Airman pays off credit card debt, builds
Putting Saving on Auto Pilot
Senior Airman Crystal Chavana was working in the Public Affairs office at Eglin Air Force Base when a photographer with the Military Saves campaign asked if she’d be willing to pose for the campaign poster. She agreed. Later it occurred to her, “It’s going to be bad if I’m on all these posters and I’m not saving.”
So she decided to enroll as a Saver. “I thought, ‘This sounds like some good ideas. It’s not going to hurt me to save.’” Adding to her motivation was the fact that she had recently blown a tire and had to borrow money from her parents to fix it. “I didn’t like that feeling,” she said.
One of her first goals as a Saver was to set up an emergency fund. She opened an account and arranged to have $50 automatically deducted from each paycheck and deposited in the account. Because she never sees the money, the only time she thinks of it is when an emergency arises, she said. Then she uses the money in her emergency fund instead of taking out a loan.
Under the influence of the campaign’s “Build Wealth, Not Debt” message, she also paid off her credit cards. “It’s hard for a person my age not to be in some kind of debt,” she said. Although she still keeps one credit card, she said, “now that I have my emergency fund I doubt I’ll need it.”
Since then, she has set up two more accounts funded through automatic deductions from her paycheck – one to save toward buying a house and one to save toward retirement. “I realized I have to have a retirement at some point in my life,” she said. “I wanted to have a fund with my own money and not to rely on somebody else giving it to me.”
Airman Chavana also is looking forward to the day when she can buy a house. However, since she’s due to head overseas on assignment in the near future, she is planning to wait until she returns to make the purchase. Meanwhile, her savings will continue to pile up while she’s gone, so she’s optimistic that she’ll have enough for a sizeable down payment when she gets back.
To find the money to save, she has cut down the amount she eats out, drinks water instead of soda, and cut back on her shopping. “I realized that I might have an addiction to shopping,” she said. She also pays attention to the little things, like ATM fees and debit card fees, that can add up over time.
Basically, however, her strategy is a simple matter of staying on a budget – she gives herself a weekly spending limit – and not spending what she doesn’t have. Her advice to others is just as simple:
“Start now. Start as young as you can. The younger the better.” --Military Saver Senior Airman Crystal Chavana