I gave up my 20's to pay off $100k debt. Was it worth it?

Added: 2026-05-09

[00:00:00]He's kind of cheap and people think he's a freak. It's the Frugal Freak podcast.

[00:00:05]I'm Bradley and welcome to the Frugal Freak podcast where I'm considered a freak in this stupid society because I would rather save my money than not have money.

[00:00:16]Um, I think overconumption is stupid and I think people just need to save their money and shut up. Hey guys, welcome back to the Frugal Freak podcast. I am Bradley on a budget where I talk about living my frugal lifestyle after I was in over $100,000 of debt before my 21st birthday after graduating from college.

[00:00:38]I thought I ruined my life and my life was completely over. So, I decided to live extremely frugal. I changed my mindset around spending and saving money and I went from six figures of debt to six figures in the bank. And now I like to make these videos to help you improve your finances, accomplish your financial goals, help you change your mindset around money, etc. So, if that sounds good to you, subscribe and join the Budget Batty family. It is free and if it's free, it's good for me. I hope you guys are doing well. I so appreciate your support. I love having you here. I love the podcast. I just feel like it's me talking to a friend for like 20 minutes. I did not buy a house. I assure you this house is well without my budget. I am dogsitting if you just saw Clover in the background. I don't know if you guys heard the bad news about Spirit Airlines that it's like completely gone. It's over. It's done.

[00:01:23]My frugal heart is broken. Like, I have done so many budgeting, traveling on a budget videos using spirit. I don't know if you remember this if you were here for the era, but I went on a 15-hour frugal vacation to Florida. So, it was basically a day trip. I flew down to Florida. I went to the Cheesecake Factory because I had a gift card, then went out to the bars after, went to the airport, stayed awake overnight, and then I flew home the next morning. Um, and I used Spir Airlines to do that. The whole day trip was like $70. It was insane. One of those things where I feel like that the internet is so nasty and negative and just always hating on Spirit. And then it's like once it's gone, everyone is now talking about how amazing it was, how cheap it was. Hey, I was never embarrassed to fly Spirit. I put it in my videos. That would have been the brand deal of a lifetime and now we don't have it. I was just thinking about what I should talk about for today's episode cuz I have a couple ideas going on. And can you see Clover?

[00:02:19]I don't know if you could see her or not. She's so cute. Oh my god. Actually, maybe we'll talk about that just before we get into the topic. I'll tell you a story that's kind of embarrassing. It makes me sound kind of insane, but I think the internet typically thinks I'm insane anyway. So, I have nothing to lose at this point by sharing the story.

[00:02:34]But, I lived in New York City probably like 9 to 10 years ago at this point, which is insane. I was so miserable and I hated my life back then. And I just was desperate for anything to make me like happy or to like feel something. I was this absolute freak of a person who would go to these corgi meetups without I don't have any I didn't have any dog obviously and I would just go to get like the is it serotonin or does that only come from the sun serotonin that's like a good feeling right I don't know to just get the rush and the the love from being around a lot of dogs specifically a lot of corgis I just need to be emotionally ready to know if I own a dog and if they need like a $5,000 surgery or something that I mean I would never withhold the surgery. There's no frugal way to do surgery. That's the stressful thing about pets is like and I've heard stories of like my dog swallowed this and it cost x amount of thousands of dollars to have the surgery and fix it.

[00:03:31]Like oh my god. And I was kind of debating. I was like what should I talk about cuz I always have so many things and topics I want to talk to you guys about. But sometimes it reflects on like my mood in the moment or it reflects on like current events or something going on in my life. I heard this story of this person who bought a car. They don't have a job. They don't have a job. They don't have income coming in. There's no money coming in. They bought a car that is $500 a month for the next 5 years of of their life.

[00:04:01]I'm out.

