I have noticed an up tick in visitors to my site, so I thought it was time for a reader poll. This week’s poll is pretty simple – Are You Debt Free? After you vote, take a minute to share your story – How did you get out of debt? How are you getting out of debt? Have you given up? Have you just started? Who or What inspired you to get out of debt? (Feed readers may have to click through to see the poll/vote.)

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Update:  Click here to view results as of November 7, 2007.  This poll received such a good response, I’ve decided to keep it up for another month.  If you haven’t shared your story, or voted, please feel free to do so now.

I am interested in how many of you have credit cards. I assume that most of you have them and that quite a few of you use them, but I recently meet three people who do not have and have never had a credit card. So, I thought I’d open up a reader poll and ask you:

In a recent poll, I asked readers to How Much Money Do You Keep In Short-Term Savings?Number of votes: 268

Here is a screen-capture of the results (so far).

So far, nearly 20% of those who voted have between $1000 and $2500 in short-term savings. A full 16% have over $20,000 in short-term savings, while another 20% have less than $1000. But, before you read anything into those numbers, read the poll comments. The real issue seems to be – How Do You Define Short-Term Savings? For now, I’m going to leave the poll open, and if you’ve yet to vote or leave a comment, feel free to do so.

I’m working on my own definition for short-term savings. For now, I’m including any money that I have, in any accounts, outside of my Retirement Accounts or Education Savings Accounts. So, my short-term savings would be equal to the total amount of money in my primary checking account, secondary checking account, savings account, and brokerage account. But, I’m not so sure that this is a satisfactory definition. So, for now, the poll stays open! Go vote!