A part-time pastor spent years paying the bare minimum on six credit cards — until he was fed up. Now the cash flow he freed up goes toward helping others. Enrolled Debt: $13,779
Graduated: December 2025
Program Length: 1 year, 2 months
Eddie W.
Eddie is 51. He worked in the school system for about 29 years in custodial maintenance, left in 2021, and is now a part-time pastor for two area churches. “Love what I do. It’s the most gratifying thing ever.”
It’s freed me up to breathe a little easier.
He has one sister, Trudy, and his parents, Jean and Ed, live nearby. In front of his home, there’s “a beautiful, beautiful little pond out front.” He says, “I want to live by the water and I want to have sunshine” — and he got both.
“When the sun comes up, it comes up from the east. So it’s just very, very peaceful.”
He loves summertime, the water, the beach, cooking out, and light hiking when he can: “I do like to get out in the sun, get some vitamin D and just enjoy nature.” Also at home is Rambo, a rescue kitty a friend found in the woods about six years ago. “I’m like, okay, I’ll take him.”
What road led you into debt before you enrolled?
I don’t know if you can really say any road gets you in debt — it just kind of sneaks up on you. My father worked in the coal mines for years, and we had horses, and we never really saved. That was never really ingrained into us, to put money back, because all the money went to the horses. I think maybe at an earlier age, if that would’ve been ingrained into me to save a little bit, I may have not been in the situations I get myself in.
It’s just daily life. It’s not over any extravagant vacations or day trips. It’s just living paycheck to paycheck. And working for the school system, the benefits are good, but the income wasn’t the greatest.
I think life kicks in when you’re trying to put new tires on the car, when you’re trying to fill up your fuel tank. And with the weather, especially right now, utilities are sky high. So it wasn’t done out of recklessness, if that makes sense. It was done just to live.
When did you know something had to change?
When you get all these credit card companies fighting for your business — here’s 0%, 0% over here — not realizing that you have to have that paid off in so many months, or they’re going to astronomically raise their rate.
Before I came to Five Lakes, I was managing 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 cards. In the grand scheme of things, my total debt at around 14,000 wasn’t that high, but it’s still there. And I was getting to the point where I was just paying the bare minimum, and you’re not gaining anything.
When you’ve got the credit cards maxed out and you cannot borrow anymore, something has to change. I was just fed up — I wasn’t seeing the results because the interest rates were so high — like 35%. And when you’re just living life, it can rack up very quickly. So that was my aha moment.
Did you talk to friends or family about your debt?
No, I did not. Financials I just never share with anybody. I guess maybe it’s prideful — I’m the type of person, I’m going to try to figure it out on my own. And it’s also that you’re ashamed. You don’t want to admit that you’re in a financial crunch.
What was it like carrying that?
When the bank account’s good and you’ve got finances rolling in, there’s no anxiety, there’s no depression — you’re on top of the world. And then when the bank account hits zero, you’re like, “Now what? I’ve got two more weeks until payday.” Anxiety does hit. Depression does hit. But you keep forging ahead.
I think you could say finances are a silent killer. A lot of people are ashamed to admit it, and a lot of people hide stuff. The people I come across — on the outside they look like they’ve got it all together, but on the inside there’s something going on. Everybody’s got some sort of something they’re carrying, and probably 90% of them is finances.
What was your experience like once you joined Five Lakes?
My experience with Five Lakes, I will tell you right now, it was a great experience. From the first interaction to the last interaction of graduating, it was phenomenal. They explained the system, the program, how it worked for me. There were no hidden surprises. I felt very comfortable with them. Everybody was professional, everybody was courteous. They explained each step in great detail.
And actually, my sister is now with Five Lakes, because she just admitted to me six months ago that she was in some bad credit card debt. She enrolled with Five Lakes and she’s been very pleased with them as well.
Did the lower payment change your day-to-day life?
Oh, it has made a great impact. My payments ended up being $280. It was greatly decreased compared to what I was paying prior to that. That helped free up some cash flow. My biggest card was up around $6,000, and they were able to reduce it by half — and some of the other cards as well.
What has graduating freed you up to do?
When I tithe, that extra cash flow helps me give in areas where I can donate if I need to. If I go to a restaurant and I want to buy lunch for this couple over here, I can go by and say, “Hey, take care of your lunch today,” and just go about my day.
It’s freed me up to breathe a little easier. Not necessarily spend it, but just to breathe a little easier. To know that, okay, the car’s on E, I need to go put some gas in it — and I don’t have to scrimp and go find a couple quarters to wrestle up.
What would you want other people carrying this to know?
Coming from the pastoral side of things, people look at pastors as having it all together. We’re not. We’re just human like anybody else. I’m real, I’m authentic — what you see is what you’re going to get. There’s nothing hidden, but we all have something going on.
Success Post-Grad
With attorney support through Five Lakes, Eddie went from paying the bare minimum on six cards — with interest rates as high as 35% — to one plan at $280 a month, and graduated with the balances behind him. Today the cash flow he freed up goes toward the giving that matters most to him, and his sister has since enrolled in the program as well.