How to Achieve Debt Freedom Without Sacrificing the Fun Stuff

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In most cases, it’s not super easy to achieve debt freedom.  But that doesn’t mean your life has to be miserable while you’re getting out of debt.  In fact, you don’t have to sacrifice all the fun in your life just because you’re paying down debt. You can still have fun! In this post I’ll show you how to make a solid plan to achieve debt freedom without being miserable in the process.   You Can Still Have Fun Getting out of debt isn’t completely about deprivation and self-sacrifice, although they do play a role. Some people would rather put […] Read more »

Want To Achieve A Big Goal? Better Know Your “Why!”

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The street corner marked the end of my eight mile run, and upon reaching it I peeled off my tank top. It was soaking wet from being in the rain for just over an hour, and I rang it out as I walked the final block to my drive way. I opened my front door to see my wife looking at me with eyes wide open and a smile on her face. “I look out the window and see this beast walking up the driveway without a shirt on!” She went on to explain that it wasn’t just the fact […] Read more »

Tell The Joneses To Go To Hell, They’ll Respect You For It

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It’s taken me over 41 years of walking this earth, but I’m finally getting a grip on the person I want to be. It’s been building for awhile, but my perspective was reinforced at a gathering with friends over the weekend. It was our monthly gourmet club get together, which is basically a modified potluck. The host picks the theme and prepares the main course, and the rest of the guests bring an appetizer, side dish, or dessert that matches the theme. It’s a great group of friends, and we always have a lot of fun. It’s also an event […] Read more »

The Effect Of Debt….We’ve Come A LONG Way

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I know that my life is very different now that we’ve eliminated $109,000 in credit card debt. We have breathing room in our budget, we have the freedom to decide what we do with our money, and life is just over all less stressful. But every now and then, something happens that brings me back to the days when we were struggling and reminds me just how much better off we are without the weight of debt holding us down. My smoker is in need of some maintenance. The rope gasket I had installed on the cover of my smoker […] Read more »

Want Success? Make The Choice!

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There is a redemptive power that making a choice has. Rather than feeling like you are an affect to all the things that are happening Make a choice. You just decide what it’s going to be, who you’re going to be, how you going to do it. Just decide. -Will Smith (actor) This quote was stuck in my head all week, and it inspired me to view the world through a different perspective. I walked to the vending machine with every intention of buying a soda to go with my lunch. When I arrived at the bank of vending machines, […] Read more »

Debt Is A Temporary Condition – How Long It Lasts is Up To You!

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Today’s post is my contribution to the #DebtIsNotForever movement started by Jackie Beck over at The Debt Myth. You can participate as well by taking a picture of your “Why” you want to get out of debt, or why you’re working to get out of debt right now and posting it to her Facebook page. Check out this link for more details – Jackie is also hosting a giveaway for all that participate in the movement, and publicly take a stand against debt. Will you stand with us? Pain is temporary. It may last for a minute, or an hour, […] Read more »

Motivational Monday: Three Steps To Achieve Your Financial Goals

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A few months ago, I caught a link to a motivational video filled with inspirational quotes. I still watch the video almost every morning as I prepare to take on the world for the day. It centers my thoughts on what I am going to do that particular day to help me make positive progress towards the goals I am trying to accomplish. After several weeks of listening to this video, I wanted to find out who the voices in the video were. With the help of Google, I was able to determine one of the people featured was a […] Read more »

Instant Gratification Here, There, and Everywhere

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I felt myself becoming more agitated as I sat at the stoplight waiting for the light to turn green. I was on my way to the gym, and was anxious to get started. The light was seemingly taking forever, so I decided to figure out how long the light was red.  I was sure it would be a ridiculous amount of time. I remember that I had started a new track as I pulled up to the intersection so I would easily be able to calculate how long I was sitting there. After what seemed like an excruciating eternity the […] Read more »

A Black Friday Deal you WON’T believe!

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Good morning and Happy Thanksgiving! I hope your day is filled with family and board games along with tons of turkey and stuffing (I love stuffing). I should be entering receipts into YNAB right now. I usually check our bank account for my wife’s deposits at the same time but when I signed on to online banking I saw this: They are using the holidays as an excuse to sell you money Look, I understand if you don’t have enough money to purchase all the Christmas gifts you’d like to. Maybe you will borrow money to buy gifts this year, I’m […] Read more »

My Apologies To Gazelle Intensity

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  I’ve never identified with the concept of gazelle intensity. My interpretation of it has always been one of extreme frugality, living with no frills for an extended period of time in order to throw as much money as possible towards debt and/or retirement. It always seemed to me that kind of perspective would have people essentially get zero enjoyment out of life while they pay off debt, or save for retirement. I always thought there had to be some kind of balance. I never understood why someone would purposefully and completely deprive themselves of everything. But over the weekend, […] Read more »

Navigating The Pace of Debt Reduction

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Happy Wednesday, EOD Nation!  I have a very special guest post for you today from friend and fellow blogger Prudence Debt Free.  She’s been a regular visitor to Enemy Of Debt for what seems like as long as I’ve been writing here.  Once I followed the link to her site and started reading I was hooked.  Today, she brings her story to Enemy of Debt.  Enjoy the post, and give her some comment love – then go check out her blog.  You’ll be hooked too! DD3 = Third dear daughter DH = Dear husband DD2 = Second dear daughter DD3’s […] Read more »

We’re Getting a Debt Consolidation Loan, and I’m OK With That

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Hot off the presses, EOD Nation, despite all you may have read, debt consolidation loans are not evil. Even after completing a debt management plan in which we paid off $109,000 of credit card debt, my wife and I knew we still had actions we had to take to really get our finances completely on the right path. One of those actions is paying off two additional lines of credit that could not be included in our debt management plan. Our goal was to consolidate these two lines of credit with a single consolidation loan. We applied for such a […] Read more »

Knowing when to throw in the towel is an art: bankruptcy and liquidation are a hard choice

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Today’s post comes a brand new member of the TeamEOD writing team – please help me give a warm welcome to Maria who hails from The Money Principle!   I have a lot of admiration for Maria, as she has an absolutely INCREDIBLE debt payoff story. She’ll be appearing here from time to time, and I can’t wait to read Maria’s take on saving money and debt.  Take it away, Maria! Our readers over on The Money Principle (and some others) know that slightly over four years ago we were in debt; heck we were in a lot of debt. We […] Read more »

How Delinquency and a Debt Settlement Program Can Affect the APR on Your Credit Card (Part 2)

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In part one of this two-part post, we examined APRs of current and delinquent credit card accounts under a few conditions. From good standing to charge-off and collection situations, creditors may treat account APRs differently, but a few things can be applied across the board. Here is a more in-depth look at APRs under debt settlement programs. The following assumes that you haven’t been paying your unsecured creditors and that a debt settlement program is a viable option.   It also assumes that your delinquency isn’t recent and that a debt management plan isn’t a viable option.   If you enter into […] Read more »