Anna Paylian spent the past year climbing out of a massive debt hole she never thought she would escape. Here is how she is doing it.
Anna Paylian spent the past year climbing out of a nearly $30,000 debt hole she never thought she would escape.
At 27, she is studying human genetics — a field focused on keeping other people healthy. But her own finances needed a serious checkup after she lost her job as a graphic design analyst.
Before she was laid off, Paylian was earning $60,000 a year. With rent and bills mounting and no income, Paylian relied on the easiest source of funds: credit cards. It didn’t take long to max out five credit cards with interest rates ranging from 24% to 26%.
By the time she found stable work as a commercial underwriting assistant, Paylian’s total debt had ballooned to nearly $30,000. Her credit score fell from a solid 750 to a subpar 590, which made borrowing costs higher. She even consulted a bankruptcy lawyer.
“I honestly thought everything was going to end for me,” Paylian says. “I was severely depressed. I had low motivation to do anything and was just really upset and anxious.”
Paylian knew she needed help. In 2025, she enrolled in a debt management plan through Money Management International (MMI). The nonprofit credit counseling organization negotiated with her credit card companies to slash those credit card rates to between 1.2% and 3% — a dramatic drop in interest payments.
Working with MMI, Paylian also created a monthly payment plan, based on what she could afford. The cost to her: a one-time $30 fee, plus a monthly payment of about $25.
More than a year into the program, Paylian estimates that she has paid down $8,000 of her balance. She originally planned to pay off her debt in four years, but she is prioritizing extra payments to finish sooner.
“It feels empowering, like I have some type of control back in my life,” says Paylian. Her credit score is on the upswing, too.
WIDER TREND
US household debt climbed to $19.1 trillion in the third quarter of 2026, an all-time high, with credit card balances at a new peak of $1.29 trillion, according to new data from the New York Federal Reserve.
Among younger Americans, the average member of Gen Z (ages 18-29) carries $3,483 in credit card debt while millennials (30-45) have racked up $7,013, according to Experian.
The number of Gen Z borrowers who carry credit card balances for more than a month is also rising. From the fourth quarter of 2023 to the second quarter of 2026, that share rose nearly 20%, while it declined among other generations, according to new data from Deloitte.
“Gen Z is trying to balance financial discipline and optimism,” says Stephen Rogers, managing director of the Deloitte Consumer Industry Center. “The job market has made the short term feel unstable, so they’re borrowing to get through it.”
It feels empowering, like I have some type of control back in my life.
Anna Paylian
KEY TAKEAWAYS
Honesty is the best policy. If you’re drowning in debt, be honest with yourself. “You can’t hide from it,” says Ted Rossman, principal consumer finance analyst at MMI. “The math is absolutely brutal.”
After you acknowledge the problem, the next step is to figure out how much you owe, and then create a plan to pay down your debt — be sure to prioritize higher-interest-rate debt.
Get help. If you have less than $6,000 in credit card debt, consider a 0% balance transfer card to cut the interest you pay on your current debts, Rossman says.
It is also a good idea to call your credit card issuer and ask for a lower rate. A recent LendingTree survey found that 84% of cardholders who did so in the past year got their way.
But you might need more help if you owe more than $10,000 and especially if your debt is north of $20,000, Rossman says. In that case, a nonprofit credit counseling agency can help you negotiate with lenders and set up a payment plan.
Source: https://www.reuters.com/markets/on-the-money/how-one-27-year-old-is-climbing-out-nearly-30000-debt-2026-11-10/