I’d like to thank those of you who have clicked over from the N.Y. Times. John Leland recently interviewed me for an article about debt reduction blogs, and the article was published today! (Debtors Search For Discipline Via Blogs)

My archives are located at the left-hand side of this page. A brief summary of my progress from April of 2005 to February of 2007 can be found here.

Also mentioned in the article was the No Credit Needed Network. The NCN Network brings together bloggers from all over the world, united in a desire to get out of debt and save money. Currently, over 60 bloggers have posted their personal finance related progress charts. Click the link and check out some amazing progress!

I also have a podcast about debt reduction and a brand new weight loss blog. You can find more information about these projects here: No Credit Needed Podcast and here: No. Calories Needed.

Thanks for stopping by. If you would like to contact me, click the contact tab at the top of this page, or leave a comment on any post.

Click here to subscribe to No Credit Needed.

I’d like to take a second and thank John Leland for the interview and the article.

Filed under: Popular Posts, Press
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I was going over some old paperwork from a few years ago and I found an old credit card bill.  The bill was from March of 2005, about one month before I started this blog.  When I saw the amount on the bill, I started to think about the past 22 months and a how much my financial situation has changed.  Here are the details:

In April of 2005:

I had a combined debt balance of: -$11,500

In my checking account, I had a total of: $500

In my retirement account, I had a total of: $12, 500

In my savings account, I had a total of : $0

If you add all of those numbers together, I had a positive cash position of $1500

That’s right.  I am married with two children, and I had no savings, a minimal amount of money in my checking account, and 11,500 dollars worth of debt.

As of February of 2007:

I have a debt balance of: $0

In my checking account, I have: $2,000

In my retirement account, I have: $22,500

In my savings account, I have: $20,000

If you add all of those numbers up, I now have a positive cash position of $44,500.  In twenty-two months, I’ve improved my cash position by $43,000.

If you exclude my retirement account, I’ve paid off $11,500 worth of debt, and increased my checking and savings by a combined $21,500.  That is a $33,000 change in twenty-two months.

I’m super excited that I’ve been able to make some progress, but I’m looking forward to making much better progress in 2007.  Looking back, it’s really, really cool to see how far we’ve come, but I also see how we could have done even better.  But, I will not live in the “land of regret”.  Nope.  Everyday I’m learning a little bit more about personal finance.  I’m learning about investing, saving, budgeting, etc.  I did not write this post to “toot my own horn”.  Shoot, in some ways I’m embarrased that my progress has not been more substantial.  I wrote this post to encourage those of you who are just “floating along” hoping that your finances will somehow “work themselves out”.  The truth is, I had to become accountable for my spending, saving, and investing habits.  I had to look at the man in the mirror and remind him of what was (and was not) important.  I had to make a change.  And I did.  And, you can too!

(My wife just read this post and screamed, “Dork!”  Her pension, by the way, is excluded from all calculations, becaue it is a mandatory contribution.  Our average take-home pay for the past twenty months has been between $4000 and $5000 per month.)

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Less than two hours ago I wrote that I was thinking about getting
rid of my satellite television.  Thinking about this prompted me to
do a little research, and low and behold, look what I found:

Dish Network will be raising the cost of most of its programming
3 - 4%, starting in February and March of 2007.

DirectTV will be raising the cost of most of its programming
by 3 - 4%, starting in  February and March of 2007.

Hmmm.. I find it very, very interesting that BOTH of the major
satellite television providers will be raising their rates by almost
identical amounts at almost precisely the same time.

I’m going to talk to my wife tonight and see what she thinks about doing away with the satellite altogether.  If it were not for watching sports, I’d do away with it today, but I really like to watch golf and football, and she likes movies and the occasional program.  At a minimum, I’ll call Dish Network and request a discounted rate.  “Stay tuned.”

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I grew up in a very rural area without cable television. When I was about 15 years old, my family purchased a satellite so that we could watch television. Prior to the satellite, we were able to receive three local networks. I used to really like to watch television. I like ESPN, the History Channel, HGTV, etc. Lately, however, I can’t really find anything worth watching. My wife and I will watch 24 and American Idol, but neither show is all that great. I have a month-to-month contract with Dish Network. I’m really thinking about getting rid of the satellite. My kids like the shows that come on Noggin and PBS, but we have plenty of DVDs that they enjoy watching. As an experiment, I’m going to try to go a few days without watching the television, and see how things go. We pay about $50 a month for satellite television and I’d love to put that money to better use. My wife enjoys Lifetime (the bane of my existence) but I think that she’d be just as happy without it. I’m sitting here right now and I literally cannot think of a single show that I’d like to watch.

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Several of my favorite personal finance bloggers have sites dedicated to subjects other than personal finance.  To the list!

Five Cent Nickel also has a site about parenting and a site about sports injury.
Raising 4 Boys  Sports Injury Info

The First Time Homeowner also has a site about sports.
Run To Win 

Lazy Man and Money also has a site about fitness.
Lazy Man and Health

Blueprint For Financial Prosperity also has a site about grilling.
Grill Maestro

Binary Dollar also has a site with videos.
Brohans

Get Rich Slowly also has a site about animals, a site about books, a site about comics, AND a site about pop culture.
Animal Intelligence
Bibliophilic
Four Color Comics
Vintage Pop

No Credit Needed (that’s me) also has a site about weight loss.
No Calories Needed 

It’s good to see that those of us who like to talk about money also have other interests.  If you are a personal finance blogger and you have a non-finance blog, leave me a comment and I’ll check it out.

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