Last Friday was a very exciting milestone for my wife and I. We made our 45th payment to our Debt Management Program, but more importantly according to the tracker tool we have 12 payments left. Which means a year from now we will be DONE with our DMP, and will have paid off $109,000 of credit card debt. As I thought about that, I teared up a little. Look, I’m a glass half full, optimistic, find the silver lining in everything kind of guy. When I look back at the last 45 months, I think about all the changes Vonnie and I have made in our life to learn how to communicate and handle our finances better. I think about our budget talks, and all our successes. But I cannot help but also think about how incredibly hard it has been. This has been the hardest thing I’ve ever gone through, hands down. There are days I am flat out exhausted from thinking and talking about money. A guy has to find some sort of motivation to keep going. Reading great blog posts by others is one of the ways I feed that motivation. Check out my picks for this week:
Posts That Make Me Fist Pump:
- 7 Reasons Why Your Personal Budget Is Failing and How to Fix It from Money Crashers
- How Much Does College Really Cost? Here is an Easy Way to Find Out from Debt Roundup
- If Everyone Jumped Off a Cliff … from Afford Anything
- How to Come Into Financial Agreement With Your Spouse (Part 2) from Dr. Cabler
- Everything I Know About Personal Finance in One Post from Young Cheap Living
- Are You Offended by Free Stuff? from So Over This
Shameless Self Promotion:
- Tracking Spending Helps Me Spend Money Wisely is this week’s post over in the CareOne Community
Kick Ass Giveaways:
- April’s Share the Wealth Question: Do you have a great idea for earning extra money to help make ends meet? from CareOne
- Burlap Sack o’ Stuff from Take Our Stuff
If you enter of the either contents above, tell ’em Travis sent you. It will benefit you absolutely nothing, but it’ll be fun, I promise. 🙂 Have a great weekend!
Hey Travis,
Thanks for the round up. It is nice to be able to find some posts from other sites that I was not aware of. Keep up the great work.
Thanks Alan, nice to connect with you – I’m glad the links are to some new sites for you – that’s exactly why I do these Friday posts!
That’s awesome Travis! As one who went through a very similar thing myself, I can relate to the excitement with nearing total payoff and the tiredness that comes with talking about money. That said, keep up the great work…I know that light at the end of the tunnel is getting brighter and brighter.
I really like that analogy, John: “light at the end of the tunnel is getting brighter and brighter. It sure is!!!! I can envision myself, on days that seem like this will never end, closing my eyes and imagining that light getting closer, bigger and brighter! 🙂
Congratulations Travis! 12 months left … you’re so close to the finish line!! That rocks!!
Thanks so much Paula, can’t wait to get there (imagining “We Are the Champions” playing in my head…LOL).
Congrats Travis!! That is great news 🙂
Rounding the final corner and heading towards home, Mackenzie ! Great to hear from you – hope everything is going well with your moving prep!
That is good news Travis. You are almost there and I know you can taste it. Keep up the awesome work and thank you much for the kind mention.
Thanks, Grayson – and you’re welcome. Lots of great content over there at DebtRoundup!
Congratulations! Your amazing work is really inspirational. Thanks for the links and have a great weekend.
Thanks for the encouragement, Tony – hope you like the links, and happy reading!
Wow! I think you might finish sooner. Just have that feeling.
We’ll give it our best shot, Michelle – thanks for your encouragement!
SO happy for you guys, Travis!!! And thank you so much too, for sharing your trials and triumphs with the blogging world – it’s been a huge help and motivation for so many – us included!
Thank for your kind words, Laurie – i The whole reason I write is to try to help and motivate others, so your comment t means a lot to me (it’s actually making me a bit emotional). 🙂
OMGosh that is great! I can’t wait until I have that much time left. Have you ever posted about the difference between BK and debt repay plan? I would love to see that!
Congrats!
Hey Debtgirl, I’ve thought a lot about writing a post about “Should I have declared bankruptcy” and comparing the two processes. It’ll happen sooner or later, it just hasn’t gotten to the top of my list – I just may come to you with some questions when I get that far. 🙂