Here from CNN Money? Make sure to subscribe!. Also, if you have a few hours and want to start from the beginning of my story in January of 2007, here’s my very first post. Grab some coffee.

Very few people like talking about debt. Those who do are either 1. personal finance bloggers or 2. weirdos who don’t care what anyone thinks.

I fall into both camps, and lately I’ve been feeling more and more ok talking about the mistakes I made in the past. Probably because I’ve come so far since I made them.

Why don’t we talk about money

My fiancee and I talk about money quite a bit. Probably more than we even need too. But, given my unique debt situation, it’s often warranted.

But I can count on one hand the number of money conversations I’ve had with friends in the past 3-4 years. For such an important part of our lives, the topic just doesn’t come up that much. And I don’t mean conversations like, “How much do you make?” those don’t need to come up. But conversations like, “How do you guys save? Where do you save? Do you save money? Do you invest? How? Why?” etc. Those types of conversations could be fantastically interesting to have…

So, how do you start those conversations or are they better left to just your spouse and you?

I stepped on the scale this weekend, and the results were not pretty. 199.8 lbs.

Yikes. Now, I don’t consider myself “fat” but I’ve gained 15 lbs since last summer, and I’m not happy about it.

I was thinking about my food spending habits lately, and I know there is some correlation between my weight gain and my income gain. When I was dirt poor, I thought about every single grocery purchase. I never splurged on anything extra.

Now with a little more cushion in my budget, I’ve noticed that I throw in extra food into my cart that I wouldn’t have even considered when I was broke.

So, I need to go back to shopping like I’ve got $70 in the bank instead of $700.

The good news is that since my “fat awakening” I’ve already started eating better. I’ve even been counting calories, which is shockingly familiar to counting dollars. I’ve found it kind of a fun game to play watching how many calories I eat. I even splurged on a food scanning app for my iPhone to scan food items and track the calories, it makes it super easy and fun.

My goal is to be 180 lbs by my wedding in July. I weighed in at 196.4 this morning, so I’ve got a ways to go, but definitely some time to get it done. Maybe I’ll post some before and after shots here for motivation.

The last two months have been bad health and spending wise. With my fiancee’s mother passing, and then we both got sick for 2 weeks, we just ate terrible. And all that happened right after the holidays. Not exactly the best way to start 2010. Here’s looking at a better March!

Being engaged is a strange place in life. You’re no longer just “dating” and yet, you’re not yet married.

It’s a heck of a lot of waiting.

Waiting to move (more on this).

Waiting to live together (til after we are hitched).

Waiting for checks to come so I can pay off more debt (I want to pay off my car this month!)

Wait. Wait. Wait.

I swear, I’ve read more news and blog posts in the last two weeks than I have in the last few months.

I’m trying not to spend much money on my business right now, keep costs low, and profits up, and so I’m bored at work half the time. But I head to the office….because what else am I going to do all day?

Moving To Portland

I am excited about moving to Portland.

My fiancee and I will be looking for a place in the next few months before our wedding. She will live in our new place for a few months while I move in with my Mom for a few months until we are married. Free rent!

So, lots of change coming. Just. Not. Yet.

10 Things Millionaires Won’t Tell You

I read a really interesting article on smartmoney today about millionaires. Number 7 was that the median college GPA is 2.9.

My cumulative college GPA?

2.9

Ha, that made me laugh. Next time my fiancee mentions my not so stellar college grades, I’ll bring that little statistic out!

Portland Finance Bloggers

JD Roth of Get Rich Slowly fame is a Portland area blogger, but I don’t know of any other personal finance bloggers in Portland. If you know any, or are one, leave a comment and we can meet at some hole in the wall coffee place sometime and talk about the “weird” that is Portland.

With the recent passing of my fiancee’s mother…and her subsequent life insurance policy squabble (we are not involved in it thankfully), I’ve been thinking….

do I need to buy life insurance?

With a wife now in the picture, and the 105K or so I still owe my mother, I think it’s worth looking into to. If something were to happen to me, I need to make sure that my debt to my mother is paid, and my wife is taken care of.

So yeah, I think it’s time to look at a term life insurance policy.

how much life insurance do I need?

That’s an interesting question. I’m 26 now, were something to happen to me, my fiancee could take care of herself, she has a college degree, but I’d like her to have a nice cushion, plus I’m sure we will have kids in the next 10 years or so.

I think a million dollar policy is about right for our needs. That would insure my mother is taken care of, as well as my fiancee/future wife.

How much will it cost?

That’s what I’m getting quotes for right now. I’m getting quotes for both a million and 1.5 million dollar policies with a 30-year term.

What I’m really hoping is that in the next 5 years I’ll have enough saved up, that we’d have our own “insurance policy” called a huge savings account fund. But, since that’s not a guarantee, and I’m not the risk-taker I used to be, insurance it is.

From the free quotes I could get, a million dollar 30-year term policy is going to run me around $650/year or about $54/month. Not too bad. I’m in good health, not overweight, don’t smoke, and no major family heath issues.

