Local church, program helps family deal with massive debt

Most families have debt.  However, there is a way to get out of debt, especially if it is causing you big problems. 

FOX59 spoke to one family that joined a program to get out of their $500,000 debt!

“It can be embarrassing when you talk about how much you owe to people and then they look at you like ‘you got yourself into the mess,’ and we did,” said Jill Propst.

Jill and her husband Neil owed more than half a million dollars.


Neil admits they simply spent too much. 

“I had the nice house, I had the nice car, nice van, and all the latest and greatest stuff, but I didn't really own any of it,” said Neil. “It was all debt.” 

That debt, and getting out of it, was also taking a toll on their four children.

“I would go to school and they would say, ‘Do you have this, do you have that?’ Then I would say no because my family has to pay off a debt that we got into and that was probably one of the hardest things,” said the couple’s young son, Samuel.

However, six years ago, the family began to turn their debt around with the assistance of Connection Pointe, which is their church in Brownsburg,

The family joined a program called “Financial Peace.” 

 “I don't think we've ever had a family say it's not worth it,” said Denise McCleese, Financial Peace coordinator. “We've had over 600 families go through our class.”

The class is run by nationally known speaker Dave Ramsey. 

“The average family pays off $5,300 in debt and saves $2,700 and that's in just 13 weeks, on average,” said Ramsey.

The cost of the lifetime program is $95, which includes the ability to take refresher courses.  Many of their ideas are unconventional, like paying off your smaller loans first, not necessarily your higher interest ones.  That way you will feel like you are getting somewhere.

“For example you owe a $600 debt, you pay that off first and then what you're paying each month you roll into the next debt, so when you eventually get into your really large debt regardless of the interest rate,” said McCleese. “You've built enough momentum to quickly knock that out.”

That is what the Propst family did.  Jill also got a job, they moved into a rental house and then into a smaller permanent home.  It was not easy.

This may not be the typical story for a family, because the Propst family was half million dollars in debt, and Neil has more income than most. 
 “People can say, he's a doctor, that's easy for him,” said Neil. “Well, we know a lot of people who go through this class that are not doctors.  They're ministers, they're laborers, and they come from every profession.”

This is the seventh year Connection Pointe in Brownsburg is offering Dave Ramsey’s Financial Peace University.  Classes are offered twice a day every Tuesday from January 24 through April 17.