In three months I had pieced together my new life. I had an apartment filled with matching furniture, a closet full of new clothes, and a brand-new car. From the outside, it looked perfect—and it had only taken three months to create. I was finally free. Except I wasn’t free, because my new life had cost close to $20,000. It was all paid for with credit, the debt was mine, and I would carry the weight of it for many years. There was nothing free about that.
