Beautiful Life of Zig Zag Zoom

I have taken a big step in reducing my debt. I have looked over my expenses and chopped off a few I do not need. First to go was Netflix. I enjoyed the ease of having DVDs shipped to the house but we were not watching them very quickly. It was almost a crunch trying to find time to watch them. That reduction was $9.69 a month.

The next expense I worked on was that dreaded telephone bill. I reduced my Verizon Freedom package which was $49.99 a month to a regional package which cost $35 a month. We maybe make 100 minutes of long distance calls a month so I went with a long distance plan which cost 2.9 cents a minute. This is a reduction of around $14 a month.

These minor amounts may not seem like much but it adds up. You figure $23.96 a month adds up to $287.52 a year. That is an extra payment on our debt.

Now to the big things. We started the beginning of the month with a credit card balance of $4900. We took some from our saving and crimped for the rest and as of Friday the one and only credit card will be history. If I can find a reliable full time job, we should be able to crush and pay off our $49,000 student loans off in two years. This will take some sacrifice but in the long haul, we will be DEBT FREE except for the house! The home equity (we have no other mortgage) will be paid off in another year if all goes as planned.

For the first time, Karen is totally on board and as excited as I am to get all debt gone. I could not imagine how it will feel to owe no one. Of course, once that happens, we plan to buy a new house but not till we save enough to have a emergency plan in place and have a nice down payment.

Anybody else debt free or working hard on? Share your story by leaving a comment here!

What would be your ideal life? The one thing that leads to all roads is being debt free. You are limited if you spend your whole life living paycheck to paycheck while making someone else rich. My new goal is to end the cycle and become totally debt free.

As my core basis, I am taking the advice of money guru Dave Ramsey. I am in the midst of reading his book, The Total Money Makeover. I have always been good at handling my money but I have never been great. I have decided it is time to take on the mountain and win. My wife and I are fortunate in the sense that we have very little credit card debt. However, we owe a huge amount for student loans. We have no car payments and the only other debt we have is a home equity loan (no first mortgage). The credit card is going to be paid off by mid-November and we are attacking the student loans with all we have.

We own an old farm house that we can live in for a while but our goal is to either build or place a modular on a separate 75 acre piece of land we own. We would love to do this right away but we have to get debt free first. It will be tight living for quite a while but the end will be worth the effort.

Our key was to budget everything on paper and stick with it. I now carry envelopes in my wallet earmarked for the different things we do. When we go out to eat, I pull out the envelope and if there is enough we eat good, if it is low, we eat cheap. We have been on a solid budget for a month and it is hard to believe how much money we were spending and not even knowing where it went. I always paid bills and expenses first but the rest was free game. Now, we are on a tight budget and all excess goes to the debt. We paid off three thousand in a month and we are on a roll. I will share with you here when we get closer to our goal.

In these times of economic turmoils, it is important to get your own finances in order. How do you feel about getting debt free? Please share your own advice, plan of action, or opinion by leaving a comment.

I have always enjoyed watching the Dave Ramsey show. His advice is clear and precise and seems to have helped a lot of people. He is straight forward and to the point in a almost folksy way. If it is stupid, he will call it stupid.

The information he provides is not really rocket science, it has been said before and it makes logical sense. The key to following his advice is that the person has to have will power and be able to commit to getting out of debt and taking control of their own finances. Many financial wizards have said the same things but it is personality that i believe helps to get his point across.

If you find yourself lost and in need of help, I highly recommend watching his show on the Fox Business Channel at 8 PM EST or listen to him on talk radio. You can also listen to him on his website . He also allows both emails and phone calls but those are often backed way up so you may or may not get through.

His website also provides some information  on getting out of debt. However, a large part of his site is dedicated to selling you a product. I do understand that he is in the business of making money but I do have a problem with how much his website is trying to sell. For a man who is dedicated to helping people become debt free, I am surprised on how much he is trying to sell to the people who need his help the most.

Listen to his advice, read all you can  for free on his site, and borrow his books from the library. He is a smart man with sound advice and following his advice will help lead you and your family to a debt free life.

If you have taken his advice and have become debt free, feel free to post your story here by leaving a a comment. Either positive or negative, I would love to hear how you feel about Dave Ramsey.

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Many Americans are deeply in debt and have no idea how to get out of debt. Credit card bills could wipe out your paycheck in no time flat. It is time to take action and control your debt. That is what Debt Consolidation is met to do. It is not a magic bullet, it a means to and end of your debt. The folks at Debt Free 24 are dedicated to helping people get their debt under control.

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