Since I’ve stopped doing the monthly debt updates, I wanted to do a quick check-in as I have been paying off my debt pretty rapidly. As of today, my remaining debt is:

Remaining Debt: $10,892

I know what you’re thinking: she’s almost not a loser anymore! I know! I feel the same way. In fact, I checked my credit score yesterday and it had jumped up to 770 since I’ve reduced my debt by so much. Considering that my bank said I need a 740 to qualify for their best mortgage rate, it’s a step in the right direction. So here’s my plan for getting rid of the rest of the debt: pay it all off by July 1, 2013. All of it. Every red cent. No more interest. No more payments.

Is that doable? Good question. July 1 is just under 4 months away, and according to my calculations (which I calculate obsessively, recheck and adjust daily), as long as I am extremely frugal until July 1, I can do it. There’s a tiny bit of magical thinking involved too, but I have found that that always works out. Seriously. I’ve never been late on a payment and have always come up with whatever money was needed when I needed it. Things generally tend to work out. I know that sounds vague, but I have set the date for a 100% debt pay-off for July 1 and it’s going to happen. It won’t be close. It will be done.

Vote to Change the National Anthem to R. Kelly’s Ignition (Remix)

My friend and future sister-in-law (sort of, her sister is married to Ryan’s brother, but you know, we’re basically family) told me that one of her old college friends decided to make an official White House Petition to change the national anthem to R. Kelly’s “Ignition (Remix)”. If it gets 100,000 signatures by April  2, it has to be addressed by Congress. It started out as a joke, but now it’s gotten tons of national coverage and has over 9,000 signatures. Go ahead, sign it.

Good Reads

It felt like the internet was full of flame wars this past month. Most relevant was that Financial Uproar took the time to expose many, many, instances of Finance Fox being a dirty plagiarizer. As I commented on the post, it looks like we have a Carlos Mencia on our hands. And in true “Menstealia” fashion, Finance Fox is blaming the whole thing on a ghost writer, which I gave my two cents on in DQYDJ’s excellent piece On Shortcuts, Originality…and Casablanca.

Philadelphia Magazine decided to publish Being White in Philly. I’m undecided about this article. I get what the author was trying to do, I respect the intent and yet…it still makes me kind of uncomfortable. Read it and tell me what you think.

Mr. Money Mustache (what no moustache?!) interviewed Ryan Carson, CEO of Treehouse. This was an excellent interview, and I love that education is becoming accessible and self-directed. We are the masters of our destiny! Captains of our own ship! We can do this. We can learn. We can build. And we don’t need to accrue crazy amounts of debt to do it.

Blonde on a Budget is almost debt-free too (and won’t be blogging personal finance once she’s there). She started blogging at just the same time I did, and has pretty much killed it turning around her financial situation. I hope she’ll share her new blog with us when it comes time to say goodbye to Blonde on a Budget, as I love posts like this one about her mom as role model.

Money Mamba reviewed the most successful investing strategies.

I laughed out loud at Budget and the Beach’s Budgeters Anonymous video.

Finally, I just want to send a general blog shout-out to Michelle at Making Sense of Cents. She is one of the most productive bloggers out there, hustles hard in her real life and is just all-around independent and successful. For only 23, that’s really impressive. And she’s making as much in side income these days as many people make at good day jobs. She motivates me to work harder!

Vote for me so I can feel good about myself

Can you do me a 10 second favor and go vote for me at Free Money Finance? Just leave a comment with the word “Reasons” in it and you’re done. I’d really like to make it past Round 1 this year!

Reggaeton Video of the Week

The answer is no: I never get tired of listening to Daddy Yankee. Las que juegan se quedan solas!

