Debt Payoff Stories from Instagram Influencers

Influencers often seem to live the life most of us just dream of. Luxury vacations, new clothes, and a flexible, carefree lifestyle—who wouldn't want to sign up for that?

The creator economy is expected to grow to $480 billion by 2027, and there are more opportunities than ever to make money through social media. There's just one problem. The glamorous lives of influencers living on Instagram and TikTok don't always match up to their reality.

The truth is, a lot of influencers have debt. For some of them, debt is a byproduct of financial situations they had no control over. For others, debt is how they maintain their image and lifestyle. Debt helps them build a following and gain brand deals, but it's costing them money in interest and fees.  

At Freedom Debt Relief, we know what the struggle is like. Our professional debt settlement company has helped millions of people find their way out of a tough financial situation. Today, we're sharing some inspiring stories from six Instagram influencers who have dealt with debt, along with tips on how to avoid similar pitfalls if you plan to pursue the influencer path. 

The Hidden Cost of Influencer Life

One of the appeals of the influencer lifestyle is that it seems so easy to get started without a big investment. You set up your social media profiles and start creating content, gain a following, and boom—you're joining the ranks of influencers who make a full-time living from their iPhones or laptops.

What influencers won't tell you is that the old saying that it takes money to make money is true. A lot of behind-the-scenes spending may need to happen before you make your first dime as an influencer. 

For example, let's say you want to share your love of baking quirky cookies with your Instagram followers. You've studied other popular influencers in your niche, and you know you need a certain aesthetic to make your content stand out. Before you film your first video, you might need to spend money on:

• New baking tools

• Home decor to make your baking space visually appealing

• Baking ingredients and supplies

• A new camera so you can film high-resolution videos

• Editing software

What if you want to be a fashion influencer? You could easily spend hundreds or thousands of dollars on clothes, accessories, or makeup to create your desired look. Not to mention the cost of dinners out at trendy restaurants, hair and nail appointments, and regular getaways, all to create content that reinforces your influencer image. 

You may find yourself making financial decisions you wouldn’t otherwise make to keep your lifestyle going. Common influencer pitfalls include:

• Quitting a day job to become an influencer full-time, without any emergency savings to fall back on

• Using credit cards or loans to finance purchases

• Increasing your credit card limits so you have more to spend (leading to more debt and potential credit score damage)

• Having unrealistic ideas about how much you can earn (the average influencer makes around $58,000 a year, while the average person brings in $61,000 in salary per year)

• Banking on future income to help you pay off the debt you're creating now

All of this can lead to financial hardship, and you may not know where to turn next. A credit card debt relief program could offer a path forward when the costs of maintaining the influencer lifestyle catch up to you. 

Debt settlement, for example, could help you get rid of credit cards and other debts for less than what you owe. You could put your debts behind you in two to four years, at lower monthly payments than you're making now. Settling debt could take the pressure off your shoulders so you can decide if you want to continue your influencer pursuits or try a different career path. Now, let's look at some testimonials from popular Instagram influencers to learn how they got into debt and more importantly, got out.

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Debt-Free in Sunny California

Amanda Williams was 28 when she hit her breaking point and realized she couldn’t pay her car and student loans. That’s what led her and her husband Josh to take a hard look at their finances and pay off $133,763 worth of debt in just three years and seven months.

How did she do it? By selling off as many things as she could, cutting her expenses drastically, and working to increase her income. She managed her money by sticking to a zero-based budget—where you take your income and allocate each dollar a “job” (including savings) so that every penny is accounted for.

While paying off debt, she created her Instagram account @debtfreesunnyca. She’s also credited with creating the hashtag #debtfreecommunity, which has been used more than half a million times by people who are reducing their debt and sharing their debt payoff stories.

A Wise and Debt-Free Woman

Miss Wise was in $50,000 in debt from a combination of student loans and credit cards and decided to take drastic measures. In 2016, she moved to China to teach English abroad so that she could take advantage of the low cost of living and lucrative contracts. Her employer paid for her housing and some meals so that she was able to save more money to put towards her debt.

