How She Got Rid of $80,000 in Consumer Debt

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My name is Shakarah Campbell. I was born and raised in St. Elizabeth, Jamaica. I came to Canada when I was 13 years old in 1993. My mom is a single mom. She took three of us here in one shot.  I went to York University. I did cultural anthropology because I was interested in learning about different cultures. I figured if I could do anything for pre-law,  I'll just learn about different cultures and see what the difference was after completing university. I wasn't sure what law I wanted to study. I know for sure,  I did not want to get into family law or criminal law, which, was two of the major ones that are out there. 

I took Ontario Student Assistant Program (OSAP), and six months after you come out of university, you have to start paying it back. So I decided to go and work. While I was working, I came across Courts and Tribunals Administration, but I wanted to do the immigration aspect of it. So I went to Seneca College, where I did a two-year diploma and studied court and tribunal administration from there. I did what is called field placement at the Court of Appeals for Ontario. I went to the Court of Appeal, and I never left. I've been there for 11 years now. I'm currently an Appeal Scheduling Coordinator. I do backup the Civil and the Criminal Scheduling Coordinator, but I have worked in almost every court area. So I am very familiar with all of it. My actual title is the Inmate Appeal Case Management Officer.

Dr. Sackeria Sunshine: What challenges did you have to overcome to reach this point where you feel so passionate about helping others?

Shakarah Campbell: So interestingly, for finance, I did not want to do anything in it. I hated Accounting in High School. Didn't understand it! Math was not my most vital subject. I actually love English and History. I was in a long-term relationship for seven years. We were engaged. We never got married, but during that time, I owned a home with my mom, which when we got engaged, the house got sold, and the money from home, I actually was investing it for our future. So my fiance being from the Dominican Republic, had some family issues. His mom had to have surgery at one time. His father had to have surgery at one time, and his sister had to have surgery. So, of course, I figured, you know what, we're a family, we're building a family. 

We're going to be together. I actually invested in paying for that. It turned out that I ended up having an $80,000 debt. Now a lot of you were like: "Oh my God, that is scary". Yes, it was for me. And it caused me a lot of headache for the little time because the one thing I've always been told coming here is that you save, which I am not a frivolous spender. I do save, coming from a single-parent household. I understand what that was. But there was one thing about me. I was always a giver. So anybody back home, whether it was in Jamaica or even with his family in the Dominican Republic, I would be helping them, like I was sponsoring children and stuff for kids that needed food, and stuff like that because I was helping. What ended up happening is that it got out of control where the debt grew faster, and later on, I would probably be able to get a chance to explain how your debt grew faster than you actually realize, and can get out of control if you're not paying attention to what's going on. 

I was taking money from my savings, from my RSP. And for those who don't know RSP, they're registered, which means that the government will tax you if you take money out of it. And that's where I ended up in trouble where I was taxed and had to pay that back because I took that money and the government's taxes. So I ended up making a consumer proposal, which actually helped me a great deal.

For those of you who are not aware, but when you do a consumer proposal, it doesn't totally ruin your credit. However, keeping your debt can ruin your credit in that way. But the consumer proposal doesn't, you have three years in which to pay it off. And then another three years you get to start rebuilding your credit, but you don't have to wait the full three years to rebuild your credit. And you should not, because you can start to rebuild your credit within a year.

Dr. Sackeria Sunshine: Amazing. What is your favorite book on personal finance, or what's a book that you've read that really helped you on your journey?

Shakarah Campbell: I read a book that really helped me on my journey: Rich Dad, Poor Dad by Robert Kiyosaki. I love the cash flow quadrant. When I started to read that book, it helped me realize just the difference between your money as an asset and your money working for you. So even something as simple as our home, which we would think like "Oh, I have a home, I have an asset." Your home is actually a liability if it's not making money for you. Learning something like that was very interesting. 

Also, 177 Mental Toughness Secrets by Steve Siebold is another book that has impacted my mindset just in the difference between middle-class thinking and world-class thinking. That resonates with me because I love how he helps you pretty much to get from that middle-class thinking into world-class thinking. Also, Saving Your Future because it just teaches you basic financial principles.

