I’m not sure how I found GRS at first, I think it may have been a link from FARK. Once I found it, it enabled a change in my life. The things I learned from GRS and the various sites linked from it have enabled me to make huge amounts of progress in my own finances. I’ve beaten things down to the point where, absent yet another expensive surprise (more on that in a bit) my next payment on my one major credit card will require them to send me back a small check. It will be paid off, with some extra thrown in to insure that the finance charges on the last month don’t start looping on me.

I have managed this despite an expensive surprise involving a rural road, thick-and-thin shifting fog, and a deer. The repairs ate most of my savings. The significant point here being: I had savings to eat into. A year ago this would have added to my debt.

I am catching up on things now, I’m almost caught up on reading GRS. (The amount of time something like that repair can chew up is astounding.)

Always remember, you have helped far more people than just yourself.

Thank you from the bottom of my no-longer-vacant bank account.

Anyway, I do the same psychological trick that you do about breaking up the runs into shorter distances. My 12-mile run this morning was a lot easier when I thought of it as 2 5-mile runs (down the trail and back), then 2 more 1-mile runs at the end. It really works.

Ditto for personal finance.

Keep up the great work on the blog, and congrats for leaving your job!

I have been able to enjoy life again. I have been reading this blog for about 6 months now and you have inspired me to create a blog with my sister to help keep us on track and inspired. I have many links to your articles already posted.

Thanks for the inspiration.

I love that I can come back here after a couple of days/weeks and wade through my RSS feed and find some amazing insights from you and your guest posters.

Dude, you are living your dream. I remember finding this site via MeFi links many moons ago and being impressed with your dedication. And yet, here you are making a post where people (IRL, natch) have commented on your past personal failings. A couple of observations:

Firstly: Hurrah for you for following your dream! I hope you can see from your feed stats that you have quite the following, my son! You have a way with words, and that is why people listen to you on this vast and infinite Internet.

Secondly: How wonderful that people know and remember your previous habits, and how sweet it must be for you to relish in your own private understanding of your triumph over personal foibles! Even better that you should choose to share your personal journey with us here, in this most public forum. That we may learn from your own, personal journey, is surely a magnificent gift indeed.

I salute you, Sir, in your endeavours to educate us all, whilst trying to simultaneously make a better life for you and yours. I can only wish you the best, yet I know full well that you, of all of us, are best placed to make the wisest of decisions and to plot the most advantageous course.

Hope you had fun at Sunriver! I wish I visited Bend more when I could have.

The number of lives you’ve touched in a positive way is staggering…

Way to go!

Man, what a different person I was. *sigh* It’s cool to watch yourself grow, isn’t it? Especially when the growth is good
Three years ago I got a few credit cards. I ran five miles a day, walked to work, and lived paycheck-to-paycheck. I spent all of my time watching Eddie Izzard and listening to techno and hanging out with friends, drinking and playing board games. Three years ago I put more value in a pair of Manolo heels than I did in putting food into my refrigerator.

Two years ago I was working at a job I loved and hated and which ate up my whole life. I was in love with a man 20 years older than I was who wanted to be friends, and I was up to my ears in debt without knowing how to get out. I immersed myself in web design in my free time. My family was a mess, and so was I. I kept spending at the rate I was paying down debt, and gained a lot of weight because I was no longer running.

One year ago I quit the awesome/horrible “dream” job and started working at home. I stopped buying everything, but I started smoking. An amazing man fell in love with me and I fell in love with him and life began to be more fun. I sold most of my stuff, moved around a lot, lost some weight and learned that I am not defined by my stuff.

Six months ago I started up a number of other small businesses and started working 80 hour weeks - doing something I loved every hour of the day. I started blogging and discovered that my family and friends make me happy and that buying new things without cash makes me anxious.

Three days ago I earned enough to pay off the remainder of my debt, plus some. I celebrated a one-year anniversary with my boyfriend, talked one sister out of buying a new car, and learned that my baby sister wants to know what IRAs are
Four days from now I will auto-pay off my last despicable debt and put a chunk of money into savings. In a few months I’ll be at my ideal weight again, after so long a period of being entirely sedentary. And hopefully, soon, I’ll buy a motorcycle (hooray!) and quit smoking. And then it’s all uphill from there.

Thank you for this post - for opening my memories and making me think about my personal growth in such a short period of time

If going gets tough, the tough gets going… I like this statement and being tough just means that we have to make up our mind and plan things and move ahead..

Thanks to the insights I gained from your blog, I paid of my HELOC and am now within $700 of having a $5k emergency fund. I put 10.5% of my salary in a 401k (counting my employer’s match). My only debt is my mortgage.

There is no feeling like being unencumbered!

Thanks for sharing your wisdom!

Keep up the great work!

We often get frustrated because nothing is changing. It feels like we are trapped. It is only when we look through the lens of time that our accomplishments shine.

When I look back 10 years, I am stunned at where I am now. Not just income and net worth, but how much I’ve grown as a person. At how much more responsible and capable I’ve become.

My advice to anyone starting out is to have faith. Know where you want to end up, and trust you will get there. It may seem overwhelming, but when you look back it will not seem so bad. Stay focused on your goal. Don’t get discouraged if you stray from the path. If it does happen, just learn from your mistake and move on.

When this post appeared in my RSS reader, I had just sent a note to my wife about how, if we’re careful, we can get completely caught up on our mortgage and our space rent (we live in a mobile home park, so we pay both) by the end of June.

The light is there, at the end of the tunnel, though occasionally things obscure it. But I have to admit, this blog is definitely one of my inspirations that the tunnel is passable. Until I ran across this site while researching a magazine article assignment, I didn’t think it was possible to do what you’ve done.

Thanks to you, JD, I may not always be a member of the working poor.

To anyone who is beginning and is daunted by it, I wholly recommend starting a blog. Even if you think nobody will read it, start it anyways! People will find you, and all the support and encouragement makes it worth it.

And, as always, thanks for being an inspiration, JD!

First, I love reading this blog. It’s so practical and applies so closely with where my wife and I are right now. Thank you for writing it!

Second, just a bit of celebration is due– my wife and I got married last June, and we came into it with $24,000 combined of student loans. This June, we oughta have them completely paid off. What a wonderful feeling!

Keep writing and I will keep reading (and annoying my wife every day with what I learned about finance today!)

It does sound cliche, but when so many people can do it (ie: see numerous PF blogs) obviously anyone can.

Tim