Original Article on Business Insider

Rachel Jonat spent most of her young adult life dreaming of Olympic medals and crossing finish lines. But the games came and went and she began a new chapter as a wife and mother. Both roles forced her to take a hard look at the debt she and her husband were facing: $82,000 in total. They clawed their way out one step at a time, attributing most of their success to the practice of minimalism."I've always lived with debt." Since opening her first line of credit at 17, Jonat says she's been in a constant state of debt. The bills only piled higher as she did everything possible to fund her dream of rowing professionally in the Olympics. She eventually qualified in 2003 with some collateral damage along the way. "I had financed my Olympic drea...(read more)