For starters, I freaking hate the word "BLOG" and I think it should have never, ever, ever been invented, and I think all the posers that use it are morons, and I think everyone should say "web log" since that's what it is. However, I completely lost that fight to the rest of the internet, so I'm going to use the word "BLOG" from now on without quotes and without capitalizing it. I just want it here, on the record, that I hate it and I'm using it against my will.

Anyway, there was recently a thread here about how much debt you are in. A lot of people on there had 0 debt, which is completely awesome. Unfortunately, I'm not in that situation (on March 1st we had ~$30k in debt). I recently read a book about becoming debt-free. I asked my wife to read it and now we are starting the "debt snowball" to get out of debt as quickly as we can.

I decided to start a blog about it for a couple of reasons:
1. share our experience with others in hopes that it may help
2. publicly state our intentions so there's a record
3. track progress online
4. hopefully keep us motivated to finish

If none of the above stuff seems interesting, please stop reading and go away. If it does seem interesting, please visit my new blog here:

http://debtfreethisyear.blogspot.com/

I just hope people don't immediately think your blog is just a clever advertisement in disguise. We do get faced with "debt-free success stories" adverts almost everyday.

being debt free is awesome. i'm not there yet but i'm close ( $7000 ).
debt is a scam purpotrated on the public by the banks and creditors. you don't need to be in debt. take a look around you and look at the things you are in debt for. do you really need those things enough to be indebted to the creditors for? the answer is almost always "no".

i wish you the best in your endevours to become debt free brian. i truly hope you can do it. it really isn't easy. it's a whole life style change. it'll take reall dedication.

Man, that URL looks pretty suspicious.

Hahah of all the people on earth I would scam, you guys would be last. Or at least second-to-last. Well, maybe a bit higher than that but for sure not 1st. Well, likely not first. I promise!

It's on blogspot, how scammy can you get on blogspot anyway?

Blog isn't that bad of a word. It's a logical progression from web log -> weblog -> blog. It's not nearly as bad as words like "blogosphere," a word used to describe blogging communities. I hate it.

Maybe we should say web log o'sphere.

I prefer blag.

Needs more flash

I commented!

DUDE! I just read that book! By Dave Ramsey, right? My wife and I are going to sit down tonight to work on a budget, and then, the $1000 emergency fund is the first goal.

Awesomeness!

It sounds like you have a leg up on things as far as getting started. We don't have a big vehicle to sell, but we don't have any car payments either. I look forward to starting our snowball soon too.

absolutely. I'm £12,000 in debt thanks to student loans, but that is something I can look at as an investment as every job I'm interested in requires at least a first degree. apart from a really big purchase, like a house or car, there really is very little that people should be borrowing money for. whenever one of my friends talks about going shopping using a store card "because they can't afford to use cash right now" it makes me want to scream. if you can't afford to go shopping, don't bloody well go shopping!

very interesting Brian.

I'm working my own debt down right now (~$4000) which is the remainder of my school bills + some extras from last year.

Even for something like a car, you can save up. I'd bet a lot of people have debt from a car they didn't immediately need, i.e. their old car wasn't about to explode on them.

Thanks! I plan on updating at least twice a week, probably mondays and thursdays or something. I wouldn't make it a daily visit or you'll be disappointed. (subscribe to the feed, I've been using google reader lately and it's decent)

Yes, it's definitely easier with that big tax check this year. But we have some hurdles, too, for instance, our house payment was about 50% of my take-home each month (on a 30 year mortgage). This is much bigger than Dave Ramsey's 35-45% on a 15 year loan. I don't think we're up for selling it, which makes the whole process a bit more difficult. The good news is that we just refinanced (simply to lower the rate and thus the payments) and after redoing my W4 I think it's about 45% of my take-home. But that's still on a 30 year mortgage. Blah, I'll talk about it more on the blog later. I'm compiling a list of post ideas on paper here so it won't get stale.

I think I hate you.

i think we live in a time where our parents values and ideals have been ingrained into us. owning a house is nice but the numbers show it was much easier for our parents to do so.
we all seem to struggle to buy a house even though the financial burden for my, and younger generations is too much. is it really worth it to own your own house. sure, when you're 65 you might have it paid off but then what? sell it 'cause you've used all your disposible income for the past 30 to 40 years paying for it? look at the numbers and the history of the economy. i think you might come to the same conclusion that owning your own home may be unaffordable and or unrealistic these days.
unless you buy a $75,000 house in the middle of nowhere to retire in while you work in the city. rent a cheap place and forget about keeping up with the jones' and buy an inexpensive place somewhere else. on a 20 year mortgage a $75,000 8 acre retirement home may be more affordable than buying a $300,000 home in the burbs.
look at what the banks are advertising to you and do the exact opposite. they only care about your money when it's owed to them.

Debt free seems pretty common sense to me. If you are in debt, don't get more debt to pay off debts. And don't pile on debts.. just pay them off and work profit$

You feel about the word "blog" like I do about "wiimote". I -still- say, and type, "wii remote". I just refuse.

I've tired telling this to my brother and my ex-gf, both failed terribly at it....

As for me, just my student loan as my debt, think it's around £15,000, but I've been getting a good chunk of money saved up while doing my PhD, (being paid to be a student is awesome). I highly doubt I'll use it to pay off my student loan as the interest is tiny, but I might use it to put a deposit on a house or something.

We'll see, I'm still hoping for a housing market crash in the UK because otherwise getting on the property ladder will take a long long while without some sort of help.

I might forward a link to the blog to my brother and ex-gf, it's about time they saw sense.