2022-100-Faces-Book - Flipbook - Page 27
Dianne
Survivor. Grandmother. Achiever.
As a young girl from Tallahatchie County, Miss.,
Dianne knew she would become a homeowner one
day. On Nov. 30, 2018, at 57 years old, she and her
husband closed on their very first home.
thought she knew what steps she needed to take, but
her debt kept mounting.
Buying a home might not have happened as quickly as
she would have liked, but with resilience and discipline,
Dianne worked to climb out of debt and dream a house
of her own into existence.
Eventually, she made an appointment with a counselor
at the FEC, and they worked to set a budget. Whatever
she had budgeted for that week was all she allowed
herself to spend. She began to discipline herself. She’d
write her gas, laundry and groceries into the budget
each week.
Dianne’s debt reached its peak during her drug
addiction. She had a good job, she says, but continued
to live paycheck to paycheck because of excessive
spending. At one point, she owed 25 cash advance
loans and eight unsecured loans.
“Everything that I knew I had to pay was in that budget.
And if it wasn’t in that budget, it didn’t get done for that
pay period. I found myself paying off bills and feeling
good about myself. I saw those bills going away. I saw
my credit score go up.”
“I didn’t know how to do anything but spend money,”
she says.
Dianne characterizes her journey with the FEC as one
without judgment or embarrassment. Her counselor
not only showed her the importance of saving and
setting boundaries, but encouraged her to have
confidence and believe in herself.
Her rising debt didn’t just affect her bank account. It
spilled into other areas; she was lonely, depressed and
felt abandoned.
“I felt like I couldn’t get out. I felt like I was in water
just drowning every two weeks. That paycheck to
paycheck cycle really put me in a state of suicide
and depression.”
With a credit score of 404, she was tired of
accumulating debt and wanted to see the money that
she worked hard for. She received an email through
work from the Financial Empowerment Center (FEC),
a partnership between the Mayor’s Office and United
Way of Greater Nashville. Dianne didn’t reach out to
them right away, though. She was paying her bills and
“I think [my counselor and I] cried every time I went
there. We could see the progress. We could see the
growth. They taught me how to love me. And how to
appreciate that I did have a job and that I could
get out.”
Now, with a credit score of 700, she says there is no
greater feeling than lifting her garage door at her
own home.
“I just want to encourage people to get out of debt,”
she says. “Be a dreamer and don’t have any fear.
Because fear will stop us from getting out of debt.”
Financial Empowerment Center