Last month, my goal was to be under $10,000 on my highest-interest debt. And I made it, just barely:

Highest Interest Debt (August 2012): $11,108

Highest Interest Debt (September 2012): $9,999

% Change: 10% Decrease

And my total debt looks something like this:

September 2012: $25,367

% Change from August: 5.3% decrease

And with that, I’d like to make a change in my debt updates. I am no longer going to make a monthly post out of it. I’ve been lazy, y’all. I use my debt update as a way to coast for a week without writing something good and instead just talk about how I am on track and make monthly goals which have been way too achievable (not trying hard enough). It’s great to be on track and I am not taking that for granted, but it’s time to step it up. I’ve been saying for a while now that small business ownership is one of the best paths to wealth and financial independence for many average Americans (or citizens of any country for that matter).It’s time to write more in-depth posts on business, business book reviews, and current legislation that affects small business owners. My goal is to have 100% of my credit card debt paid by the time I am 30 (maybe not right on my birthday, but within a few months). And I will stay 100% transparent on my debt until it is ALL paid off, with the exception of a mortgage or a business loan, which will hopefully be an SBA loan. All you have to do to check up on how I am doing is scroll down to the bottom of this page and check the Debt Tracker in the right-hand corner.  Monthly goals was one of my resolutions for 2012, so my goal for October is to be under $24,000 in debt and to continue making monthly goals even though I won’t always blog about them.

I have used this blog to examine my own situation under a microscope and it’s time to hand the microscope over to some more interesting topics. I’ve changed my habits to reduce my expenses. I’ve tracked my expenses daily since January, and I’m now spending around $650/month on variable expenses, which seemed impossible just a few months ago.

My goal for American Debt Project is to be a home for people who have realized that having a lot of consumer debt is not doing them any good and they have the desire to change their situation. There are people who have debt but who are also working on a ton of other things and have the ability to make it happen…but that debt is not helping them and it’s still a huge obstacle that needs to eliminated as soon as possible. When you are ready to make a change in your life, you usually know what you need to do. You start doing your own research. You start talking to people smarter than you and you don’t roll your eyes when someone suggests staying in instead of going out to eat or catching a $12.50 movie. I will share good ideas for getting out of debt, but everything you need to know to get out of debt is already out there. American Debt Project should be getting a little more interesting, starting…now!

 

This month was great for debt repayment, as the whole summer has been. It will slow down a bit after September so I am working hard to pay as much as I can now.

Smallest Debt (July 2012): $1,683

Smallest Debt (August 2012): $0

The goal was to have the Discover paid in full and I did! So now I need a new “smallest debt” although the name of this category was really a misnomer and it is now my Highest Interest Debt, which is my other credit card, the one that sat at over $18K for most of this year.

Highest Interest Debt (August 2012): $11,108

Looks doable, right? The reason why it’s not at 18K is because I took advantage of the 0% for 18 months balance transfer offer at Discover. I called to complete the transfer which was supposed to have a 3% fee and with a simple question (exact words: “or maybe you have a better deal for me?”) the rep changed it to a 2% fee. I am still saving money so I accepted the 2% fee, because I would have had to apply for a new credit card to find a 0% APR/0% fee deal, and I don’t want to do that.  So I still have four debts, but the interest rates are 0% (Discover), 6.25% (student loan) and 3.9% (Mazda). The balance on the Discover is $7K, and I will only pay the minimum while I try to knock out this high-interest credit card balance at 10.24% APR.

I am really grateful to have been able to pay off a lot of debt in the past few months and now I have a lot of other things I am trying to figure out. So my goal for September is to be at $10,000 on the high-interest debt. I also think I might have a DSLR camera by the next update. I’ve only been wanting it for three years so I think I am finally going to do it!

Total Debt Update:

August 2012: $26,795

% Change from July: 7.6% Decrease!

If you are new to my blog and find yourself in over $30,000 worth of debt (or maybe $40K or $50K), I don’t want you to think this is all super easy fa la la la I’m paying off my debt look at me! I was more clueless than anyone else about making a plan, a budget or being committed to paying off debt. You can definitely do it. It will be hard and some months you will have all these crazy expenses you didn’t plan for or something stupid like a parking ticket will happen. It’s OK. Don’t let that sinking feeling of desperation sink in. I used to wake up every morning stressing out about how much debt I had. I would be calculating which bills to pay so that there was still $11 in my bank account. It’s been 14 months (that’s a year and two months for laymen) and I’m finally feeling like the momentum has picked up and I’m able to make progress each month. It might not continue like this but no matter what, I now know I have the ability to be more reasonable and disciplined with money. If you are looking for my most organized thoughts on getting out of debt, check here.

How are you doing with your finances this month?