So far, she’s paid off more than $14,000 worth of debt, saved $10,000 in an emergency fund, and paid for an online teaching certification that cost around $6,000. She’s also been able to travel internationally many times since making her move to China.

She openly shares her progress and tips for handling your finances over at her Instagram account @wisewomanwallet.

Rising Up after Tragedy Strikes

DJ and Dannie are a couple in their 20s who had a tragic awakening regarding their finances when DJ’s mom died by suicide. When trying to make travel arrangements to fly to North Carolina for her funeral, they logged into their bank account and found they were overdrawn by $200. Their credit cards were maxed out and they were swimming in debt.

In less than three years, the couple paid off $130,912. They were able to do it by selling off a car and the RV they lived in for nine months, drastically cutting back expenses, and aggressively paying off debt. Their Instagram account, @penniestowealth, shares bite-sized tips on how you can improve your financial situation.

Getting Debt-Free by Tightening the Belt

Kat started her Instagram account @phoandfinance to chronicle her debt repayment journey. In two and a half years, she and her husband paid off $149,000 worth of debt. They were able to do so by creating a strict budget, cutting any expenses they could, and staying put in their 650-square-foot apartment. Her family has also adopted a minimalist lifestyle, purchasing only things they truly value.

Side Hustles and Spending Cuts

Since 2017, Kate and her family have been tackling their $104,901 student loan debt, and have about $19,000 to go. Since they started their debt free journey, they’ve been able to put over 53 percent of their income towards their debt. How? By cutting out on expenses like eating out, earning money doing side hustles, doing no-spend challenges, and implementing a zero-based budget.

On her Instagram account @thatdebtfreelife, Kate openly shares her financial goals each month and side hustle income, inspiring countless other debt payoff stories.

Debt-Free Advice for Couples

Dubbed America’s number one money couple, Talaat and Tai McNeely paid off $30,000 and an impressive $330,000 mortgage in five years all while living on a middle class income. Their philosophy is that couples can strengthen their marriage and money together. In addition to their Instagram account @hisandhermoney, their website offers videos, blogs and podcasts to help you manage your finances as a couple.

Learning how other people have paid off their debt could give you some great ideas about how to embark on a debt free journey of your own. We hope these accounts inspire you to join the #debtfreecommunity and share your debt payoff stories.

Warning Signs: When Content Creation Becomes Financial Stress

Debt can creep up on you when you're focused on building your following and establishing your brand. You may not even realize you have a problem until something forces you to notice. For example, your credit card gets declined or you're charged a late fee because you forgot to make a payment. 

We don't want that to happen. Here are some early signs influencer debt might become a big problem:

• Your monthly spending on credit cards outstrips your income for three consecutive months in a row.

• You're using credit cards to pay for items you need to complete collaborations with brands—instead of having them pay you.

• You haven't paid your taxes or you're at risk of falling behind on a tax payment because your income is so inconsistent. 

If any of this sounds familiar, don't panic. You may just need some help to figure out how to deal with your debt. 

A professional debt relief expert can look at your financial situation and offer advice on what to do about it. For some influencers, that might mean debt settlement. For others, it could mean a different solution. 

You may also have to ask yourself some hard questions, like:

• Is your content creation strategy sustainable?

• Are there more affordable ways to create content, without relying on debt?

• Can you realistically generate a full-time income from your content?

• How long will it take you to make enough money from your content to avoid creating new debt, while paying off what you already owe?

A budget could be a huge help in this process. Your budget is a plan for how you'll spend the money you bring in each month. 

You might create one budget for your living expenses and a separate influencer budget that outlines what you need to spend to run your business each month. You can then compare both budgets to your influencer income and income you have from other sources, like a day job or side hustles.

If more goes out than comes in, you'll need to think about how you can bring your expenses down or bring your income up. Using a budgeting app is a helpful way to visualize where you commit most of your money to each month, and what you might be able to cut. 

Practical Debt Strategies for Content Creators

If you're ready to tackle your debt, you're already moving in the right direction. What you need now is a financial toolkit that could help you get your debt under control, without having to sacrifice your content creator goals. 

