44-year-old nurse paid off nearly $1 million in debt in under 3 years: 'My relationship with money shifted drastically'

This story is part of CNBC Make It’s Millennial Money series, which examines how people earn, spend and save their money.

On paper, Naseema McElroy had all the markers of financial success. In 2015, she was making more than $200,000 as a labor and delivery nurse, owned a Lexus SUV and had just bought a brand-new house in the San Francisco Bay Area.

But McElroy was in debt. In addition to her nearly $580,000 mortgage, she owed about $185,000 in student loans, $70,000 on a condo she had previously purchased and $22,000 on a 403(b) retirement account loan she had used to purchase her new home, according to documents reviewed by CNBC Make It.

Between living costs, debt repayment and everyday bills, “it definitely felt like I was living paycheck to paycheck,” the now-44-year-old single mom of three says. She even needed to borrow around $3,500 from her sister just to install blinds in her new house.

“I was just like, ‘I make way too much money to be in this precarious financial situation,’” McElroy says.