Welcome to the Carnival of Debt Reduction #108. Sit down while I tell you about a guy who got into debt, and then got out.
Long ago there was a boy whose parents didn’t teach him much about money. After high school he headed off to college and immediately applied for a credit card that sucked him dry. Perhaps he should have read some quick notes on credit cards before he started using his first card. But he didn’t, and he was now a man in deep debt.
When he graduated from law school, he had a large amount of student loan debt, in addition to his credit card debt. He read an article about how the College Cost Reduction and Access Act affects law students. He knew he had to get out of debt. But how?
He began by asking himself “What’s your obstacle?” It occurred to him that spending more than he earned was a big problem. After berating his bad financial decisions for a while, he decided to stop worrying about how he got into debt and start focusing on how to get out.
Our man focused on reducing expenses, so he could pay off his debt. He asked if he could go a day without spending a dime. He grew his own herbs to save on his grocery bill. He was going along pretty well until he met a fine woman, got married, and bought a home.
With added responsibilities hanging over his head, he thought since his likelihood of an emergency had increased, his plan would need to change, too. He adjusted his emergency fund, and he became even more adept at saving money. In fact, he found that he was so vocal about being frugal that his big mouth often saved him money.
Finally our man paid off all of his debt except the mortgage. Before paying off his mortgage, he asked himself if he would lose his tax deduction if he paid off the mortgage. After careful consideration and some wise counsel, he decided he would pay off the mortgage. On the day he made the last payment, he realized he needed a plan to remain debt free. Time to go on to a new phase in life: investing. He read a book entitled Stock Picking for the Financially Illiterate and ended up saving a nice little nest egg for retirement.
Despite the guy’s lack of financial knowledge as a young adult, our man worked hard and paid off all his debt. He learned a lot about finances in the process, and today he remains debt free.
Be sure to submit your posts to the next Carnival of Debt Reduction, hosted at DebtFree-Revolution.
Thank you to the following blogs for submitting articles for this edition of the Carnival of Debt Reduction: Becoming & Staying Debt Free, Free Money Finance, moneywalks, The Frugal Law Student, The Simple Dollar, The Digerati Life, Rather-Be-Shopping.com Blog, My Two Dollars, We’re In Debt, I’ve Paid For This Twice Already…, Saving Advice Blog, Truthful Lending dot Com, A Penny Closer, and Savvy Frugality.
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October 8th, 2007 at 5:13 am
awesome carnival! thanks for including me!!
October 8th, 2007 at 6:24 am
The carnival looks great! I loved the story.
October 8th, 2007 at 6:38 am
I really enjoyed this post! Thanks so much and the carnival looks excellent too!
October 8th, 2007 at 8:28 am
Thanks for hosting!
October 8th, 2007 at 8:45 am
That’s a great story.
October 8th, 2007 at 9:14 am
Hey, great article, thanks for including me!
October 11th, 2007 at 7:01 am
I really liked this post…got a kick out of reading all the links…
October 13th, 2007 at 8:01 am
Very cool! Great story of debt and a happy ending! Thanks for including my post!