{"id":278,"date":"2026-01-14T15:11:59","date_gmt":"2026-01-14T15:11:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.fivelakeslawgroup.com\/features\/?p=278"},"modified":"2026-02-26T16:27:18","modified_gmt":"2026-02-26T16:27:18","slug":"jenny-s-s-five-lakes-graduation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.fivelakeslawgroup.com\/features\/jenny-s-s-five-lakes-graduation\/","title":{"rendered":"From Drowning to Breathing Again: Jenny S.\u2019s Five Lakes Graduation"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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A single mom who \u201csurvived on credit cards\u201d found a plan she could actually live with \u2014 and started saving again.<\/em><\/td>Enrolled Debt:<\/strong> $14,331
Graduated:<\/strong> August 2025
Program Length:<\/strong> 1 year, 11 months<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Meet Jenny<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Jenny is married with a blended family and she just found out she\u2019s going to be a grandma for the second time!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She\u2019s an office manager at a local university and says, \u201cI love the people I work with and I like what I do.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For fun, Jenny and her husband love visiting quirky museums and road-side stops on their travels. They travel with a \u201cburger book\u201d to find \u201cunique little burger hole-in-the-wall\u201d spots, and have recently visited the high school where Ferris Bueller\u2019s Day Off<\/em> and The Breakfast Club<\/em> were filmed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What was going on before you decided to work with Five Lakes?<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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It completely changed my entire outlook on life. It\u2019s almost like I was going through such a dark place before, just drowning in all this debt and then I could breathe again.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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I was a single mom at the time and just keeping up on a single income, trying to provide all of the necessities. You have car payments and insurance and rent, and I became dependent on my credit cards.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

A couple years later I found a lender that extended me a loan. I thought if I could get everything into one payment, that would be great. Well, the payment was so big, I was never making the principal \u2014 I was only making the interest. And so I was like, \u201cI\u2019m never gonna get ahead.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

I was a single mom at the time and just keeping up on a single income, trying to provide all of the necessities. You have car payments and insurance and rent, and I became dependent on my credit cards.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

A couple years later I found a lender that extended me a loan. I thought if I could get everything into one payment, that would be great. Well, the payment was so big, I was never making the principal \u2014 I was only making the interest. And so I was like, \u201cI\u2019m never gonna get ahead.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

What did it feel like carrying that debt?<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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I don\u2019t even think I realized it was that much until Five Lakes calculated it all up. I tried to focus on one at a time. Well, it never went down.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

When you\u2019re looking at 30% interest \u2014 it\u2019s ridiculous. And before you know it, you have a hard time paying for even the smallest things. All of a sudden we\u2019re charging gas on a credit card. And then you\u2019re like, \u201cAm I just living to work to pay off this debt?\u201d It got overwhelming.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Jenny and her husband on a recent vacation.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

What made you go forward with Five Lakes\u2019 help?<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

I talked to your team members several times and was just like, \u201cIs this for real? You can really get these results?\u201d I just felt like this was too good to be true!<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

What really was helpful was the time they took. It\u2019s such a digital age \u2014 to speak to someone and have them listening to your story? They were just compassionate.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then you go look up the website and you\u2019re seeing there\u2019s attorneys there, and they\u2019re really gonna do all this fighting for you. It took all of that stress off your shoulders.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

What was it like once you started your program?<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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Jenny and her family enjoy a lunch outing. She says she can now hep support her son and her grandchild, something she was unable to do before Five Lakes.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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That was the next mind-blowing thing: they had it spread out so that my payment was livable.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I could live. I could survive. I could help my son. I could breathe again. It freed me up to not be sick to my stomach with migraines, panicked like, \u201cWhat am I gonna do if I need tires, an oil change, a major repair?\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

It completely changed my entire outlook on life. It\u2019s almost like I was going through such a dark place before, just drowning in all this debt and then I could breathe again.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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I could actually go see a movie or something!<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Was there anything else about the program you appreciated?<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

I loved the live chat in the app! I chatted with them all the time when I had questions.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The other thing I liked is you could see your debt going down \u2014 like in a physical way. You could see it decreasing and you\u2019re like, \u201cYes, yes, yes! Just a little bit closer!\u201d You start to see the long run: that there\u2019s light at the end of the tunnel.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

What did graduation feel like?<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Oh my gosh. It was amazing. I didn\u2019t really grow up in a family that talked about finances \u2014 it was never looked at as a trainable thing.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

It blows my mind \u2014 where I was at five years ago compared to where I\u2019m at today? Five Lakes gave me that ability to make practical choices and save money. That\u2019s something I never thought I could do before.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

And with my grandchild coming, we\u2019ve been able to help out our son and his family financially throughout this process and that\u2019s something I never could see myself doing before.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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What are you looking forward to now?<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

My husband and I want to do some remodeling on our house and we don\u2019t want to take out a loan. So we\u2019re currently making a regular payment to our savings account! <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

We\u2019ve built up an emergency fund, and now we\u2019re working on the construction savings.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

If there\u2019s a major repair, I have the money for it. If we want to do this remodel, we\u2019re building towards it in a real way \u2014 that\u2019s been a huge, huge blessing.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Jenny and her husband enjoy an Illini game.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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If someone feels how you felt back before Five Lakes, what would you want them to know?<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

This changed my life. I want to help people who now feel like I felt before \u2014 which was in a dark place.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I would tell them that there\u2019s still hope and there\u2019s people who can help you \u2014 they\u2019re going to fight for you and take this burden off your shoulders and they\u2019re going to let you breathe.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Success Post-Grad<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

With attorney support through Five Lakes, Jenny moved from feeling \u201csick to my stomach\u2026 panicked\u201d to a plan she described as \u201clivable.\u201d She started seeing balances drop in real time, gained momentum with each payoff, and finished the program able to save again<\/strong>, build an emergency fund<\/strong>, and plan home renovations without taking out a loan<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Real client compensated for sharing their authentic experience \u2014 results and savings reflect their individual circumstances.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n