OT: Credit card debt

Nope! Doesn't take long at all!  $9k paid off in less than 5 months. It works great! I thought about buying his books too.  Just haven't gotten around to it. Besides I have a walking, talking Dave Ramsey book here at my work! hehehe  Go ahead and get them though. I hear they're wonderful.  This is one "self-help" guy who is really is trying to help and not trying to make a fortune off of you.

Good for you!  You know there is some book (or Oprah show) or something I read or saw that relates all of this....weight loss, budgeting and getting your money in control and cleaning up the clutter in your life (Jer's cleaning the closet).  They are all supposed to go hand in hand.  Interesting concept. I think the key is CONTROL.  We feel so out of control when our weight is controlling us.  When we start to work on that and feel like we're in control, it's so much easier to get the ball rolling in other aspects of our life....always worked that way for me, anyway. Wow...losing weight...cleaning the garage...paying your bills.....what's next?

Wow Sherrie, now that is interesting! I never thought about it like that but it makes sense. I do feel more in control over my entire life.   Now if I can just get the 'control' to help the wife clean the house... Mmmm... nahh! :)

OMG _ that is a big deal, Kriz!  That is priority ONE for me to get mine down in 2008. I have about 4K on mine - waaaaay higher than I allow. DH and I put lots of vacation epxenses on MY CARD, then he buys a truck...and we did not pay my card back. I have long  believed that when your spiritual house is in order, all other houses fall into order (health, relationships, finance, etc).  My growing card debt made me look hard at my DH's chronic illness and how I was 50% of a spiritual problem with how we chose to deal with that.  I also have big finance news:  I paid off all student debt last month!  That payment can go to my cc debt... Thanks you for that post - it is a sign of finacen recovery when people can openly and objectively discuss these things!

Your welcome! :)  I've been repairing my good name (aka credit) since around 2003. I went from a 460 beacon to a 670 when I last refinanced my house. No clue what the beacon is now. The best thing about all this is soon, I won't even need credit. :) It's been a LONG road getting here and I had a few breakdowns along the way but I'm running along good now! I have to agree with you on the spiritual order.  Last year things weren't all quiet on the home front. The wife and I were doing okay but things weren't great. We both realized how we were making mistakes and put forth effort to fix things. Though I still struggle with my faith in God I am content for the moment in knowing that God does exist and it's okay for me to question man's interpretation of it all.  Everything has just been falling in place since then.

Here's Dave Ramsey's 7 steps plan for those of you who are interested. I'll be going to at least step 3. At this point in my life I have a hard time swallowing 15% of my income to a Roth IRA. I'm still a recovering spender though! :P Get out of debt the same way you learned to walk, one step at a time. Dave has taught these principles to millions via radio, books, Financial Peace University, LIVE events, and online:

		$1,000 to start an Emergency Fund
		Pay off all debt using the Debt Snowball
		3 to 6 months of expenses in savings
		Invest 15% of household income into Roth IRAs and pre-tax retirement
		College funding for children
		Pay off home early
		Build wealth and give!

Congrats, Chris. One of the few things I have done wisely: I have never had any credit debt. I don't own any credit cards, and the car is paid off in June. Makes life challenging at times, but at least I don't owe anyone anything. Except maybe Blue Cross-- they just paid out $109,223.50 for my RNY. I'll send 'em a fruitcake or sumpin'.

That's impressive!  I've been pretty good about my credit card debt. I've never been late on any payments and I've always sent more than the minimum payment, just never enough. :) What I haven't done so well on is car payments! lmao  They're the bulk of my monthly payments. Thank God they're next! $109.2k and yet if you self-payed it would have been FAR less. They wonder why insurance costs us so much..

Hey Chris! What kind of Harley and how much you asking for it? And congrats on the credit card debt.  I don"t have any to speak of because I don't believe in them, but i could get in HUGE amounts of trouble if i did have them, take my word for it.

2005 Dyna Super Glide Asking $12,250 but if the right person wants it I'd let it go for payoff! :P Here's my craigslist ad: http://charlotte.craigslist.org/mcy/607567859.html Disregard my neighbors trashy yard and the van I just sold that helped me pay off my credit cards. :)