[00:04:05]I mean, what the what are you kidding me? I can't I can't keep doing this. I can't keep doing this. This is why I will forever be making my content because so many people are stupid. I figured today I was like, what what should we talk about that's going to be helpful and impactful? And I have been wanting to talk about this for a little while. And this is going to blend into like financial advice that I would give my younger self, which I did give my younger self, which led me to where I am today. To talk about this topic, I think is going to require me to share this story. And if you have heard the story, the financial story of what happened to me, of how I ended up in a ton of debt and ruined my life, I know some of you are going to be like, "Oh my god, here we go again." It's the student loan story. But there's always new people joining the Budget Batty family who may not know the lore of what happened to me that started my villain arc. I'm just kidding. Of um just what happened to me, of what completely changed my life to make me start living extremely frugal and taking money seriously. I grew up an average middle class in a good town in Connecticut. The demise to my childhood was that money was a problem. And again, it wasn't that money wasn't coming in, it's that money was essentially abused.

[00:05:21]One of my youngest childhood memories is just witnessing my parents fight about money. Money was always an argument, always causing fights, and I remember as young as like middle school like feeling the stress of my parents stress about money. It's one of my earliest memories in my life is watching money be a problem. I was in high school in the late 2000s when I think it was the peak of like you have to get a college degree. A college degree is going to change your life. Like you'll be nothing without a college degree. Between that narrative and then seeing what I saw growing up, I was like, okay, I need to get the college degree. And if I want to have a better life than what I saw growing up, or if I want a better life than my parents, I need to go to the best school to get the best education to then have the best outcome. Come to find out, that one decision completely changed the trajectory of my life. I think one of the most traumatizing pieces to all of it was that I thought I was doing the right thing. I was doing the thing everyone told me to do. And I was doing the thing that I thought was going to positively impact my life only to then completely ruin my life and destroy my life. And that's a big piece of where the money trauma came in. Went into pastry arts and I went to the best school in America. [ __ ] you. The best scam in America. Allegedly. I have to say allegedly. Allegedly for legal purposes. UM ALLEGEDLY THE BIGGEST SCAM in America.

[00:06:53]Anyways, I'm not the one to mess with. I promise you. Like that school can go to hell.

[00:06:59]So, your total debt is about $134,000 before any government assistant payment plan, programs, whatever, your payment's going to be about like $1,400 a month or $1,500 a month. That was the exact moment my life completely changed and I completely changed as a person. I'm 20 years old, about to graduate college, which most people think they have their whole life about to start. Their whole life is ahead of them. I was sitting there thinking, my life just ended.

[00:07:26]Like, my life's over. Like, I just completely ruined my life. I decided in that moment, I have to take this seriously. And mind you, I'm 20 years old. I mean, there's grown adults who act like children who can't get their finances together and think that spending money is what treating themselves is. you know, the whole story. I I'm always so grateful. I look back on my life and as a 20-year-old, I was so driven to take hold of my life and to take hold of my finances and the situation right from the start. I didn't waste a day. I graduated from college, started working 2 days later, and I started to live extremely frugal. The quote says, "It may not be your fault, but it is your problem." And that was something that I had to work that took a lot of time for me to work through to get to that mindset because I was so mad at so many people for so long. I feel like I could cry in this episode. I don't know. I feel like in a weird emotional place today and my eyes are getting watery. Um, my story is always going to be painful. My story is always going to hurt me. Even though I've completely turned my life around and my life is so much better today, like it's a piece of me that will always hurt. I held so much resentment and anger towards everyone in my life. If my parents knew better, I feel like they wouldn't have let me go down this path or, you know, if any guidance counselor at my high school asked me, "Do you do you understand what it means to be in six figures of debt? Do you understand that this may not be a good idea?" Um, but no one stopped me. Everyone pushed me to do it. Everyone encouraged me to do it. And then no one was around when it came time to pay for it. I was abandoned and I was left to do it all on my own. It was hard for me to digest that at the time. I have no one to lean on. I have no one to help me. No one in my life even cares that I'm in this amount of debt and I'm in this situation. So, I have to be the one if I want to make it out of this. If I want my life to improve, I have to be the one to take hold of this situation and my finances and to do something about it. All of this happened just a few months before turning 21 years old. At the start of my 20s, the start of my adulthood, I just kept living in this mindset like nothing's going to change if I'm not the one who makes any changes. And you know, I feel like social media and society pushes this narrative that your 20s are the only time of your life worth living. And if you're not buying the car that you want in your 20s, if you're not going on all the trips in your 20s, like then what's the point? It's not worth it. Have you guys seen those like narratives of people being like the money will come back but you're only 20some traveling to Greece? Like I just didn't live in that mindset. I just the biggest thing this is like one of the biggest pieces of advice that I have is like I always kept telling myself if I'm not happy to be in my financial situation to be in this much debt making $25,000 a year with my useless degree I am not going to be any happier later on in life to be in the same situation like no no no car no trips no clothes no going out to None of that is going to make me happy if I'm not happy with my finances.

