Is a debt paid when you send the payment, or when the finance company makes the entry and sends a statement? Oh who cares......

WE ARE DEBT FREE!!^*

Yes, on December 31, 2005 we made our first budget for the month of January 2006, and since that time we have:

• Sold a house, we moved in April 2005, and had two houses for about 10 months. Uck
• Completed Financial Peace University
• Paid off $38,637.29 in consumer debt consisting of 2 credit cards and 2 cars.
• Saved $7700 for emergencies, irregular bills, and HSA.
• Got a new job, having more fun, and making more money.
• Sold some stock of my previous employer.

For a grand total of:

$148,620.18 former debt in just 17 months!

Ok, perhaps including the bridge loan on the old house is overkill, but it's still good news.

* = Except for the house.

Here is a wonderful Kiplinger article about index fund investing.  It is nice to find something that isn't the usual "Todays 10 hot stocks" for a change in the financial press.

This is exactly what I am going to do when I open my Vanguard account here in a few weeks.

I have seen many financial blogs charting their net worth, and it looked fun so here goes:

Our total money makeover began 1/1/06. At the beginning of 2006 we had balances on 2 credit cards, 2 car loans, 2 houses, and 2 mortgages. During 2006 we sold the old house, which just paid off the bridge loan, we paid off and closed both credit cards, and made progress on the first of the car loans. Investments were good, which brought us to a total improvement of 4%, not a lot for a whole year, but good.

In January we saw a huge gain, thanks to a tax return, and I boosted the emergency fund to $2000 since I was planning to change jobs.

February moved cash to loans, as I PAID OFF THE FIRST CAR LOAN! And I started a new job, and am not yet eligible for the IRA plan. Since I don’t have to pay for my own health insurance anymore, and am not contributing to retirement, we have a lot more money to pay off debt these days.

In March I brought the emergency fund back down once we figured how to budget biweekly, and put every spare dime into the debt snowball.

April was a very good month. The loan on the van is under $10,000, and every April 28th, I increase the value of my house by 4.5% to celebrate the date we moved in.

So, in just 16 short months, we have gotten nearly out of debt, and are 38% richer! I figure by October we will have the van paid off, and then we will be debt free other than the house.