Woman secretly tackles family's $58K debt with help from strangers online
An online community helped Rebecca Christiansen tackle her family's debt.
A woman who secretly started tackling her family's more than $58,000 in debt is sharing how an online community helped her along the way.
Rebecca Christiansen, the creator behind the social media account Stealth Mode Savings, said her family faced more than $58,000 in debt following financial hardship from a failed business venture and unexpected unemployment.
Within five months, Christiansen worked to pay down the debt without telling her husband, while documenting the journey on social media.
Her husband eventually discovered what she had been doing and became emotional as he checked their accounts and realized several debts had been paid off.
"The fact that I was able to do it before he was able to get to it, he just cried and was so thankful for everything," Christiansen told ABC News.
How she started tackling the family's debt
Christiansen said she initially self-funded her debt payoff journey, sharing her progress online and contributing $5 toward the debt for every 20 new followers.
"One of the motivations for sharing my finances and being overly open about them was to hold myself accountable," she said.
As Christiansen's following grew, her online community, which she calls "Debt Destroyers," began offering support to help offset the couple's debt, with their support totaling more than $40,000.
"That's been one of my favorite things from this account and how it's grown is finding all of these random, generous, supportive strangers on the internet and how we all come together and just like cheer each other on," Christiansen said.
Christiansen said tackling debt starts with looking closely at spending habits and becoming more intentional about money.
One strategy she said she used is making "micro payments," or frequent payments toward the family's debt.
"I loved implementing the process of micro payments because as you're making a daily payment towards your debt, it keeps your finances at the front of your mind and you become so much more intentional with your finances," Christiansen said.