Comments on: You. Can.

By: financial freedom

financial freedom — Mon, 15 Sep 2008 10:37:18 +0000

Yes I can. I want to be debt free and financially free by the time I am forty. It is encouraging to know that people out there have done it and show that it is possible to achieve financial goals once they set their minds and hearts on it.

By: Julie

Julie — Sun, 14 Sep 2008 22:08:23 +0000

Thanks so much for this post – it’s just nice to see something so encouraging. So many financial primers on how to get out of debt are way too complex for me to understand, and I work with a bank! It’s nice to read an inspiring piece about the power of choice. II hope that ShoreBank’s new HYSA will help some people out of debt, we’re offering 3.5% interest (I know people with car loans that PAY more interest than that!) – for more info check out this link: http://shorebankdirect.sbk.com/

By: Stock Research

Stock Research — Tue, 09 Sep 2008 23:29:23 +0000

Well done. Very inspiring. There is nothing like the power of a decision. Now you can move on to accumulation and wealth creation!

By: Danielle

Danielle — Tue, 09 Sep 2008 21:49:45 +0000

Thanks for the continued motivation! It helps me to see others that have acheived some of their big goals.

@ Angie – It might be hard to un-remember that big debt number, but I started out just tallying up 1 thing, our unsecured credit card debt. I pretended like our student loans, car loan, mortgage etc did not exist… and just focused on one card at a time. Also as MoneyBeagle says, start keeping a few stats.

Here are the stats I record each quarter:

Savings
401K Balance
Net Worth
CC Debt Total
Interest/mo paid on CC
Minimum Payments on all CC

After 11 months of just watching those numbers I also added
Credit Ratio (mine is simplified to just CC Debt/available CC credit)
Non-Mortgage Debt

Sometimes even when you know you overspend your budget every month, and always end up with zero in the bank by the time pay day rolls around, seeing that Net worth number creep up, or savings and the CC interest and minimum payments decrease can keep you motivated to keep going. No offense to men, but this is one of the only ways I can quantify to my husband that our current scrimping and saving is paying off, not just in the long term but the short term too! When he gets discouraged I tally up some numbers to show him how much MORE of the money we put towards debt goes to principal now than it did 3 or 6 months ago.

My husband and I also were working towards automating as much of our bill paying as we could. It didn’t help our bottom line, but it helped our sanity, just as important if you ask me!

You also might want to look into a simpler way of budgeting, google “60% Solution” and take the first link to an MSN Money page to learn more. I found I alwyas set up a budget of what we WERE spending, but can never set up and make targets about the future. There was too much flux in financial priorities from week to week and too hard to get on the same page with my husband.

My 60% SOlution budget currently looks like…

Bills and Commitments 65% (all these are % of the household gross income)
Retirement 8%
Emergency Fund 3%
Short tem expense fund 4%
FUn Money 3%
Debt Repayment 17%

Ideally it would be more like this (or a modified version if I had different priorities)

Bills and Commitments 60%
Retirement 10%
Long Term Savings 10%
Short Term Savings 10%
Fun Money 10%

Sorry for the long post, I guess I had a lot to say today…

By: Zombie Money

Zombie Money — Sun, 07 Sep 2008 23:44:55 +0000

Congrats

By: Naruto

Naruto — Sun, 07 Sep 2008 20:46:19 +0000

Great and informative post ..I am loving it and i think so this is the best post on your blog

__________________
Naruto Ninja

By: credit crunch

credit crunch — Sat, 06 Sep 2008 14:14:18 +0000

I think theres a lot of people in the situation you where in, Being Debt has to be the way to live

By: Jon Kepler

Jon Kepler — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 22:53:14 +0000

The great thing about debt is that it works both ways. Have you ever noticed how compound interest can pile up? When you’re debt free and you issue loans (debt) to others, your profits pile up the same way.

By: Kim

Kim — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 14:43:16 +0000

Wanting is the biggest motivation we can have. I think the desire for freedom keeps me going through the ups and downs of re-learning. I have to learn not to spend. I have to learn to shop differently. I have to learn to live on a budget. I have to learn to start over when I mess up. But that sweetness of freedom and relief that I feel when I do it right – when I resist, when I tell myself “no”, when I shop the specials at the grocery store, when I use a coupon, when I shop at Goodwill for clothing and spend 3.99 on something that was orignally 75.00…I know that I can do this too.

By: MyDebtRefinance

MyDebtRefinance — Sun, 31 Aug 2008 09:22:06 +0000

For sure this is an inspiring post. I’m also in my way to live a simpler life, against all way of consumerism and marketing traps that make you roll over and over again in a cycle of debt.

So is good to know that a lot of people is taking the decision to be free now, to take the responsibility to manage their debts and their life.

Thanks for this post