Meet the Bradley’s

Meet the Bradley’s

Meet Lisa and Steven Bradley, and their two children, Madison and Michael. Lisa works as a case manager, while Steven is a government employee. Together, they make $102,000 a year. They live in a $300,000 house and recently purchased two new cars. Lisa admits she spends thousands of dollars every month projecting the image that "everything is perfect." "For me it's very important to look the part no matter what the cost," says Lisa.

 

The truth is that the Bradley’s are $170,000 in debt!

Here is a quick summary of some of the out of control and over the top spending that goes on in the Bradley’s house hold, to give you some insight on what the debt diet is all about.

Lisa says she doesn't cook—instead, they spend about $100 a day on takeout.

·         She has $1,100 in car payments every month.
her cell phone bill was a whopping $398.84.

·         Lisa recently leased a piano for her daughter, which will end up costing more than buying it in the long run.$2169.65 to take home the piano

·         He says he wasn't even aware of the couple's $79,547 student loan debt
Along with $7000 dollars a year on her hair

*Keep in mind these are only a FEW of the expenses which have caused the Bradley’s to go into debt

The Bradleys were assigned a expert for dealing with debt, Financial expert Jean Chatzky, who lived with the Bradley’s to insure that this plan would work and make sure the stuck to it! Here is a quick peek at the plan Jean Chatzky proposed to the Bradley’s to kick start the Action plan to break the cycle of their Debt.

• Instead of spending $7,000 a year on her hair, Lisa will have to spend half that amount.
• The Bradleys spend $30,000 eating out, but on the Debt Diet, they'll have to cut that amount in two.
• They spend $5,000 a year on their cell phone bill—that's 1 out of every 4 waking minutes! On the Debt Diet, the Bradleys will have to limit their phone chats and cut that bill in half.
• They will also have to give up 2 of their 5 cars.
• Jean also says the Bradleys need to start using real dishes and silverware, instead of disposable dinnerware.
• And that piano Lisa leased? It's going back to the showroom! (Chatzky)

By the end of the debt diet the Bradleys Currently, they have $6,500 in savings, and they're saving another $2,500 a month for the next year. Then, Jean suggests that they scale their savings back to about $1,000 a month. When Lisa and Steven are ready to retire, Jean predicts that they'll have $1.7 million in the bank.
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