- [Narrator] Anthony andGenoka were married in 2016

but it wasn't until after the honeymoon

that they realized they werecarrying a combined debt

of over $114,000.

- So it came from, I went to undergraduate

so I had a undergraduate loan,

a couple of credit cardsfrom us just shopping.

She went to a privateschool for her master's.

So that was a ton of that,

that was about 60,000 initself, about half of it.

And then a new car that I gotwhen we moved down to Dallas.

- I felt like we, you know,

we'll pay it off whenever wepay it off, there's no rush.

Just kind of like how everybody else does.

You know, you have car payments,

you have these student loan payments,

it's just part of life.

- [Narrator] Since theyhad good-paying jobs

and the ability to make monthlypayments on what they owed,

initially, they both were unconcerned

about carrying the large amount of debt.

- I'm a director at a ITfirm in Genoka is a manager

for a mental health counseling.

I got debt, it will be paid off at,

you know, one day in the future.

- [Narrator] However, Anthony began

to reconsider his attitudetoward carrying debt.

- It wasn't just paying off the debt,

it was creating generational wealth

and it was being able to save more,

being able to give more to our family,

to our friends, to ourchurch, to whomever needed it

without hesitating to do it.

- [Narrator] Anthony alsogot serious about his faith.

He was able to convince Genoka

to work with him and toeliminate their debt.

- I'm going to church now.

I wanna be a part of it. I wanna support.

So we made it a line itemin our actual budget.

So the same way we werebudgeting for food, for clothes,

we were also budgeting forour tithing expense as well.

- I feel like once we started,

it just was like, "Okay, we can do this."

- [Narrator] Anthony signed his car up

for peer-to-peer rental.

They also started a dog watching service.

- I work from home full-time

so I was getting off by 4:00 p.m.

so I kind of had the restof my day to do things.

So we started working at a gym.

I'm also a therapist,

so I was working on a private practice

on the weekends and inthe evening sometimes.

So yeah, those were the mainthings, and then we started

a cleaning business outhere, as well. (chuckles)

- As we were raising our income,

we were tithing and themoney that we were tithing,

it was never felt because wewere always getting it back.

- We just knew that it's notour money it's God's money.

- It was really funny howboth of them kind of happened

around that same time,starting that financial journey

and also starting that religious journey.

- [Narrator] And as the Hartzogs tithed

while paying off the debt,

they started seeing God's blessings.

- It was always a windfallthat came into play.

End of the year I gota huge bonus and raise,

and that was another windfall.

And so we were seeing windfallsas we continued to tithe.

- Oh, it was fun.

We were using like a temperature thing

and scratching it off,like, "Okay, 40,000 more."

And we kept it on the fridge

and we had conversations about it.

- She was like, "Let's try to pay off

this amount of money this month."

And we were keeping track of it like that.

So once we startedhitting little milestones

like 10,000, 15,000,we started celebrating.

- [Narrator] And in just 23 months,

the couple paid off allof the $114,000 debt.

The Hartzogs are now able to travel

and enjoy their lives,

and do so, giving all the glory to God.

- Without God, you'reunable to do certain things.

And I think that's part of it,

to provide and give as much as you can.

And the only reason we're ableto do that is because of Him.

I think that that goes back to us,

like not stopping that tithing.

- Now it's kinda, it feels natural now.

It's like, this is the way it should be,

it should have been for a while.

And, but not having thatshackle is just, it's amazing.

(gentle music)