After graduating college I had quite a nice debt. I had private loans from my two semesters at Penn State Erie, credit cards, and various private and government loans from my two years at The Art Institute of Pittsburgh.

It didn’t stop there though. I wasn’t smart with my money after graduating and spent more than I could afford. While I could technically afford to purchase that new camera, I would put it on the credit card and “pay it off later” all the while paying just a little more than the minimum amounts on all the debt, not just the credit card.

When I made the decision to get out of debt I started with the credit card. I would take out a 0% interest card and pay as much as I could on it each pay check and paid a little over the minimum on the school loans. Once the credit card was paid off I took that payment and rolled it to the loan that had the highest interest rate. I just kept rolling over my payments until the end where my payments were $600-700 a pay period.

The only debt I have now is the house I share with Monica (currently in her name.) My car is paid off. School is paid off. And if I buy something I make sure I can pay for it within a month.

I waited until all of this was taken care of before I proposed to Monica. We will have our honeymoon paid up before we leave.