[00:11:01]Because from what I saw in my childhood and then ending up in that much student loan debt, I wouldn't say my hap I mean I I guess maybe people would say it's shallow. Like my happiness relied on finances.

[00:11:14]And that's just what I think. Like I I didn't enjoy my life. I'm sorry. I don't know who could enjoy their life while drowning in debt and not making a lot of money and suffocating essentially.

[00:11:26]That's what that's what every day of my life for years was. I was suffocating. I was trying to come up to the surface for air, but I was drowning. And I just knew at such a young age in my 20s, I was like, "No spending money to buy stuff or fill a void in my life or to be like people I see online is going to make this bad situation any better. If anything, I kept telling myself, "These bad choices are only going to make a bad situation worse. And if I already am not happy now, these things are not going to make me any happier." Do you have anything to say?

[00:12:01]No. Not a thought in the world. She's so cute. I do just want to say like I am a big advocate for you can have fun on a budget. I feel like that's what so many people miss about my content is that I didn't just stare at the corner of a wall until I turned 30 and magically I was financially stable.

[00:12:19]I was in New York I was a gay man in New York City from the ages of like 22 to 25. Of course I had fun but I had fun in moderation and I had to live with the word no which so many people refuse to do. People hate the word no. We live in a society, we live in a culture that everyone just thinks they deserve everything. And no is the biggest punishment. You know what the biggest punishment is? Drowning in debt. Not having any money saved. Working for how many years of your life. You log into your bank account. What's there to show for it?

[00:12:52]You ate your paycheck away. That's treating yourself. You shopped your paycheck away. Okay, great. You could open your closet, see all this crap, and you prioritized that thing over yourself. And that's the truth. Because saving your money and being responsible with your finances is prioritizing you.

[00:13:10]That is the self-care. That is treating yourself. That is why I say this all the time. Does anyone think I had a high quality of life when I was drowning in debt, over $100,000, making 12 bucks an hour? I don't talk about this a lot. I had a back injury from when I was in the food industry and I had to live with it for 3 years. I didn't have the money to fix my back. This is why money is so important. This is why to save your money and be responsible is treating yourself. All that crap in your closet isn't there for you when you have to fix your back or you have to fix your car. I just knew making those choices was going to lead me closer to the life that I wanted and further away from the life that I was trying to run away from. I'm 33 years old now and you know so my 20s are becoming more and more further part of my past and I didn't know this in the moment but looking back now at my 20s like I don't regret not getting unlimited mimosas at brunch. I don't regret that I bought a $300 minivan after college because it's all I could afford. I don't regret walking past a window of a store and not going in to go buy the thing that was displayed in the window. I look back on my 20s and I say I am so grateful that I put myself first, that I prioritized taking my debt seriously, that I focused on trying to find any way to make extra money because I feel like all of those things.

