People of EarnIn: Donald Williams

Donald Williams knows what it means to be a great father. He’s had to work hard and make some sacrifices to provide for his wife and 4-year-old son, but he knows he wouldn’t trade it for the world. Hear his feelings on being the main breadwinner of the family, his initial thoughts on EarnIn, and his future financial goals:

“My name is Donald Williams and I'm 42 years old. I work for a school district here in North Little Rock, Arkansas as a bookkeeper. I'm married and I have a son who just turned four years old, so I’m excited about that and excited to see where he'll be going in life, trying to shape and mold him. I’m just at a great point in my life, enjoying what life has to offer. We’re just taking it one day at a time, especially with the situation we're in right now, as far as the pandemic goes.

My wife’s a stay at home mom. Before we got married, we had a conversation about whether she would come off the workforce or would she continue to work. I tell you, the closer and closer that baby got the more expensive it seemed. I was like, “I don't know if I want you to do that or not but it's a little hard out here.” I think about the days of old where with my stepfather, who had a pretty big family, there were 16 of them and it was their mother, my grandmother, that took care of all of them. I'm like, how in the world with their income versus what we have now did they make it?! It's mind blowing to see how expensive things are now, but it's the same planet.

In today's society, it's almost impossible for you to just have just one income. It's almost like if only one person is working, they have to take up another job to even make ends meet. It's rough out here, but we've made it. We've managed, and I thank God for it. You learn to manage, and you learn to continue to push forward. You learn to do without. That's one of the things that I find myself saying like, “If it means my son having it and me not having it, I rather him have it.” It’s the same way for my wife. If it's not me having it, let them have it. It's all good.

When I first heard about EarnIn, I was like, “Yeah, another ploy to get people's money.” But one day, I don't know if it was a commercial on TV or if it was something that I saw on the internet, but I found myself in a position where I did need money and I wasn't getting paid for a second. So I was like, “All right, let's try this thing out. Let's see if this really works” so I did it. I don't know how much I got the first time, but it was just a little bit and they sent me the money and they sent it quickly. It wasn't a thing where I had to wait and on top of that, it worked along with my payroll. It changed my perspective over that time after using it and I've been using it for a while. I usually use it after I've paid the bills and I need some groceries at the house. Having a four year old, he likes to eat so it's been helpful in that aspect, just getting little things.

I have some goals and some things I’ve invested in like a 403B plan. I'm just trying to be diversified and I’m still learning more. I don't want to put all my eggs in one basket. I’m also saving on the side, trying to hide money from myself, different things of that nature. We have two vehicles, one is paid for, and the other one is about to be finished so I can see the light at the end of the tunnel. I just gotta keep pushing, keep grinding to try and get those things taken off so you can free yourself up to be able to do more as far as meeting those financial goals for your future. After I do that, I want to try to take that money and put it towards the house because, actually, my wife wants another house so once we get ourselves freed up, we can move forward and do that. That’s what I’m shooting for.

Before we had our son, we got to go out and travel a little bit. Me being the only one working in the house, um, you know, uh, that's, that's the thing that I want to do, you know, looking forward to that time that we can enjoy what God has created. It's an enjoyment for us and to do those things, you need to make sacrifices. I’m also working on retirement and trying to get those things in place. Also need to look down the road for the future and make sure that my son will be taken care of whenever he goes to school.”

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