Whoa, man!

I am not an advocate of most self-help books, videos, seminars, etc. I think, especially when it's regarding money, having to buy a book or video or class in order to get money saving advice is absurd and backward.

That being said, a co-worker let me borrow a book by Dave Ramsey. Apparently this guy's pretty popular, although I hadn't heard of him until a week before when my boss suggested I read his stuff. Since then I've had four separate people mention him to me on different occasions. If that's not a sign, I don't know what is.

So I've been reading his Total Money Makeover book, and it's outstanding. It's all basic, slap-your-forehead-because-why-didn't-you-do-this-sooner stuff. I'm in love with my future, right now.

My biggest fault has been not working to my ability. I've had maybe one full month total of working 40 hours/wk at WT in the two years I've been there. And yet I've never had a second job. Where I stand now, I can't imagine living guilt-free without one.

But I guess the truth is that I haven't been living guilt-free. My life for the last two years + has been a series of over spending, living above my means (even though it ALWAYS felt as if I never had enough for the basics), and wallowing in self pity and anger at "the system."

I am 22 years old and $11,666.86 in debt. This includes 2 credit cards, student loans and my car note.

I have it worked out so that, working an average of 70 hours a week between two jobs, I can have everything but my student loans paid off within one year. The remaining $4500 balance on student loans could easily be paid off within another six months after I pay down my other bills. I will simply apply all that I was paying towards the other bills and apply it towards the student loan. One and a half years of 70-hour weeks is what it will take to get me 100% debt free.

One and a half years of sacrifice so that I can start fresh with NO bills other than my phone and rent/utilities - for the rest of my life!

I can't wait for my next paycheck! Not so I can spend it, but so that I can start paying down my debt. Dave's 1st step is creating a small emergency fund of $1000 (or $500 for those who make under $20,000 - which is me). So that is where the next few paychecks will go. I should have $500 cash-in-hand for emergencies only within one month.

I have never felt like my budget was so solid before. I know exactly where every penny of my next paycheck was going to. I can't afford to mess this up, and I hope I stay just as pumped about this as I have felt the last three days!

Just as a side note...

Let's go a few years down the line.
I've got my $500 emergency fund, I've paid off my $11,000 debts, and I've added an additional $4500 to my emergency fund to live off of for 3-6 months should I love my job, get injured, etc. It's two years down the line.

At 24, I will be able to start adding to a Roth IRA. Assume the interest is 12% (and this is not counting if my company matches what I put in). I now have all the monthly payments I was making on my debt to put into this IRA. $369/mo into an IRA account.

Within two years, that account will have $49,500 in it. That's nearly 50 grand by the time I'm 34! And in another 10 years? $99,000. Another 10 years? $198,000. I'd have nearly $400,000 by the time I'm 64 to retire on. And that's only if I put in $369/mo into that account.

The future's lookin' bright!