Progress

Dec 2008: 647,000 zombies and unemployed (lowest point of my life)
May 2009: 620,000 (sold car)
Nov 2009: 343,00 (sold house #1 of 2)
Jun 2010: 88,000 (sold house #2 of 2)
Jun 2011: 85,000 (got rid of all the big stuff and now is the hard part... but thankfully now I am fully employed. Thank you Lord.)

I have to keep progressing upward.  At the pace I am going now, it will take 5 years to pay off the rest of my debt.  But I am not accounting for life factors such as possible marriage, kids, family emergencies, etc.  So that 5 years can easily balloon to 10 or 15 years.  However, those factors or length of time to pay off debt can be mitigated by making more money.  So for the time being I will just maintain by paying my bills on time and working hard so I can climb up this economic system that we live in.  I always have to be smart with how I spend every $ that I make.

At the end of the day, I am just grateful for having my health and family.  Everything else is just a problem that can be solved.

I have documented my journey since Day 1.  What I learned is something so simple and a concept I always knew but never could apply it to my life.  So I had to make radical changes to understand.  But basically, this is what it boils down to - being financially successful doesn't mean you have to make millions of dollars.  It's all about having some damn self-control and living within your means, going through the struggles and working hard to land a stable job, and no matter what saving 20% of whatever you make without making any excuses.  This is all ABSOLUTELY easier said than done, I know.  I've been preaching it for all my life before I hit rock bottom in 2008.  But you get to a breaking point, and as Dave Ramsey says, you tell yourself and the world in full conviction, "ENOUGH IS ENOUGH."  And you have to force yourself to change.

I am also a full believer in Rhonda Byrne's Secret.  Be good to people, act positive, think of all the things you want in your life such as not being in debt, not having a mortgage, having a good companion, graduating school, getting a promotion..... think these good things and you will attract them into your life.  Likewise, think negatively or bad things and bad things will happen in your life.  Inevitably, bad things will happen because life is not perfect, but even then you have to react positively and get back on your feet.  Never give up.