Mattie Gardner is documenting paying down her debt on social media. Courtesy of Mattie Gardner This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Mattie Gardner. It has been edited for length and clarity. My husband and I are in credit card debt . We started at $63,227, and our current balance is $17,401. Back in 2022, we took a big risk and jumped into a building business opportunity offered to us by an acquaintance. I was working full-time then, but we decided to leap, and I quit my job . My husband also walked away from his career for this business. We had no income . It was a combination of bad timing, not great choices, and an inability to face the reality of our situation. We racked up $65,000 in credit card debt in a year. Our personal finances were a mess because we were relying on credit cards for our normal expenses. We gave it a year, and then both said we cannot do this anymore. In 2023, we both got full-time jobs shortly thereafter and slowly began rebuilding our lives.…