Debt made him leave the Wall Street Journal

Dave Kansas writes on the FiLife personal finance web site about how he left The Wall Street Journal to go to TheStreet.com back in 1996 to make good on a promise — to pay off his college debt by the time he was 30.

Kansas, who returned to the Journal but is now running the FiLife joint venture between Dow Jones and IAC, wrote, “I started doing the math in early 1996. If I remained a reporter (I was then at The Wall Street Journal), it would take many years to pay off my debts. And my $4,500 bill for the last semester of college still hung out there. I was receiving letters from collections agencies on that front. While I had graduated, I couldn’t get my diploma until the bursar was made whole.

“On my 29th birthday (March, 1996) I made a vow to become debt-free by the time I turned 30. That summer, a couple guys came along to recruit me to join an internet start-up that would focus on financial news. At first I was extremely skeptical. Leave The Wall Street Journal for something that didn’t yet exist? Sounded crazy. But then I started thinking: What if I could get a salary that would help me meet my goal? So, I began negotiating.

“I ended up moving to the company, TheStreet.com, eventually becoming its editor-in-chief. Turned out to be a great move, and debt made me do it.”

Read more here.