How much life insurance do you have? (I’m going to look into disability insurance next)

My deposits and payments are all lined, up for the first week of February. So here’s my status as of February 5 (I’ve done the bills through that date).

Credit Card 1: $0
Credit Card 2: $0
Credit Card 3:$7216.44 (we cut the balance almost in half this month, so I’ll call and see if we can get a lower rate—it’s currently at 8.9%)
Mortgage: $159,267

We’re getting close folks—really close.

This time last year there were three credit cards, two adoption loans, some back medical debt and a second mortgage of $18,000.

In 2009 we increased our net worth by $34,599.95 (even after absorbing losses in our investments). Keep in mind that our income went down in 2009 by 30% (because I was self employed for all of 2009).

Now we’ve just got $7,000 to go on the consumer debt and we’ll be screaming debt free.

Typically, our budget includes about $500 towards debt repayment each month, but any overtime or extra profit margin in our business goes towards debt, so our debt payments regularly reach $1700 in a month with $500 as our minimums. Business costs should be very little in February as I believe I have two months of inventory on hand, so this should save me $300-$500 to apply also towards debt.

We’re still hoping/planning to be free of all debt except the mortgage by July!

This is another post in my series about busting debt, in partnership with Lending Club. I wrote about the 9 rules to follow to get out of debt recently.

I’ve been having a think lately about why we purchase things. And if *things* are usually the reason so many millions of us are stuck in debt.

Me? Yeah, I made some dumb purchases (a $2,000 camcorder in 2006 come to mind), but on the whole, my debt resulted more from my trading losses than my spending patterns. But I’m not the normal debtor.

Lots of people get into debt because of medical bills. That’s been well documented. I’ll stay away from that debt debate.

I’m fascinated by the individual that goes into debt to impress others.

I can relate to that person in some respect. The whole reason I was attracted to day trading was because I deep down, wanted to show others how ahead of the game I was. I was trading advanced options and currencies that 99.9% of people don’t even understand. It made me feel superior (of course, superiorly-stupid in retrospect).

Meet Johnny Debt

Why do people purchase a luxury item when they are in debt? I mean, lets say Johnny Debt is 5K in credit card debt. Johnny goes and buys a new flat panel LCD TV for $1800, though his current 32″ LCD works great.

I think Johhny’s purchase comes down short-term vs. long-term thinking.

Making that purchase, Johnny improves his *image* in the short term, right?

Long term, that purchase adds to his credit card debt, and assuming his past patterns continue, he’ll go further and further into debt.

Does Johnny think he’ll get a big promotion at work in the next few years? Does he just not even think about paying off the TV in the future?

I’m super curious about this type of behavior now. I think my thinking is so long term now, that it’s difficult for me to imagine this frame of mind.

So, debt isn’t attractive. But what we can finance with that debt is attractive, right? (To some people at least)

What do you think? Why does someone in debt purchase a non-essential item?

Yes, that's my office, and my, um, secretary.

I own a small business which requires computers, and we have some personal computers at home, so software is a substantial investment around our house. Forget the actual machines themselves—don’t scratch those disks people, a computer can be easily replaced but oh, the software!

I’ve bootstrapped my little business along with the version of Office from 2002 that I already owned on my newer work computer and have decided that it really wasn’t going to work. It was crashing several times a day and loosing data occasionally. Disagreements between older and newer software was crippling my productivity and causing every imaginable error, but only on my deadlines. I’d been dreading it for months, but as I sat down to prepare my 2010 budget, I knew software had to be part of it.

I penciled out my budget (combined home and business) and had about $2,000 in software upgrades—from anti virus renewal, to a new Office suite for business (I wasn’t planning to upgrade the 2 home computers) plus the child-safety software for our daughter’s machine.

Ultimately, I consulted experts. That’s right, by experts, I mean Twitter. I poked around for alternatives and found people using Google Documents and Open Office as an alternative to the expensive Office Suite. A friend of mine works as a music teacher and travels between a studio and student’s homes. He’s found that Google Documents fits the bill for him because it acts as his file server. I work with legal documents and wanted to keep everything off-line and secured on my machine, so I choose to use Open Office. I also don’t want to rely on the Internet connection for productivity.

I easily converted all of my previous files to Open Office files, and kept .doc and .xls copies.

The only solution that wasn’t available to me as an alternative to Outlook and I’ve managed to get Windows Mail to fit that bill (it was built into my computer). (If anyone knows something better, I’m all ears!) I’m using Google’s calendar which syncs nicely with my Blackberry.

We subscribe to a software for monitoring the kids’ use and filtering for safety called “Safe Eyes” which is an excellent program, but at $50 a year, I’d love to reduce that cost too. A friend introduced me to to a free program called “McGruff Safeguard” which meets our needs for free!

I’ll still annually renew my Norton subscription, but now we can run three machines indefinitely at the cost of only the annual anti-virus renewals. Ok, yes, I realize a possible change of operating system or upgrade of Windows may be down the road somewhere… but I’m not ready to think that far ahead just yet.

If you’d like to try the transition as well, (or already have) I’d love to hear how it’s going for you at home or at work.

