Felix has been meeting with his financial coach since 2015. Here’s what he said when we asked him how Financial Coaching has affected his life.

When I first came to meet with Erika Leos for financial coaching, I was in financial ruin. I owed $26,000 to the Department of Education and $13-14,000 in child support. And then, there were overdrawn bank charges, fees, payday loans, pawn shops and other debtors. Ms. Leos has helped me to eliminate many of these obligations to the point where I owe $0 to the Department of Education and $0 in child support. I haven’t had any overdraft fees lately; I don’t owe the pawn shop and I don’t owe payday lenders.

In 2015, Felix was not working. He is blind and receives Social Security, which covers his expenses. But, he needed more income if he was going to make strides toward his goals.

The first thing she made me do was to go to work. Child support and student loans were not going to come off my credit report. Over the years, all those loans have been paid off. The only debts left are one or two collections.  I highly recommend Financial Coaching for any of you out there that want to change your life around. At this point, my bank account has thousands of dollars. 

Felix has worked hard to earn more income, pay down debts and build savings. Now he is looking to the future with optimism about a goal that once seemed unattainable: homeownership.

Because of Ms. Leos and becoming employed, I created an escrow account that ended in almost $9,000.

Now we’re looking at savings bonds purchase, CD purchase and gold and silver purchase, and ultimately home purchase. Erika is the greatest asset that God has put in my journey and she is worth her weight in gold – twice the amount. I couldn’t do it without her. I gotta stay close to Ms. Leos.

Over the last seven years, Felix’s financial coach has provided perspective, encouragement, and the time and space to make a plan, and Felix has done the hard work of executing the plan. At the end of the day it’s a team effort.