Veteran Idol Confesses He Was In Debt For Over 2 Years After Debuting
Making his debut in the iconic boy group SS501 in 2005, Kim Hyungjun went on to promote as part of its subunit Double S 301 (also known as SS301) and later a solo career in both Korea and Japan. In an episode of his series Neighborhood Bro Jjun, he opened up about being in debt during the group’s early years and how his luck turned around.
After spending years of his youth training at DSP Media (now merged with RBW), Kim Hyungjun was excited when those years paid off. He said, “When I was getting tired of waiting to debut, we debuted!” It didn’t solve all his problems, though.
Everyone thought the group was making tons of money just because they’d managed to debut. Kim Hyungjun repeated their words, “When I debuted, people around me were saying, ‘You’re rich! You got lucky.’” That hadn’t been the case.
Kim Hyungjun barely had any money at all but couldn’t share that fact with others. He said, “I couldn’t say I’m poor! I couldn’t do that.” While some companies make idols repay the money spent on their training, his debt came from another source.
The debt Kim Hyungjun was paying off had come from his family. He took the responsibility and paid it off with the money he earned, leaving him broke for at least two years after debuting.
But I had too much debt in my family. Just when I started to make money, it was all gone. I was back to where I started.
— Kim Hyungjun
After those two years, Kim Hyungjun was finally able to keep some money for himself. Nearly three or four years later, he bought the ultimate flex. He revealed, “Two years after we debuted, things were getting better. For the first time in my life, I bought my family a house.”
Despite being poor and in debt, Kim Hyungjun overcame it all. Not only did he buy his family multiple houses, but he can now let his mom live a carefree life without worrying about money at all.
Listen to Kim Hyungjun talk about getting rid of their debt and repaying his mom with a carefree life without financial burdens.