If you would like to try Google Documents you can reach that from the Google home page. Google Documents is free “cloud” software which meets most of your normal office suite functions. If you would like to try Open Office, you can find it at www.openoffice.org. It also has a program comparable to each office task including word processing, presentations, spreadsheets and databases.  It’s a free download and very simple to install and convert your files.

Oh, and as for the $2,000 I saved. It’s going on my debt snowball—that’s an extra $2k in profit!

Also, an update, for those wondering how I’m doing on my 2010 goal: I haven’t made my snowball payments yet for January, but I am down ten pounds so far!

"I drive a Dodge Stratus!"

Side note: my fiancee and I will be selling her car once we get married. I drive a 2006 Scion xB with 70K/miles on it.

I had a funny conversation with my brother today. My younger brother doesn’t have a car, he rides his bike and the bus to his work.

But lately he’s been rolling in a Lexus SUV.

Quite the change.

The car is my father’s and my brother has had a bunch of interviews around town and so my Dad is letting him borrow the car.

He said, “I feel very self-conscious in the Lexus”

I probably would too….but I bet you get used to it.

Cars are a funny thing. They are one of the most visible ways we judge each other’s financial situation right? I mean, I know I do. My office is in a nice part of town, and the number of Land Rover’s and BMW’s makes them the norm. My apartment however is in a more, umm…Volvo part of town.

Which gets to my point….

You can tell absolutely NOTHING about a person’s overall financial situation from what kind of car they drive.

You can however tell what they value.

I don’t think there is anything wrong with driving a nicer car if you can afford it. But if you’re rolling around in a $600/month leased BMW….and you’re in debt up to your eyeballs….not a good idea.

The funny thing is…let’s say the BMW leaser is a young professional. Most people would see the car, see the job, and conclude….”Success!”

Ugggghhh.

I for one am resolving to quit making snap judgements about anyone based on the car that they drive. It’s just one of those things that’s so easy to fake.

All hat, no cattle.

So, you’re not what you drive, right?

It's a wild ride, but stay in line--it's worth it!

A few lessons in life I’ve learned.
1.Be prepared.
2.Never ask a question you don’t want the answer to.
3.Never, ever pray for patience.

You may have heard the scripture–”ask and you shall receive.” The thing about patience, is there’s no comfortable way to learn it. Praying for patience is the sort of thing that will yield you results like your transmission being broken and your bus route canceled. But it’s ok—because you are patient, and can walk the three miles to the next route.

Here’s what I would like to submit to you as you go through your journey to debt freedom. Patience is hard. Stop worrying about honing your patience skills to make this work.

Instead, I submit to you that you should hone your anticipation skills.

You don’t have to be patient to wait in line for the biggest ride at the theme park. The anticipation will hold you in line, right?

Do you have the end in sight? Is it good enough to anticipate? Is it the ride at the theme park? A vacation in Italy? Do you get to quit your second job to spend more time with your family?

My kids have heard “it’s not in the budget” a lot in the last 12 months. But they know that as soon as we’re debt free, we’re going to a theme park. My husband and I had planned a big trip like a Magic Kingdom trip, but when we asked the kids how we should celebrate, they suggested a water park nearby that they’d seen advertisements for. (Hey, saving some extra bucks to send towards baby step three sounds good to us).

So that’s our plan. A long weekend at Great Wolf. Am I anticipating Great Wolf the way I would a trip to Ireland? Maybe not, but for me, the light at the end of the tunnel is seeing ZEROS on my debt snowball. I can anticipate that all by itself, and it’s enough to keep me in line for the ride.

Yes, it takes patience to slog through the process of getting out of debt. It isn’t easy, and sometimes it’s downright miserable, but it’s temporary. Focus on anticipating the end, and when you get there, you’ll look back and learn that you’ve learned patience in the gentlest possible way.

Good luck!

I’m having trouble staying focused and motivated on my goal this year, which btw, isn’t to be debt free, but to have a positive net worth.

I’m getting complacent. A little lazy. Coffee doesn’t even seem to be helping much lately.

The problem is a general lack of pain in my life right now. I’ve gotten comfortable. It’s time to shake things up. Not that I need pain in my life, but I need something to get me moving!

I think I just need to come back to the fact that I’m going to have to support my mother the rest of her life. I still owe Mom around $108,000. But the reality is that I’ll be sending $1,000 checks to my Mom the rest of her life. At least that’s what it’s looking like right now.

And, I just found out that my Mom’s part-time job is shutting down their office in a few months, and my Mom will be out of work. She was making about $1,000 a month at the job.

It’s strange being 26 and supporting your family. It doesn’t feel like a burden to me, I mean, I put this on myself, but it does feel like pressure.

Like, if I don’t bring home the bacon, what happens to my Mom? I dunno. There are other family members, but no one in our immediate family has the extra income to support my Mom.

Now, I’m feeling a little more motivated.

And….jeez DK, I’m getting married in like 6 months! My fiancee knows all my debt situation, and is fine with it….but gosh darn, I’d like to have a bigger cushion going into our marriage. I’m hoping by our wedding I can hit the networth even mark. We’ll see.