[00:14:40]And maybe it's just because I'm traumatized from my past, so I've blacked a lot out that I can't even maybe I just can't remember a lot from my 20s, but I just don't look back and I'm like still heartbroken I said no to something or I'm still devastated that my friends went to go do something and I didn't. Or like they attended a happy hour and I stayed home, which you can still go out and have fun with friends.

[00:15:01]Just get a [ __ ] water and shut up.

[00:15:02]You know what I mean? Like god damn it, you don't always need to spend money to have fun. We think saying no in the moment is this like jail sentence like, "Oh my god, I can't believe I have to say no to myself." I don't feel bad about anything that I might have missed out on. And because I prioritized on saying no to a lot of things, every now and then, I was able to enjoy a little piece of life. If you want to buy this thing, you need to let go and sacrifice these things when money's tight, not forever. This is another big message I want to get across in this video. I'm telling you, and I know no one wants to hear it, sacrifice the next one to two years of your life to improve your finances, and it could possibly set you up for the rest of your life. Me sacrificing my 20s set me up for the rest of my life. At the end of the day, I think I'll always feel like I'm broke.

[00:15:51]I have a pretty crazy amount of money saved, but I know my brain like just can't accept it. And even as I've built up my side hustles and I've increased my income, I mean, I'm talking I am not kidding you. When I'm talking about these New York City days, I was living in New York City making 12- $13 an hour with a $800 student loan payment. It was a nightmare. I hated my life. It was horrible. And then the past two years, I've made over $100,000. And I never ever ever thought I could ever be that person to do that. And even as my income has increased, my lifestyle has stayed the same. I've never changed my spending habits. I never changed what I wanted in my life because I've never seen money as just something of what is all the stuff it could buy me. I saw money as what is all the things it can give me. And I knew having money would give me peace of mind. It would give me stability. It would give me freedom. It would reduce my stress. I used to not be able to fall asleep. It used to take me so long to fall asleep because my mind was like a tornado of so many things going on in my life. I hated my financial situation. I hated my family dynamic. I hated my career. I had my back injury that I I felt all the time. That's what I wanted money for. I wanted money to not have to stress about money. Not for anything that I could buy me. Living as cheap as possible.

[00:17:22]cutting every freaking thing out.

[00:17:26]Cooking all of your food at home, not buying a damn thing because you already have so much and you don't need more.

[00:17:38]I I And I know a lot of people don't want to hear it because you think the word no and you think cutting things out or not having certain things you want is a punishment. The punishment is being stressed about money for the rest of your life. The punishment is watching your credit card debt accumulate.

[00:17:53]Punishment is not accomplishing your financial goals.

[00:17:58]I know I am very intense, but being intense got me intense results. If you got so unbelievably serious with your finances of trying to live as cheap as possible, not spending money on anything unless it's a necessity with yes, having some fun sprinkled here and there. I always say that yes, you can go out with the girls and it could cost 20 bucks. I just posted a video a couple weeks ago of going out in New York City.

[00:18:28]Had a budget of $15 and I did it. It is possible.

[00:18:32]You can have fun without a lot of money.

[00:18:34]You can enjoy this life without spending a ton of [ __ ] money. Like when I look back on my 20s, I just don't feel sad or feel this regret to ask yourself, am I happy right now? Am I happy with my financial situation? Am I happy where I'm at? If my life looked exactly the same one or two years from now regarding my finances, would I be okay with that?

[00:18:54]And I knew in my 20s when I was drowning and miserable, the answer was no. So, I was so willing to give up whatever I had to give up to live as cheap as possible to do whatever it takes to to do the side hustles. I worked for a magician when I lived in New York City. Prep his little tricks for his shows. I found it on Craigslist, which makes it more weird. I also became a go-go dancer at a nightclub. I would dance at night and then like 5 hours later go to my pastry chef job. I did whatever I had to do to get out of my situation. We get so distracted from social media and influencers and consumerism.