Dr. Sackeria Sunshine: That is amazing. I am reading Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill. But there's also another book that Steve Siebold and Tom Mathews wrote: How Money Works: Stop Being a Sucker. And if you are reading this and you want a copy of the book, it costs like $16 on Amazon, but I give them out FREE. 

It was published in 2019. And I came upon it recently, and I then just decided to buy a lot of them because the concepts that we have been learning are really plain and simple in the book. And I want to help individuals get their hands on those crucial concepts so that they can start the journey to financial freedom. Education is first! Financial literacy is essential. So again, if you want a copy for yourself, you really want to get the education in a straightforward form, something that you can have with you. I believe in books. They have transformed my life. Read it! But just don't read it: you need to apply it. 

Now, Shakarah, let me ask you what financial concepts had the most impact on you.

Shakarah Campbell: That's a great question. So one of the things I would say for those of you who heard when I said that my debt compounded is the rule of 72. So for those who don't understand what the banks use, the power of 72 on how your interest goes. So ty6ake whatever you're paying for interest on your credit card, example 18% divide that by 72, every four years, your debt can compound. Or if you have a certain amount of money in the bank, every four years, it doubles. So that's what happens. And that's what a lot of us don't know. I was generous with using 18% because we all know that your credit cards are usually 20% or more. So imagine that if you have debt that you're not paying and the interest rate on it doubles.

The other thing that I learned in this business was the X curve. So that is pretty much how your wealth will decrease based on your age. So when we're younger, and I will say this, because I had term insurance, which everyone kept telling me, oh, you have term insurance, don't worry about it. When I would be 50, this is when I would have to look at getting more insurance because you're thinking: "Oh, I'm getting older, I have a family, I'm looking forward to retiring at 65." So I would have insurance, but no, because it's term insurance, it expires in 30 years either I have to renew it or cancel it. Well, as you get older, insurance gets more expensive. So when I was 50, I would not have been able to afford my insurance because I would have been paying over $1,000 a month in premium. So I do like the X curve for that, where we will show the family how they can save now and plan for later and how their expenses do decrease in later years. But if you put proper savings in place, now you'll have it for your future.

And then the one thing that I would not have thought about, which impacted me a lot, was the financial foundation. So think of your financial foundation as a five-layer cake. I always thought your investments would be the most essential thing to have in place first, but it's actually not! It's proper protection. And if there's one thing, I was fortunate that I could work / transition from home while we are going through COVID. During the height of COVID, I did not have to go to the office. And, I would have thought that investment, as I said, would be the first thing for your foundation, but it's actually proper protection. So it's to protect your income, to protect your family. And if there's anything we've learned during COVID, we do need to have the proper protection in place to protect our family and our income. We are pretty much building our future and also our family's future.

The one thing that I found is that for us, the majority of people were middle-class and we believe that formal education is the answer to acquiring wealth. Yet, when you look at it, many people who are educated, don't have any wealth. When I was in school, I wish I would have learned this at an early age because I've been working since I was 14. When I came to Canada the next summer, I was like, I'm bored. My mom's like: What do you want to do? And I'm like, can I work? And I was able to get a job. So I was working when I was 14. So I could have saved, invested, and be enjoying compound interests.  

Dr. Sackeria Sunshine: Exactly! For the parents out there, I have a special message for you. You need to start looking at getting insurance and investments for your kids from now. Listen, a lot of us are brilliant and broke. Like I was! I have a doctoral degree and plenty of other certifications on the wall, but I was bright and broke. And one of the first things that I did in helping to set the record straight and ensure that the generations to come don't have to be poor. Listen, I went into this world and went from a family of poverty. I want to leave this world with a family of prosperity. Come on now! Your family can come from a poverty family, but you can leave this world with a family of wealth. And so, I decided to get insurance for my son because one crucial concept is that the younger you are, the less costly insurance is. I've heard of some families, as soon as the child is 15 days old, they get insurance for little or nothing, add investment to it, and by the time the child reaches like 18 or 20, they accumulate millions depending on how much they invest in that policy. 

Dr. Sackeria Sunshine: What's your personal vision, mission, and purpose?

