Allow me to crow a bit here.  I'M DEBT FREE!!!  Well, technicly I still have two mortgages (my house, and a rental duplex). But all my other consumer and personal debts are paid off. Which feels great because I have been getting crushed by them for over 5 years.  

 Yes, 5 years.  So I just want to throw out some encouragement to anyone out there who is trying to pay down their debts. Make a plan, stick with the plan and keep your eyes on the prize.  This is a marathon, not a sprint.  It took me nearly 5 years.  But it was worth it. You can do it too. go! go! go!

That is fantastic. Are you making extra payments to get rid of the mortgages?

 Love hearing about your success!

Well, not yet. I'm still catching my breath. So to speak.  Monitary goal for this month is to get a budget in place for this year. If the budget allows, I'll make extra principle payments.

AS for the mortgages: One is on the house that I bought just 1.5 years ago.  Sure, I should have waited to get out of debt first. But buying the house only put off the debt free party by one year. And at this point I would rather be in a house I own instead of making rent payments.  That, and the $8000.00 of help the Government was giving out at the time. There was this opportunity and I had to take it.

As for the rental duplex. there have been extra payments in the past.  But I suspended them to get out of debt. At this point I'm looking at selling the property and using the proceeds to buy one up here in Portland. Extra payments would be pointless.  I will need the money for dawnpayments and closing costs.

Brandy:

That is fantastic. Are you making extra payments to get rid of the mortgages?

Great Job!!!

It's so encouraging to hear success stories.  I'm chipping away at my debt every month, but it's a long process and it's easy to get distracted and fall back into old (bad) habits.  My plan on paper has me out of debt by January 2013.  Stories like yours make that goal seem achievable.