on your phone. So I had it on there as well and on my computer and on my phone, and I would just track it across both.
Speaker 2:Yes, Wow, that's great. That is fantastic and as you were going through and you talk about, you know giving every dollar a name. You know two years is a long time to go. Go without. What are things that you feel like you sacrificed during that time, man?
Speaker 1:for for me and for my kids new, anything new, anything new, really. Yep, whenever my oldest daughter started her basketball season, she needed a new pair of basketball shoes, a pair of basketball shoes that would fit. And so I have a sister that lives in the area that has older daughters, and so I reached out to my sister and said hey, do you have any basketball shoes that are in this size that you're wanting to get rid of or that I could buy from? You Reached out to friends with the same question, and Goodwill, thrift stores, all kinds of things like that, just to see, there's also Facebook groups called Buy Nothing, and it's based upon the area that you lived in, and you can actually request things on those buy nothing groups. They call them wishes, and then, whenever you give something away, they call them gifts. So really that that made all of the difference in in several ways. Um, and basketball shoes. You know, I told my sister and she's like I'm sure we can find something and had them for my daughter the next day. Wow.
Speaker 2:That's amazing. Well, that's a good segue into my next question. What kind of support did you receive from family friends? Did you ever feel pressured by people to spend money to go out to dinner or things like that, or did you feel like everyone was pretty much supported? Did you tell people like this is what I'm doing?
Speaker 1:Yeah, I'm obviously a pretty open book and I think that that's really important, especially when you're on a journey that you're passionate about, no matter what that journey is right Financial, mental health, physical health, any of those things I think it's really important to be open with your network of support. So for me, I told family and friends listen, y'all, this budget is tight, so unless it's an absolute must, I'm not participating. And my friends made adjustments to have a movie night at someone's house and my sister and I we did lots of hiking, actually, and would do lots of trips to the thrift store and that was our you know, fun splurge and I would budget a certain amount that I would potentially be able to spend and, honestly, it became a really fun challenge of finding things that I could purchase for my girls and for myself within that budget.
Speaker 2:That's great and our listeners can't see us right now, but Carrie's very stylish and she's always wearing the cutest clothes. She'll be like I got this at the thrift store and I'm a thrift store shopper as well, so that's super fun. So you talked about the Excel being your kind of primary tool. Are there any other tools or things that you would recommend for somebody that maybe wants to work on debt management? That worked? That helped you.
Speaker 1:I mean honestly it's not. It's not necessarily a tool in terms of like an app, but goals, yeah, a hundred percent. Yeah. So what I did for myself that really really, really really helped me was I set percentage goals. So once I've paid off 5%, I had just a box that I would check. Literally just check the box and you have no idea how good it feels to check that 5%, and then you check that 10%.
Speaker 1:I paid off 10% of my debt, wow. And then you know moving along whenever it got up to 75%. Man, that's a really good day, did you?
Speaker 2:have that posted somewhere, like where you could see it, or Well, lacey, I had an Excel spreadsheet for it, actually.
Speaker 1:Actually, actually, let me just show you on my phone, I literally have an Excel spreadsheet for those goals as well.
Speaker 2:That's fantastic.
Speaker 1:Just a little box. I would check it and have oh yes, yeah, that's amazing.
Speaker 2:And for our listeners out there, I will put a link. There's a really good Excel spreadsheet that is available. And for our listeners out there, I will put a link. There's a really good Excel spreadsheet that is available. I think it's an Excel. It might be in PDF, but the Office of Consumer Credit Commissioner put together a fantastic budgeting worksheet that I think can help to set goals, because so often we don't even know where our money's going, and I know that's helped my husband and I to really sit down, and we have a budget meeting once a month where we sit down and go through our finances and make sure we're on track for those goals.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I have a friend actually that came to me and said hey, I'm a newly single mom, I could really use your help. And Excel is not her favorite thing In fact I would say probably her least favorite thing and she's very big on planners and she has a planner that she uses daily, she carries with her, she calls it her brain, and so we built out a budget for her in her planner. So I think it's not necessarily as much about the platform that you want to use, but using what you love already.