Shakarah Campbell: So one of the things that I have changed a lot is that I am actually working on my mental toughness because I will tell you many things I have eliminated myself in my own mind saying, "I don't know if I can do this." I've always loved the law and that I'm comfortable with, but doing finance, that's very new to me. I look at it as I'm like: What if I can't help anybody? But one of the things that I've learned is that just giving people information, and if you don't know it, you can always find people who will help you. People in this business will help you. We can reach out to each other. 

One of the things that I want to do is make a difference for a family by helping them to build wealth. "You don't have to come from a rich family for a rich family to come from you." My vision for this business is to be able to build a big business that provides financial education, gives individuals and families comfort and peace of mind. 

Especially for our black community, financial education and financial literacy are not something that we have a lot, especially for immigrants coming here. So I want to reach out to help our community and help everybody intern, especially within the black community. So we have that financial education because I know from a lot of my friends, they're like, oh, well, I want to win the lottery. This is what I will do if I win the lottery. But when you look at it, I've seen the stats for a few families that have won a lottery. And especially when those families are black families, the money is gone within a little while. And it's like, oh my goodness, what happened. But you can't give a person a million dollars if they do not know their purpose or don't know how to spend that money because they're just going to waste it away. 

It's just that we didn't know how to save. So we just ended up spending everything, not knowing! As I've told you guys, I did not have a financial background. When I went to university, our college did not prepare me for that. I believe that I have a wealth of knowledge that is worth $10 million right now. And this has allowed me to be able to help other people, teach other people, or even help my own family and my own friends. My most significant purpose is education, just to educate other people, to let them know that you don't have to stay where you are. You can learn. If you want to learn, you can learn something different. 

Dr. Sackeria Sunshine: What are the top tips you would share with somebody who might be going through financial hardship?

Shakarah Campbell: I would tell them:

1. Have hope. There is always hope. If you're willing to put your pride aside and say, "know what, I need help." You can reach out to somebody that will help you. There are people out there that are willing to help you. And one of the things I will say, personally, because I've been through this, and I know what it feels like if you're in debt because that does make it seem hopeless. And you do get to the point, like also where, for those of you that are Christians, that you'll be like, oh my God, why don't you help me? Why can't you help me? I went through that myself. And it was me opening my mouth and talking to a friend of mine. And she said I made the consumer proposal. Try it, see what it is about. It won't hurt you because you can't go any lower than you are right now.
2. Don't be a prisoner to your debt. Reach out to someone who can help you.
3. If you don't have a goal, you will spend your life working for someone else. So you have to figure out what you want for yourself.
4. Just start small. One of the things I learned is that always pay yourself first. So even if you take $10 from your paycheck, when you get paid, and you put it aside and say: "I am going to invest this for myself." You can invest it in any avenue. If you want to put it in your savings account, or if you're going to put it in a tax-free savings account, it will stay there. And you can start as, as low as $10, $10 a day, $10 a week, $10 a month. However, it works for you because when you look at it, in reality, some of us spend more than $10 a day on things that we may not need, like coffee every morning. Imagine if you decide to take that money and actually save it.
5. Do not be afraid to open your mouth and speak to someone just to let them know what you're going through. Not everyone will judge you. People will understand because I will tell you that when I used to when I told my friend about my debt, she was like, oh my goodness, I was in the same situation. It was the same thing with her. In this case, she was married to the first one, but she was helping his family. And that's how she got into debt. And then when the marriage didn't work out, unfortunately, it was all in her name also. So she ended up walking away with her death. So I will say that it does happen. And I believe, oh, I'm sorry. I believe I just have to. Oh, I thought I only had two, two. 

Shakarah Campbell: I can leave you with one last thing that I learned, and I thought this would have been perfect.  Something for people to ponder. When you make money, the government tax you. When you spend your money, the government tax you. So imagine that your income is being taxed. You're spending your income, and that's being taxed. And when you put your payment to save in the bank, the government does tax you on that. When you die, the government tax you. You have to pay a final tax when you die. 

Dr. Sackeria Sunshine: Thank you very much. And it was indeed our pleasure to have you tune in. We will be showcasing another extraordinary individual who is helping families transform financial pain into purpose.