Goal #1) Eliminate My Credit Card Debt

I started my list of goals with eliminating my credit card debt because I feel that having debt is the most restricting power in my life.  I’m sure many people would agree with me.  Being in debt is similar to having the life choked out of you.  I have an idea in my mind of what it is like to be debt free.  I imagine my life following relatively the same path I am on now, but without the worry and burdeon of being a slave to the bank.

Living debt-free will give me a sense of freedom to take risks that I probably wouldn’t be willing to take otherwise.  Being in debt is similar to living in fear, and everyone who has ever been afraid of something knows how paralyzing a feeling fear can be.  When you live in debt you fear everything.  “What if I lose my job?”  “Can I afford to pay the bills this month?”

You tell yourself that you can’t do something because you can’t afford to take the risk.  “I can’t take that lower paying job I would love because I have a secure job that pays the bills.”   You are unable to enjoy life in other ways as well.  Maybe you find yourself working late or on the weekends but never seem to get any further ahead.  You are sacrificing yourself for a dollar bill, something that people who are debt-free have the option of not doing.

All of these reasons are what motivate me to eliminate my debt, and my first step on that journey is to eliminate my credit card debt.  I set out a goal of having my accounts paid in full by February 28, 2009 and I made my final payment on February 24th.  My account balace will be exactly $0.00 once that payment posts.

Mission accomplished!

*Note- The pending charges are payment holds.

Thanks to the credit card companies and their ingenius ways of screwing their customers with two cycle billing, I will owe a small balance next billing period.  So I’m 99.9% free of my credit card debt.

In order to make this happen I had to set a deadline for myself that would be a challenge, but would still be possible.  It needed to be soon enough that I could see the deadline approaching and know that the sacrifices I was making now would be rewarded rather quickly. 

I sold a lot of my personal belongings on eBay, earning $270 in the month of February.  It isn’t a lot of money, but all of it was applied towards paying my credit card off, and it helped supplement my income.  Without selling on eBay it is unlikely I would have accomplished my goal.

I have been trying to scale back my spending but for the last month I have really scaled back, not spending very much at all.  Instead of buying things that I don’t need, I applied that money towards my balance.  I didn’t stop living my life, I went out and enjoyed myself, but I watched the money I was spending and knew exactly how much I could afford to spend while staying on track with my goal.

Now I will move on to getting my car loan paid off as soon as possible.  I’ll have to crunch the numbers and figure out what is a reasonable time period.