Speaker 2:Right.
Speaker 1:I love working in Excel, so it makes sense for me to use that. If you're someone that likes to have things written down, then do that. I actually helped another friend with their budget and their debt was not nearly as sizable as mine, and we actually used Legos.
Speaker 1:Oh, and we had a stack of Legos where we built a pyramid out of the Legos of all of the debt that she was hoping to pay off. Wow, and each time she paid off $100 of that debt, she would take a Lego and move it to the paid off pyramid.
Speaker 2:That's great. Yeah, I think it's. It's about it's a visual. It works for you. Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 1:And that's the visual of setting the goals is what really worked well for me versus Legos worked great for her.
Speaker 2:Yeah, Because it's when you stop seeing that, that forward momentum or that progress, it's easy to go back to our old behaviors which is I think what we see in all health, absolutely.
Speaker 1:Well, and it's tough to see something that is financial because it's located in places that are not tangible, right? So you can't see it all day, every day, which I think is part of the reason why, for me, I got into debt to begin with, right, because, out of sight, out of mind, I just swipe your card and you don't see how much that's impacting you, and how heavy that mountain can become.
Speaker 2:Absolutely. How has your mindset toward money changed over the course of this journey and becoming debt-free?
Speaker 1:money changed over this, the course of this journey and becoming debt-free. Well, I, as you asked me that my first thought is, I actually ran into a friend and coworker literally just last week in the break room and I said what are you up to? And they said paying bills. And this friend is also a single mom and I said don't you love paying bills? She's like man, I love paying bills Because there was a time in my life where I didn't know if I was going to be able to.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I didn't know if I was going to have enough money to cover all of my bills and all of those minimum payments from that debt and to cover my mortgage and school supplies and basketball shoes and gas and all of the things. So now, having the money in my budget to not only pay that debt but then to contribute to my savings and to helping others, I think you know it's completely changed my mindset because it's not a I have to pay my bills, it's a I get to pay my bills and I can Wow, and when you know, you know it's definitely a freeing feeling, truly. I I've said many times that I had a mountain of debt and.
Speaker 1:I genuinely initially thought that it would crush me, but you know, faith, as small as a mustard seed can move mountains.
Speaker 2:That is amazing, and it is an interesting mind shift to say I'm so grateful I can pay bills. You don't hear people say that very often, so I love that. What did you learn about yourself through this process and how has that affected your habits? Just in general?
Speaker 1:Well, one of the biggest things that I learned was discipline, and that I am and can be and am a very disciplined person. Um, and that there's. If you put a pen to paper, it doesn't make sense that I was able to pay my debt off when I was able to pay it off. It doesn't, um, and that comes from situations where I would sell something that I wasn't anticipating selling and have a little bit of extra money that I was able to put toward the debt. Or I would be given a gift of some money, like at Christmas or my birthday, and I would just immediately put that toward my debt because I was excited and passionate about paying it off. And I think you know through that that just it really helped me to exercise that discipline muscle, which helps you to then realize, if I can do this, this task that truly seems impossible, then there's so many other things that I can do as well. That's amazing.
Speaker 2:What advice would you give to someone who maybe just starting their journey or feels like they're under a mountain of debt right now?
Speaker 1:Yeah, stick with it. Yeah, yeah, you know it does seem impossible, it does feel impossible. Setting those little goals makes all of the difference, in my opinion, to accomplish each little thing. You know, if you look at the mountain, you can't move it Right. But if you look at the rock at the bottom of the mountain and you move one rock at the mountain, you can't move it Right. But if you look at the rock at the bottom of the mountain and you move one rock at a time, eventually you're going to take away a chunk of that mountain and eventually move it. So I think it's really important to be kind to yourself as you go through that process of moving things and remind yourself that the little goals are just as big of accomplishments as as the bigger ones.
Speaker 2:I love that. Yeah, one rock at a time. Now that you are debt free, I know you've got some big things kind of coming up in your life and you know, just have been promoted into this position, director Assistant director. You just have been promoted into this position, director Assistant director. What are you planning to do, kind of moving forward as far as, like, what are you? Do you have more financial goals or do you have goals around retirement? What's next for you in this realm?
