I make a decent wage, but back in my youth I was just really, really stupid. At one point I was carrying around close to $40K in credit card debt. I should’ve just declared bankruptcy back when that was so easy to do, but my mom’s dirt-farmer/fisherfolk work ethic was too deeply ingrained in me (ironic since like 123 of my 289 cousins have declared bankruptcy at some point).

Anyway, I was getting things *slowly* under control until I bought a $5,000 tv, and that sorta started the spiral again. So tonight I did some things that should help, but leave me feeling uneasy just the same. First, I transferred about $7500 from a high interest card to a low interest card. That whole ‘shuffle money’ stuff always makes me nervous…like somehow its going to backfire. Next, I took up an offer to apply for a $15000 loan at a fixed reasonable rate. If I get it, I’ll pay it back over 5 years at about $330/month, which is easy enough to do. Right now I’m paying out $300 each to 2 cards and as much as I can to a 3rd, but it all gets eaten up by interest. With the $15K I can pay off all but the $7500 I transferred, and I can probably throw close to $1000/month at that if I tighten my belt loop a bit. If I can slam down that $7500 by Christmas and just have the $330/month for that loan to pay off, I’ll be sitting pretty. My truck will be paid off a year from August and I plan to keep it for at least a few years.

Like I said, I make a decent wage…but right now I give it all to the credit card companies, mostly to pay off interest. It sucks. It’ll be better soon though.

So kids, listen to a stupid old man…getting yourself into debt just so life can be a joyride just isn’t worth it. It isn’t like I have anything to SHOW for that $40K I spent…it was all on fast living, to use a cliche phrase…

Once I’m back on top of things I can start on my manpit like the guys over at ProjectBravo are doing.