This story is part of CNBC Make It’s Millennial Money series, which examines how people earn, spend and save their money.
On paper, Naseema McElroy had all the markers of financial success. In 2015, she was making more than $200,000 as a labor and delivery nurse, owned a Lexus SUV and had just bought a brand-new house in the San Francisco Bay Area.
But McElroy was in debt. In addition to her nearly $580,000 mortgage, she owed about $185,000 in student loans, $70,000 on a condo she had previously purchased and $22,000 on a 403(b) retirement account loan she had used to purchase her new home, according to documents reviewed by CNBC Make It.
Between living costs, debt repayment and everyday bills, “it definitely felt like I was living paycheck to paycheck,” the now-44-year-old single mom of three says. She even needed to borrow around $3,500 from her sister just to install blinds in her new house.
“I was just like, ‘I make way too much money to be in this precarious financial situation,'” McElroy says.
That April, she set out on a mission to tackle her debt and “get a grip” on her finances, she says. From 2015 to 2017, McElroy paid off nearly $1 million in debt she had accumulated over the years through a combination of making extra payments on balances, budgeting and selling her home, McElroy’s records show.
From 2015 to 2017, Naseema McElroy paid off nearly $1 million in debt.
Tristan Pelletier | CNBC Make It
The experience forced her to view her money intentionally, and McElroy says she now keeps a tight budget, saves “aggressively” and works three jobs in hopes of creating a lifestyle with more flexibility.
“My relationship with money shifted drastically,” she says. “It just became so freeing.”
In 2025, McElroy brought in just over $251,000 between working two jobs as an overnight labor and delivery nurse and her personal finance business, which began as an Instagram account and blog to document her debt payoff journey.
Paying off $1 million in debt in under three years
While McElroy says she was meeting her minimum debt payments in 2015, she just “didn’t feel good” about her money. She had no savings, and with a one-year-old daughter at the time, she says figuring out her finances suddenly felt more urgent.
“I was a single mom, and I was like, ‘If something were to happen to me, what is going to happen to her?'” she says. “I wasn’t tracking my expenses … I just had no clue where my money was going.”
Using a strategy called the debt snowball, McElroy says she started making extra payments on her debts, starting with the smallest and working up to the largest. Simultaneously, she continued to meet the minimum payments on the rest of her debts and budgeted her money diligently, so every piece of her income was accounted for.
In 2015, McElroy paid off $208,669 in debt and got married, during which she took on some of her husband’s debt. In 2016, she paid off another $77,977 in debt.
Because of her high income, she says she didn’t really need to make any significant lifestyle changes. She still treated herself and her family to trips to Disneyland and Great Wolf Lodge, but these choices became more intentional, she says.
“I was able to use my budget to provide a lifestyle of freedom versus a lifestyle of deprivation,” McElroy says. “I was giving my money jobs, and my money was working so much harder for me.”
In May 2017, McElroy filed for divorce, leaving her with a $15,000 divorce settlement she needed to pay to her ex-husband. She also owed the IRS $29,000 to cover a larger-than-expected tax bill due to the separation.
But by November 2017, after selling her house, she says she was able to pay off the remainder of her debt, including the mortgage and her student loans — leaving her debt-free.
Here are the debts McElroy paid off from April 2015 to November 2017:
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Breakdown of Naseema McElroy’s debt payoff by category.
Christina Locopo | CNBC Make It
- Primary home mortgage: $576,106
- Federal student loans: $186,659
- Condo mortgage: $70,356
- Car payments: $51,708
- IRS debt: $29,377
- 403(b) loan: $21,678
- Divorce settlement: $15,000
- Debt collections: $3,113
- Braces: $1,537
Saving aggressively and investing in her children
However, “paying off that debt was kind of anti-climactic,” McElroy says. “It was kind of like a transition point for me” to start saving money.
McElroy says she started putting money that would have been used for debt payments into tax-advantaged retirement accounts, including her employer-sponsored 403(b) and 457(b) deferred compensation plans, which are accounts similar to 401(k) plans that are typically available to nonprofit and government employees.
Additionally, she says she funds a traditional individual retirement account and converts contributions into a post-tax Roth IRA, using a strategy for high earners called the “backdoor Roth IRA.”
On top of saving for her own retirement, Naseema McElroy says she is saving for her kids in various investment accounts.
Tristan Pelletier | CNBC Make It
Since she’s able to hit the maximum contribution limits on her own accounts, she saves additional money for her kids through education-specific 529 savings accounts and custodial brokerage accounts for each child. McElroy also contributes to Roth IRAs for each of her kids because they earn income when they appear on her social media.
“I am investing in my kids heavily,” McElroy says. “I teach them that investing always comes first before spending, so they understand that their priority is saving for the future.”
Spending now and building business
In addition to her nursing jobs and financial wellness brand, McElroy earns extra income from leasing out her Honda minivan on Turo for about $50 a day and renting a room in her home out to staff nurses for about $1,000 to $1,200 per month. In December, she brought in $625 from Turo and $120 from the room she rents out.
Here’s a look at how McElroy spent her money in December 2025.
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Naseema McElroy’s spending in December 2025.
Christina Locopo | CNBC Make It
- Business expenses: $6,627 on various software, payroll and personal education
- Debt repayment: $5,315 toward a 403(b) loan, personal loan and home equity line of credit
- Mortgage and utilities: $4,128 including her mortgage, water, phone bill, electricity and internet payments
- Savings and investments: $3,844 toward her personal retirement accounts, a flexible spending account and custodial brokerage accounts
- Discretionary: $2,451 including gifts, home maintenance, medical bills, clothes, vacation expenses and entertainment
- Insurance: $1,553 on car, life, disability, umbrella, a home warranty, pet and health insurance
- Child care: $1,440
- Transportation: $1,426 on two car payments, car maintenance and fuel
- Food: $1,298
- Subscriptions and memberships: $955 including a credit annual card fee, gym membership, streaming services and technology subscriptions
Despite having a better handle on her finances, McElroy says she sticks to a strict budget to make sure she’s never overspending and still saving diligently.
She chooses to live in a less expensive area about an hour away from work to keep her $3,500 monthly mortgage payment under 30% of her income, and she works a part-time nursing job to cover the cost of child care for her three children, who are 2, 7 and 11 years old.
In 2025, her personal finance brand, Financially Intentional, brought in $46,000, but was not profitable. She says she’s currently investing heavily in software, product development and personal business education in hopes of using the company to normalize and amplify conversations around money.
“Traditionally, finance has been this very male, stale and pale kind of place where a lot of people feel excluded,” McElroy says. “For me, my business has just been so impactful on so many different levels, it’s almost a no brainer to be able to put money into it.”
Naseema McElroy says she works an additional part-time labor and delivery nurse job to afford child care for her three kids.
Tristan Pelletier | CNBC Make It
McElroy believes her business will not only become profitable, but she says she could make as much if not more than her nursing income next year, thanks to the investments she’s made.
However, she doesn’t foresee herself leaving her nursing career behind anytime soon because of how fulfilling the job can be, she says. Rather, she says she hopes the added income will allow her the flexibility to work less and spend more time with her daughters.
“The goal is not to just retire from work and live on a beach,” McElroy says. “It’s really about getting to do the things that I want to do and having the opportunity to spend time on the things that are important to me.”
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