Speaker 1:I think, whenever you approach your debt, as I did, your mindset changes also for your savings, because paying that debt first was really really important to me and became exciting for me Right, and it's the same with my savings. I've set small goals as well for my savings. In Excel, I actually color code them so that each one of my goals is clearly outlined within my spreadsheet. So setting smaller savings goals that I have for you know, whenever I started paying off my debt, my goal was to have $1,000 in savings and it felt impossible. It really it felt impossible.
Speaker 1:It felt impossible to have $1,000 in savings and then moving from $1,000, I believe and I could be quoting this wrong, so I apologize Dave Ramsey, I think, then says to set a goal after you've paid off your debt to save three months worth of income. That seemed very big to me, so I set a smaller goal of $2,000 and just continuing to set those goals for savings. My oldest daughter is now a senior in high school and is planning on going to college next year, so that's one of my goals for her is not just saving for college, but also looking for things whenever I'm at the thrift store that she's going to need, so pots and pans and things like that.
Speaker 1:So those same habits that I had previously I'm carrying on, even in this time of no debt and being able to save and being able to help others, I think that's a lot to do, yeah, and I know you do support a lot of people and you also have a wedding coming up.
Speaker 2:Can we talk about that?
Speaker 1:Absolutely.
Speaker 2:That's my favorite subject right now, and those are not cheap, right?
Speaker 1:No, they're definitely not cheap and you know, I actually had a moment well honestly, that brought me to tears with my mom where I tried really hard to buy a wedding dress that was very affordable. I tried really hard, y'all. I tried really, really hard. I looked on Amazon for a wedding dress. I know all the women that are listening right now are shaking their head you must be crazy, but I tried. I tried looking at several secondhand places for dresses. This when I was married.
Speaker 1:Previously I didn't actually have a wedding, so this will be my first wedding and my first time wearing a dress and being walked down the aisle with my dad and all of that. So it means an incredible amount to me walk down the aisle with my dad and all of that. So it means an incredible amount to me. And also because all of this everything we've talked about previously and even talking about my wedding I'm I have two daughters, I'm an example for them, and so I want them to see all of these good things and my wedding dress being a really important part of that. And after trying really, really hard to find a dress that was very affordable, I had a call with my mom where I said I really think there's this dress that I absolutely love and it's pricey. Uh, it was $1,700 and that's a lot, especially for me. Um, and I had this moment of I can buy this dress.
Speaker 1:I have the money right now in my account that I can buy this dress and having the conversation with my mom of you know, six years ago, yeah, I couldn't afford to buy a secondhand dress at Goodwill. In some cases I would look, take it off of the rack, look at it and say, you know, maybe next time and hang it back up and then, but you, could just pay for that and I could just pay for that dress Amazing, that was honestly one of the biggest accomplishments that I didn't anticipate. That was really really exciting.
Speaker 2:I love that. I love your story and I love that you are helping to support our ERS participants on so many levels, and we're willing to share how you work so hard to become debt-free. I think a lot of times people don't know the people behind this agency, so I'm really, really grateful for the time to sit down and talk to you about this, and I know that your story may inspire some other people out there.
Speaker 1:Yeah, thank you so much for having me. Yeah, thank you.
Speaker 2:Thanks everyone for joining us on today's episode of the ERS Walk Talk podcast. I hope you found this conversation to be insightful and inspiring. Financial wellness is such an important part of our overall well-being and when we are in financial stress it impacts us on many levels. There are lots of resources to help you along the way on your financial journey. Check out our show notes. You can find links to past webinars that we've offered on financial health, with strategies for budgeting, debt consolidation all kinds of great information. Also, you can check out the Texas Saver website. There are some really great calculators. Website has been updated. I found that to be really useful. They also have some pretty cool budgeting tools and things like that through texas saver, and I will also share the link to the office of consumer credit commissioner budgeting resource that I mentioned during a podcast. So please, if you like the episode, share with somebody that you think might benefit from it and subscribe so you'll get future episodes from us. Thanks so much and have a wonderful rest of your day. Take care.