Here are some of our best tips for dealing with debt as an influencer:

• Pick a budget system that works for you. We've already mentioned the importance of budgeting, but how you do it also matters. You might use a personal budgeting tool, like a spreadsheet or app, but it could make sense to look for tools that are designed with influencers or self-employed individuals in mind. These tools could help you budget what you spend on personal expenses and business expenses in one place, so you have a clear snapshot of your financial life. 

• Rethink your content creation methods. If you're spending money to create and edit content, consider how you can do it for less. For example, if you're a fashion influencer, you might try renting outfits to highlight in your content instead of buying them. If travel is your niche, consider how you can hack your way to cheaper trips using rewards programs, loyalty programs or even house-sitting. Swap your pricey editing software for a free version, or use free tools to research keywords and trends you can use to inspire new content. 

• Diversify your income. Many influencers rely on brand deals for their income, but there are other ways you might be able to make money. Affiliate marketing, ads, coaching, digital products and user-generated content (UGC) agreements are some of the avenues you might explore to give your earnings a boost. 

• Have a debt repayment strategy. If your debt is still at a manageable level, you might try a DIY method to pay it off. You could use the debt snowball, for example, which has you pay off debts from the smallest balance to the highest. Or you could try the debt avalanche, which orders your debts from the highest interest rate to the lowest. If your income is irregular, pick one debt that you can pay extra to each month and pay the minimum on everything else. 

What if debt becomes too much to handle and you're behind on payments, getting collection calls or a creditor is threatening to sue?

At that point, you may need professional debt help. Freedom Debt Relief has a team of experts who can look at your entire financial situation and help you create a plan to settle what you owe. 

Here's how it works:

• Your debt expert develops a personalized debt settlement plan.

• You make one affordable monthly deposit into a dedicated account (that you own and control).

• Your expert negotiates with your creditors to settle your debts for less than the full amount you owe.

• Once a settlement agreement is reached, it's sent to you for approval.

• If you approve, your creditor is paid from your dedicated account. The debt settlement company’s fee is paid from the same account.

Once debts are settled, you don't have to pay anything else toward the balance. It's a relief to know your debt isn't haunting you and that you have an expert in your corner who's working to help you get the best deal possible. 

Success Metrics: Track Your Progress

When you make an effort to track your debt payoff progress it's easier to stay motivated. Watching the needle move month over month, even if it's only a little at a time, shows you that you can take control of your debt and get ahead financially. 

Not sure what to track? Here are some key metrics to follow:

• Debt-to-income (DTI) ratio. Your debt-to-income ratio measures how much of your income goes to debt repayment each month. Ideally, this number trends down over time as it means that you're getting closer to your debt payoff goals.

• Credit utilization. Credit utilization means how much of your credit limits you're using at any given time. Seeing your utilization shrink is a sign that you're paying down what you owe and not creating any new debt. 

• Emergency fund. An emergency fund is meant to help you cover unexpected expenses when life throws you for a loop. If you're trying to go full-time as a content creator, your rainy day fund could also help you cover expenses in months when your income falls short. Tracking your monthly contributions to your emergency fund could give you a nice mental boost as you watch your savings number grow. 

Spreadsheets could help you keep it all organized. You could also use a debt payoff tracker app that includes charts or graphs so you can visualize your progress. 

If you're interested in how paying off debt is affecting your credit, you could sign up for free credit monitoring tools. Experian, for example, offers free FICO credit score monitoring and sends you alerts when there are changes to your credit reports. 

Here's one more tip for staying motivated: Reward yourself when you hit a debt milestone. 

Paying off a credit card or loan is a reason to celebrate, even if the balance is relatively small. It's okay to treat yourself to something enjoyable and fun to mark the milestone. Stick to rewards that don't cost a lot of money or require you to create new debt, so you don't feel any guilt about them. 

Tackle Financial Challenges

Don’t let debt overwhelm you. Learn more about debt relief options. They can help you tackle your financial challenges. This is true whether you have high credit card balances or many tradelines. Start your path to recovery with the first step.