p I received the following email from a reader who wished to remain anonymous. This reader has made some strong excellent /strong progress with paying off debt and I am so glad I was given permission to share this story. I think it is awesome!! /p p strong #8220;About two years ago, I made a commitment to myself to get myself out of debt. I began with my credit cards, because they had the highest interest rate. I was successful in getting my credit card company to lower my interest rate #8211; they gave me some odd months at 2%. About USD3000 later, after making big payments on my credit cards and only slightly larger than minimun payments on my other bills, I was out of credit card debt. I #8217;m proud to say I haven #8217;t carried a balance since. /p p Then I moved on to my other debt. I went to an expensive private college for undergrad and took out a lot of loans for grad school, so I had about USD40k in student loans, plus a USD10k car loan. One year ago, I turned my attention to paying off my debt with the highest interest rate, a student loan at 5%. After a series of USD800 monthly payments, I paid that sucker off. It was a GREAT feeling to look at my account online and see my obligation described as #8220;fulfilled. #8221; I #8217;m down to about USD5000 on the next loan, at 3.175% interest. All that will be left after that (I calculate it will take me six more months to pay it off), I #8217;ll have about USD4000 owing on my car (2.9% interest rate) and a few thousand on a zero percent interest student loan. No sense in paying that off, as I can put the money away and earn interest. /p p In May 2006, I had USD30249 in debt. Now, 11 months later, I #8217;m down to USD16842. In the span of a year, I #8217;ve paid off 56% of my debt. /p p At the same time, I #8217;ve been saving money. I opened a high yield savings account with ING Direct and have money direct deposited into the account each pay period. I also put #8220;found #8221; money into the account, such as mileage reimbursement from my job. I went from having literally USD400 in a savings account earning less than 1% per year to now having nearly USD8000 earning over 4% interest. Each month (okay, more like each week), I look with glee at how much money I #8217;ve earned in interest and smile knowing my money is finally working for me! /p p The most amazing part of all of this is how contagious it is. I think that #8217;s why your site is so successful. I feel so good paying down my debt, I can #8217;t wait until the end of each month to make my various payments. I track my net worth on paper because it #8217;s a joy to calculate how much debt I #8217;ve paid down and how much money I #8217;ve saved each month. It #8217;s an addiction! I #8217;m addicted not to shopping, not to spending on things I don #8217;t need, but to the rush of pride that comes with knowing I #8217;m digging myself out of a hole to the tune of USD1500 each month while building a nest egg that keeps growing. /p p If there #8217;s one thing I #8217;d offer to you as you work your way out of debt, and to your readers, it #8217;s to keep your eye on the prize and try to make it fun. Once the momentum starts, it keeps building and soon it #8217;s out of control #8211; in a good way. #8221; /strong /p p Thank you for sharing your story #8230;you are an inspiration! /p p a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~a/bloggingawaydebt/NCQi?a=fTAXDb" img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~a/bloggingawaydebt/NCQi?i=fTAXDb" border="0" /img /a /p div class="feedflare" a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/bloggingawaydebt/NCQi?a=lTAeD7hh" img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/bloggingawaydebt/NCQi?i=lTAeD7hh" border="0" /img /a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/bloggingawaydebt/NCQi?a=ZTQQehvp" img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/bloggingawaydebt/NCQi?i=ZTQQehvp" border="0" /img /a /div ...read full story