Brittany and Kelan Kline, Creators of The Savvy Couple

How this 28-year-old ordinary couple quit their jobs and make $100,000 a year working from home

An ordinary couple launches a blog

Student debt is crippling America. The total student loan debt in the US currently hovers at a staggering $1.7 trillion, and the median amount of outstanding student debt for an individual is between $20,000 to $25,000. This is why, sadly, it’s no surprise that people continue to pay off their debt into their 60s and beyond.

But what if you could crush your debt sooner than later? That’s what Kelan Kline and his wife, Brittany Kline, managed to do. Upon graduating from college, the couple was saddled with a combined $40,000 of student debt. While they did what they could to keep their student debt to a minimum during college, such as side hustling and tapping into financial aid, in 2018 they decided to crush their debt as soon as possible.

Brittany is a teacher by trade, the fulfillment of a lifelong career dream. She holds an M.S. degree in education and began teaching after graduation.

Kelan’s career path has been less settled. After receiving his B.B.A with a concentration in finance, he bounced between several different occupations within a few years including insurance sales, UPS driver, eCommerce, jail deputy, and most recent office manager.

While Brittany was comfortable as a teacher, Kelan was not. With each job change, he hoped to find a position that would bring him that elusive combination of happiness and more freedom.

To remedy the situation, he was beginning a home inspection business. That’s when he discovered blogging. It held the prospect of making money online, which is hardly an uncommon desire these days.

The combination of all the above – along with the missing sense of control – was what turned them into blogging. The original strategy was to start a blog focusing on personal finance. Specifically living a happy life on a frugal budget. That was something they had experience in and knew they could help others with.

They reckoned if their blog could be a good side hustle and earn them an extra $500 per month it would help them find that better future.

The Klines began their blog, The Savvy Couple, in July of 2016. That means they went from zero to $100,000-plus in barely three years! That’s what makes their story compelling, in addition to the fact that they used blogging as their path out of the rat race.

As you might imagine, the trek toward six figures started off inconspicuously. They made no money at all for the first eight months. But the Klines didn’t quit. In Month #9, they finally hit paid dirt – $50! And that’s when Kelan did quit – his job that is. He made the decision to become a full-time blogger.

Now that isn’t advice he’d give to other would-be bloggers, but he made the decision because the couple had “removed most of the risk involved with that decision”. That risk removal included the following:

• They had close to a year’s worth of salary saved up.
• They cut their living expenses in their budget to a minimum.
• Kelan had a backup plan to revive the home inspection idea in case the blog didn’t work.
• He also took freelance work after quitting his job.

That freelance work included a remote digital marketing position that also helped him learn online marketing. He also taught English online every morning. The basic idea was to make sure there was at least some income always coming in.

If you’re at all curious about blogging, the income it can produce is a natural attraction. But like many other successful bloggers, the Klines have discovered the incredible satisfaction that goes beyond income.

“Being a teacher was my dream, but also God put me on this Earth to be a mother,” says Brittany. “I want to be able to teach my daughter and spend as much time as possible together with my family. We only get one life to live. I want to spend mine making unforgettable memories with my family. I did not want to look back on my life and think I gave more to my students than to my own children.”

Kelan adds: “We now have complete control over our lives. We have no one else telling us when to come to work, how long we are going to stay, and how much we are going to make. We get to decide all of that on our own. If we want to take a vacation, we just take it. We get to travel so much more than we used to.”

The couple tries to finish working each day by 3 pm or 4 pm, giving them more family time. This is especially important now they have their daughter, Kallie. They wake up around 5 am to get in a few hours of uninterrupted work, then head to the gym as a family at mid-morning.

They also embrace the idea of being able to use their blog to help families take complete control over their time and money, so they too will find the freedom to do more of the things they love in life. Blogging has been so good for the Klines that they openly share their success and strategies with others.

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