{"id":5563,"date":"2026-01-19T15:52:03","date_gmt":"2026-01-19T15:52:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.beyondfinance.com\/blog\/?p=5563"},"modified":"2026-01-19T15:52:21","modified_gmt":"2026-01-19T15:52:21","slug":"graduate-exclusive-army-vet-gary-c","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beyondfinance.com\/blog\/graduate-exclusive-army-vet-gary-c\/","title":{"rendered":"Graduate Exclusive! Army Vet Gary C. Builds Savings for His Kids, Fishes the Gulf, and Feels \u201cTremendous Load\u201d Lifted From His Shoulders"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\n
\n

We interviewed Gary \u2014 Army vet, grandpa, and avid fisher \u2014 to find out about his journey and how life\u2019s been since graduating from his Beyond Finance program last year.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

\n
    \n
  • Debt Amount: $21,169<\/strong><\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • Started: February 2024<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • Graduated: April 2025<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

    Can you tell us a bit about yourself?<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

    I live down in South Texas \u2014 Corpus Christi \u2014 and I\u2019m widowed. My wife passed away back in 2017. I\u2019ve got three kids \u2014 my son is here, one daughter\u2019s in San Antonio, and one\u2019s up in Central Texas close to Fort Worth.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    I was in the Army, and after that, I was an electrician and I worked at it 50 years before I retired. It never got boring!<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    I do a lot of fishing. I live right here on the Gulf \u2014 so, you get red drum, black drum, speckled trout, and sea trout. I also spend a lot of time on my computer trying to keep my brain sharp.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    How did you find yourself in debt?<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

    Just a lot of credit cards. Seemed like everybody and their brother wanted to give me a credit card.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    I\u2019d buy something here and there or splurge with four or five hundred dollars on something occasionally, but I\u2019d spread it out across different credit cards. And their interest rates just ate me up.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \n
    \n

    But then after changing jobs over a period of time \u2014 I lost my union insurance, and my wife had cancer and later in life came up with COPD. So there were doctor bills and medicines. A lot of times I had to put her medication on a credit card.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    And because of the medical problems that my wife had, it got to where it wasn\u2019t working at all \u2014 we were paycheck-to-paycheck.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

    \n
    \n

    I\u2019ve never had a savings account before. I got my bank notice the other day and I was surprised at the amount of money that I had in there.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

    What was your experience like with Beyond Finance?<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

    I forget the gentleman\u2019s name \u2014 I talked to him two or three times \u2014 but he was really helpful. He answered all my questions.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    I gave him all the information he asked for \u2014 and he came up with the lower payments of \u2014 I think it was $600 a month. And I told him, \u201cYeah, you know, I can live with $600 a month.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    It was a big relief. I wasn\u2019t dreading looking at my bank account, wondering how I\u2019m going to pay off these credit cards. <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    When I paid off the first account, I thought, \u201cOh, hey, this is great. That\u2019s one down!\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    What was graduation like and what\u2019s happened since?<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

    Oh, that was really great. I\u2019ve opened up a second bank account \u2014 an interest-bearing account \u2014 and now I put any extra money in there. <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    I\u2019ve never had a savings account before. I got my bank notice the other day and I was surprised at the amount of money that I had in there. I was really surprised that I\u2019ve got that much saved up!<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    I can go out \u2013 my son and I go almost every week to a different steakhouse and he was always the one picking up the bill. After I graduated, I\u2019d pick up the tab. Feels good.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    I can go and come as I please, go where I want, do what I want. My son\u2019s got a good friend who bought a boat, so we\u2019ll go out on his boat fishing. Now I\u2019ll say, \u201cOkay, I\u2019ll buy the gas,\u201d or \u201cI\u2019ll buy the bait,\u201d and we split it up that way.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    I\u2019m also saving for the kids. They don\u2019t know about it. I\u2019m just going to surprise them one of these days \u2014 \u201cOkay, here\u2019s this checking account, here\u2019s the account number, and y\u2019all can split it three ways.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Beyond Finance took a tremendous load off my shoulders. You gave me a good foundation to start a savings account on. The main thing I can say is just relief.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Real client compensated for a real story.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    We interviewed Gary \u2014 Army vet, grandpa, and avid fisher \u2014 to find out about his journey and how life\u2019s been since graduating from his Beyond Finance program last year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":5564,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_kad_blocks_custom_css":"","_kad_blocks_head_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_body_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_footer_custom_js":"","_kadence_starter_templates_imported_post":false,"_kad_post_transparent":"","_kad_post_title":"","_kad_post_layout":"","_kad_post_sidebar_id":"","_kad_post_content_style":"","_kad_post_vertical_padding":"","_kad_post_feature":"","_kad_post_feature_position":"","_kad_post_header":false,"_kad_post_footer":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[163],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5563","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-client-exclusive"],"yoast_head":"\nGraduate Exclusive! 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