3 habits a couple used to save over $500,000 in 2 years

Continuing the habits they’d already established to pay off debt helped this couple reach their goal of building a half-million dollar portfolio.

Jhanilka and Anthony Hartzog built a half-million dollar portfolio. Photo: Courtesy of Jhanilka and Anthony Hartzog

By Liz Knueven

Jhanilka and Anthony Hartzog, a therapist and IT professional, didn’t just start saving one day — they had a significant amount of debt they needed to tackle first.

Staring down $114,000 worth of student loans, car loans, and credit card debt, the couple did everything from dog sitting to working shifts at their gym to pay it down.

After 23 months, they reached their goal of becoming debt-free. But, rather than start to spend more, they decided to use the extra cash flow to build up a savings and investment portfolio worth over $500,000 — and they reached that goal in about two years.

Said Jhanilka, “All the things we started during paying off our debt, we didn’t necessarily cut it off once we paid off the debt.”

They relied on three habits to meet their first goal, then kept up those habits to reach their second.

1. Instead of spending the money once their debt was paid off, they just routed the cash towards saving