Today, May 1, 2008, my wife and I are officially free of credit card debt! I made my final payment today, and our balance is now zero. We've been working on this for the better part of a year. You can read previous posts about it here. Suck it, Chase!
I haven't quite grasped the reality that I no longer have a credit card balance, but it feels great already. I've had a slowly, steadily increasing balance for at least 10 years. When I transferred the whole thing away from Chase on September 27, the balance was $15,300. Seven months later, zero. It feels great to shred all the credit card "convenience checks" instead of checking to see what the rate is. It feels great to laugh at all the offers that tell us how "easy" it is to "pay down debt" simply by taking out a home equity or consolidation loan to be paid off at $900 a month for the next 96 months. It feels great to know that I now own everything I've ever paid for with a credit card, including my TV; my computers; my furniture; all the books, CDs, and DVDs on my bookshelves; the bookshelves themselves; and even my car (yes, I was an idiot).
If you'd told me a year ago that I'd be free of credit card debt by now, I never, ever would have believed it was possible. My wife and I have cut our lifestyle quite a bit, but I would say the main thing we did was to start paying some freaking attention to what we were doing with our money. All told, we've paid off a total of about $32,000 of debt in one year, and we're about halfway done. Next up is paying off the minivan in about 2 months, followed by my student loan in about 3 more months, and then our second mortgage in about 8 more months. In a little over one year, we will be debt-free except our primary mortgage. I'm excited to start doing something with my money besides giving it to other people.
I have to give a lot of credit to Dave Ramsey, and particularly his book The Total Money Makeover. I can't recommend it highly enough. The ideas in the book are simple and straightforward, mostly just common sense your grandmother would tell you. My wife and I are doing the work, but he's given us a clear path with baby steps to freedom, baby, yeah!
I love to talk about how it's going, and I'm always willing to answer questions about it, but I also don't want to bore you to death either. I'll probably post again whenever we hit another milestone (paying off the car, etc.) but not more often than that. With the credit cards gone, I feel like we're definitely on the downhill slope of debt elimination.
I haven't quite grasped the reality that I no longer have a credit card balance, but it feels great already. I've had a slowly, steadily increasing balance for at least 10 years. When I transferred the whole thing away from Chase on September 27, the balance was $15,300. Seven months later, zero. It feels great to shred all the credit card "convenience checks" instead of checking to see what the rate is. It feels great to laugh at all the offers that tell us how "easy" it is to "pay down debt" simply by taking out a home equity or consolidation loan to be paid off at $900 a month for the next 96 months. It feels great to know that I now own everything I've ever paid for with a credit card, including my TV; my computers; my furniture; all the books, CDs, and DVDs on my bookshelves; the bookshelves themselves; and even my car (yes, I was an idiot).
If you'd told me a year ago that I'd be free of credit card debt by now, I never, ever would have believed it was possible. My wife and I have cut our lifestyle quite a bit, but I would say the main thing we did was to start paying some freaking attention to what we were doing with our money. All told, we've paid off a total of about $32,000 of debt in one year, and we're about halfway done. Next up is paying off the minivan in about 2 months, followed by my student loan in about 3 more months, and then our second mortgage in about 8 more months. In a little over one year, we will be debt-free except our primary mortgage. I'm excited to start doing something with my money besides giving it to other people.
I have to give a lot of credit to Dave Ramsey, and particularly his book The Total Money Makeover. I can't recommend it highly enough. The ideas in the book are simple and straightforward, mostly just common sense your grandmother would tell you. My wife and I are doing the work, but he's given us a clear path with baby steps to freedom, baby, yeah!
I love to talk about how it's going, and I'm always willing to answer questions about it, but I also don't want to bore you to death either. I'll probably post again whenever we hit another milestone (paying off the car, etc.) but not more often than that. With the credit cards gone, I feel like we're definitely on the downhill slope of debt elimination.
Current Mood: 
ecstatic
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