When Credit Cards Become 'A Way of Life'

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When you see her sky diving, Ellie Kay may not seem like your typical family financial planning expert. But when she's on terra firma, she actually advises against taking risks, at least when it comes to personal spending.

Kay gives tough-love lessons to those trying to dig themselves out of debt.

When Kay was married 22 years ago, she didn't end up with just a husband and two stepchildren -- she also took on about $40,000 worth of debt. Since then, she has had five children of her own and has eliminated all the family's consumer debt.

She also said she and her husband could pay cash for their cars, buy a home, go on vacations, save for retirement, send their children to college loan-free and give away more than $100,000 to nonprofit organizations around the world.

"Nightline" called on Kay to help Lorinda Heide, a paralegal from Detroit with two daughters and a husband in the Army, who believes her consumer debt is around $60,000.

"It's been difficult worrying how things were going to work out with our bills," said Heide, whose main worry was mounting credit card debt. "I'm really looking forward to seeing what [Kay] has to improve our financial situation."

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Kay flew to Detroit to help Heide bring down the interest rates on her credit cards. Before that, they both sat down to get a handle on what was going on with Heide's debt.

"It started when my parents became ill," Heide explained. "They both had cancer at the same time. They were both terminally ill. [My husband and I] both left our jobs to help take care of them. We were living off our savings for a while but soon that ran out and credit cards ended up becoming a way of life."

Kay asked Heide if she'd made purchases that had contributed to her consumer debt, demonstrating the growth of debt by blowing up a balloon.

"Last Christmas, I know we ended up getting digital cameras for the girls," Heide said. "We ended up getting a Playstation. Guitar Hero. I'm sure it was over $1,000."

Heide also told Kay about a trip to Europe she took recently with her family, and other consumer purchases she'd made in the past year. Before long, the table was covered with balloons.

"Each ballroom represents $100 worth of consumer debt," said Kay. "If we were to get at your consumer debt that you're looking at today, that you're talking about with me, we would end up filling up this entire room with balloons."

Heide called the situation "really scary." And it was about to get scarier.