What I Learned From Running The 2014 Twin Cities Marathon

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I sprang out of bed at the chime of my cell phone alarm at 4:30am yesterday. I quietly got ready for the day, gathered my things, and quietly closed the hotel room door behind me as to not disturb my sleeping family. I headed downstairs to the lobby to meet some friends and to walk over to the light rail station that would take us to the start line. In just a few short hours I would be lining up with over 11,000 other runners to run the Twin Cities Marathon. It would be my 4th time, and I had […] Read more »

Credit Cards Are Officially NOT For Me

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Some use credit cards for as many of their day to day expenses as possible in order to rack up reward program points. Some even go through a process called credit card churning to earn points for signing up for a new accounts in exchange for cash, airline miles, or travel accommodations.  I know people that have taken their entire family on a free, or nearly free, trip by using such methods. Good for them, as long as they’re using their cards responsibly. But this kind of “beat the system” mentality is not for everyone. Not everyone has the internal […] Read more »

Are You As Financially Savvy As A 7th Grader?

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My daughter and I always have a good time together. We have similar personalities, interests and senses of humor. She was aware of our situation as we fought to pay off over $109,000 of credit card debt, and even shared her perspective on our journey in a guest post here on Enemy of Debt. She apparently also paid close attention to how our view on money and what is important in life changed over the last few years have changed. I found this out through a conversation we had last weekend. We had gone to the mall to buy a […] Read more »

Confession: I Broke My Number One Rule Of Shopping

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I know I cannot be trusted with credit cards; the temptation of overspending is just too much for me to handle. That’s why I will never carry them again.   But I would have never guessed the events that unfolded late last week as I was shopping for needed items for our annual Memorial Weekend Luau themed party. The party was going to be a little bigger than it has been the last few years, because it was also doubling as our celebration for completing our Debt Management program. We’ve been saving up since the end of January to make sure […] Read more »

When Your Kid Shows More Financial Responsibility Than You

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Have you ever had one of those moments where as a parent you just hang your head in shame, because your son or daughter showed more responsibility you? Yeah, I had that happen to me just this weekend. My son got his Xbox360 a few years ago, and instantly wanted to take advantage of the console’s ability to play games online with his friends. In order to make that happen, we had to purchase an Xbox Live membership. We gave him a year’s subscription as a birthday present, and to pay for it we attached our checking account to the […] Read more »

No Contract Cell Phone Plans Exposed! Are They Really Better?

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No contract mobile phone plans have become all the rage as of late.  I even tried one through a blogging opportunity last year and was actually quite impressed.  Apparently, no contract providers have gotten the attention of the major carriers, as they have begun to offer no contract plans of their own.  I received an email from my carrier outlining their no contract plan last Friday. We’re currently under a two year contract with ATT&T, and for my family of four plus two extended family members to all have smart phones sharing a 10GB data plan we pay $309 a […] Read more »

The Magic Bullet To Combining Finances Successfully

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I knew the minute I finished the sentence that someone would comment on it, and I was right.  In my post last week describing an afternoon at a food and wine event I mentioned that I bought two bottles of BBQ sauce, but not before checking in with my wife first. I wanted my wife’s approval before buying $12 of BBQ sauce. I didn’t expect her to disapprove of the purchase.  As the commenter articulated, it was simply an act of respect.  We are a quad income family (we each have two sources of income), but we choose to combine […] Read more »

Why Cash Only Weekend Spending ROCKS!

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Hearing colorful language coming from our home office, my wife stormed in to find out what was going on. I was reconciling our checking account, and even though it had only been a few days since I had last done it, I couldn’t make the numbers come out right. Between Christmas shopping, and being out of town for extended family gatherings quite a few transactions had posted, and I was obviously making a mistake somewhere. The arithmetic error was quickly found and fixed, but in the process I found something that could not be corrected as easily. We had spent […] Read more »

Date Night With Gourmet Meal, Movie, and More for $15?!?!? #ad

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The holidays are a busy time of year, requiring much of our time, energy and money to be consumed with preparations for family gatherings, and shopping for gifts for our loved ones. With all the hustling and bustling of the season my wife and I haven’t had much “us” time. We definitely needed a date night, but with the budget tight due to holiday spending, the funds available for a date night are virtually nonexistent.  But would you believe me if I said I found a way to have a romantic date night complete with gourmet meal and a movie […] Read more »

We Doubled Our Net Worth and You Can Too!

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Note from Travis:  I’m excited to announce a new addition to TeamEOD!   Steve Stewart, who hails from his home blog of MoneyPlanSOS, will be sharing with us a dose of no-nonsense personal finance once a month.  I’ve been a HUGE fan of Steve for several years, and know that he is an excellent addition to the team.   Please give him a warm EOD Nation welcome by leaving a comment below on his debut post here on Enemy Of Debt! Despite the blame-scream media’s coverage of The Great Recession and all the bad decisions Congress has made, my wife and I […] Read more »

Are You Perfect?

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Like most stereotypical males, I enjoy movies with lots of action and explosions. But I also really enjoy movies that inspire, and cause me to reflect upon the things going on within my own life. I got pulled into just such a movie one night last weekend. It’s one of my all time favorites, and I stayed up way too late to watch the ending. The movie is Friday Night Lights. Note: Before you non-football fans roll your eyes and click away, be patient for just a moment, this post has only a passing reference to football. My favorite part, […] Read more »

Warning: The Long Term Effects of Debt Will SHOCK You

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Before we enrolled in our debt management plan, many of our credit cards had very high interest rates, some as high as 29.99%. We were making very little progress on the actual balance of our accounts, our payments going mostly to line the pockets of the credit card companies. I know I’ve paid an insane amount of interest to creditors because of our overspending. With the finish line of our debt management plan in sight, I wondered how different my financial picture would look if I had invested that money instead. What I discovered SHOCKED me. Ground Rules First let’s […] Read more »

Paying Off Debt With Gazelle Intensity Isn’t Enough

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I’ve seen it happen to friends and family. It’s even happened to me. A person loses a large amount of weight very quickly through the use of a very restrictive diet. Unfortunately, as time passes the weight begins to return because the restrictive diet is abandoned. The question commonly asked is why would a person who had so much weight loss success just give up and go back to their old habits, reversing all their progress? To me, the answer is simple: being on a restrictive diet is not real life. Such a program teaches people one thing, to unconditionally […] Read more »

The Cost Of Decluttering Your Home

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It wasn’t how I envisioned my Saturday playing out. After completing my early morning eight mile run, I asked Vonnie what was on her agenda for the day. She suggested we do some much needed cleaning, but first she wanted my help in repotting some plants. After doing one, I started looking for a hand garden shovel that would make the task easier. My search led me to the small shed on the side of our garage. I opened the door of the shed and stared at the cluttered contents, knowing the small shovel was likely buried in a box […] Read more »