[00:19:35]There's all these distractions getting you to spend your money to give your money that you worked hard for that you need. You need that money and you get so easily convinced to give it to everyone else which leaves you with very little to nothing. And we have been so brainwashed to believe that that is treating yourself. And I knew from the start that I was not going to give into that.

[00:20:03]I was not going to fall for that. I was not going to believe in that. I believed in myself. I looked at life differently.

[00:20:10]I said, "I work hard for this money and I'm broke. I need this money. These massive companies don't need my money. I am desperate for my money." So, I cooked my food at home. I didn't buy a bunch of [ __ ] I bought the cheapest car I could find after college.

[00:20:27]go against the grain, not listen to anyone around me, believe in myself and what made sense to me. I was able to go from living a nightmare to living the dream because I sacrificed. It's also important to think about who will you be in your future. What's your life possibly going to look like in your future? And I knew I was terrified for my 30s to look like what they were in the moment of living in my 20s. And I knew if I didn't take my situation seriously, it was only going to get worse. I was already living with this gray cloud over my head 24/7.

[00:21:03]And I said, I will just do whatever it takes to get this cloud to go away. I want to say this, too. I just want to report to people who maybe don't believe in what I'm saying. My life didn't end when I turned 30.

[00:21:16]And I know this sounds like I'm talking to the younger aged folks, but I guess obviously this narrative and this mindset and this story is for everyone.

[00:21:25]You know, maybe there's people in their 30s right now who are like, "Oh my god, I have to do all these things before I turn 40. I have to go on these trips. I need to do My life didn't end when I turned 30."

[00:21:36]Can I tell you my life at 30 is a million freaking% better than when I was 20. Cuz when I was 20, I was a fresh college graduate, freshly new to $130,000 of debt. Hated my life and thought my life was over. At 30 years old, I had six figures saved in the bank. Got into a new career that I love.

[00:21:59]I've increased my income. The world didn't end. If anything, I've been so much happier in my 30s. And at the time, I didn't believe that was possible because getting older does scare me. It does make me very sad. I'm not I am sorry. I'm not one of those people who says getting older is such a blessing. I really struggle with it. I get why people say it's a blessing. I understand. All those things that we are told we must do in our 20s because life is short and you're never 20 again, you can do it in your 30s and you'll probably enjoy it a lot more because you'll be more financially stable.

[00:22:30]That's the [ __ ] thing. Do you think when I was 20 years old, drowning in this debt, not making a lot of money, being stressed 247 about money, do you think if I just went on a random trip, I was going to enjoy it and love it? No.

[00:22:42]Because that gray cloud followed me wherever I went. Do whatever it takes to get that gray cloud that we call our finances out of your life.

[00:22:54]Yes, it's going to come back every now and then. It's never It's never sunny 24/7.

[00:23:01]Life happens. Emergencies happen. But you will realize when you start to take your finances seriously, you start to change the way you think about money and you start respecting your paycheck and you realize every dollar has a purpose. And that gray cloud starts to get smaller and smaller and smaller. You will realize it was one of the best decisions you ever made to take your finances seriously. And we have to say goodbye to them now. Do you want to say goodbye to them? She's so cute. I can't stand it. I know I get a lot of hate and negativity and criticism, but I really just want to try to help you in the way I needed to help myself. So, I hope you found this episode helpful. If you have watched my podcast episodes before, you would know that at the end of the video, I always put I always ask you at the end of the video, I always ask you to put a comment um from what I put on the screen, just so I know you made it to the end and you watched the full episode because it really means a lot to me and I appreciate it. I'll put it on the screen here. put in the comments section, "We love Miss Clover."

[00:23:59]Because we do. We do. You're so cute.

[00:24:02]I'm just so grateful that I was able to turn my story into something to now help other people. I never I always dreamed of that and I never thought it would actually happen and it did. So, I'm always so grateful to have you here watching and listening. And um Okay, I'll just shut up. Oh my god. I love you guys so much and I will see you at the next episode. Bye.