Trent Hamm - The Simple Dollar: How One Man Wiped Out His Debts and Achieved the Life of His Dreams

How One Man Wiped Out His Debts and Achieved the Life of His Dreams

Trent Hamm

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2010 by Pearson Education, Inc.

Publishing as FT Press
Upper Saddle River, New Jersey 07458

This book is sold with the understanding that neither the author nor the publisher is engaged in rendering legal, accounting, or other professional services or advice by publishing this book. Each individual situation is unique. Thus, if legal or financial advice or other expert assistance is required in a specific situation, the services of a competent professional should be sought to ensure that the situation has been evaluated carefully and appropriately. The author and the publisher disclaim any liability, loss, or risk resulting directly or indirectly, from the use or application of any of the contents of this book.

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Printed in the United States of America

First Printing June 2010

ISBN-10: 0-13-705425-4
ISBN-13: 978-0-13-705425-1
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Hamm, Trent.
The simple dollar : how one man wiped out his debts and achieved the life of his dreams
> Trent Hamm.
p. cm.
ISBN 978-0-13-705425-1 (pbk. : alk. paper) 1. Consumer credit. 2. Debtor and creditor. 3.
Finance, Personal. I. Title.
HG3755.H237 2010
332.02402dc22
2010005204

To Randy Byrn, who not only taught me how to write but made me believe I could

A book like this doesnt get written without a ton of help from a mountain of sources, both expected and unexpected. Heres a big list of these people.

First of all, Id like to thank Randy Byrn, my high school English teacher, for his constant insistence that I had the ability to write and his similarly dogged attitude that any writing can always be improved. Even more than a decade later, I still turn to a faithful grammar handbook when the correct usage escapes me, and the usage of a strong note-taking procedure was fundamental in making this book possible. Even after many, many revisions, I fully expect him to find at least twenty five huge errors I made in this bookin fact, hell probably send me a copy with them marked in red pen.

An enormous thanks to Kristen Cross, Daniel Koontz, Matthew Jabs, Catherine Krikorian, Victoria Rosin, Amanda Schuler, Kerry Taylor, and John Warfield, who all took time out of their busy schedules to share their personal experiences with me, answer my questions, and elaborate on even the simplest of points.

Ideas and suggestions came from countless wise sources: Philip Brewer, Erin Doland, Jonathan Fields, Seth Godin, Christopher Guillebeau, Brett McKay, J.D. Roth, Gretchen Rubin, Ramit Sethi, Pamela Slim, Glen Stansberry, and Gina Trapani.

This book was written while listening to a wide variety of music, but a few albums were played over and over again. Special thanks to Neko Case, Old Crow Medicine Show, The Duhks, Bruce Springsteen, Modest Mouse, Nellie McKay, Laura Cantrell, Johnny Cash, Apples in Stereo, Feist, AC/DC, The Sugarcubes, Bob Dylan, The Smiths, Morrissey, A Fine Frenzy, U2, Gillian Welch, Peter Gabriel, The Blind Boys of Alabama, The Decemberists, Belle & Sebastian, and The Roots. Time and again, your music was able to help me get in the right mindset for writing, even when it seemed like I was miles away from the right words.

A deep thanks to Jim Boyd of Pearson Education, who advocated powerfully for this book and made it possible to turn the ideas in my head into the printed words you now hold.

I would be remiss if I did not mention my abundantly humorous and insightful pastor, Heidi Williams. Faith and writing are both incredibly challenging struggles, and Heidi has an impeccable knack for giving me advice when I most need it. This book would have never been finished without some prayer, some meditation, and some long nights searching for guidance, and Im lucky to have found the answers I needed along the way.

Last but not least, Id like to thank my wife Sarah for her infinite patience and love during the process of writing this book, as well as Joseph and Kathryn for their constant ability to give Dad a big emotional boost right when he needed it the most. I love you guys.

Trent Hamm transformed his life, escaping both massive consumer debt and work he couldnt stand. He began sharing the lessons he learned through his website, The Simple Dollar (www.thesimpledollar.com), which has quickly grown into one of the nations most popular personal finance sites, attracting more than 600,000 visitors every month.

He is the author of 365 Ways to Live Cheap: Your Everyday Guide to Saving Money, and writes articles that are regularly syndicated to hundreds of small newspapers and newsletters.

On April 20, 2006, when my son was roughly six months old, I realized that we didnt have enough money to pay our bills. It was shocking and incredibly painful. Although I had come to some valuable realizations already, the fact that we didnt have enough money to make ends meet, and we had tens of thousands of dollars in credit card debt, student loan debt, car loans, and a bunch of financed furniture and equipment in our home, meant that something had to change. Now.

I buried myself in personal finance books, coupling them with the philosophy and economics books I had already been reading. Over the next few months, I started to take some radical steps to fix our financial state.

More importantly, I began to realize that this entire experience was one that other people were struggling with. How can a person balance all the aspects of modern life on a limited income? How can we find personal and professional happiness in an increasingly complex world where real wages for most of us havent changed in decades?

So, in October 2006, I started TheSimpleDollar.com on my own with no fanfare to share these experiences. Within two months, I had 100,000 visitors. Today, The Simple Dollar has nearly a million visitors a month and tens of thousands more who receive articles by email.

Along the way, Ive had conversations with thousands of people who were struggling with questions like these in their own lives. Ive heard countless stories of people digging through the challenging connections between their money, their happiness, their daily choices, and their mission in life.