When I was starting out in college I, like many other people I'm sure, racked up a few thousand dollars worth of debt that I absolutely couldn't pay. Soon, the interest piled up and I wasn't anywhere near starting to work on paying the principle while the debt kept rising. Thankfully, with some help (and kicks in the pants) from my parents, I managed to pay everything off and cancel the debts.

I now have been debt-free for over seven years and have even started a savings account by following these rules:

- Pay off credit cards as soon as possible.
- Don't have more than one credit card unless absolutely necessary.
- Try to pay for purchases (especially large ones) with cash that I actually have.

The moral of all this is that I learned how to be careful with credit cards and realized how they can potentially be monetary time bombs. Here are some good tips from CNN about good buying habits:

http://www.cnn.com/2009/LIVING/personal ... index.html

Good job man! I've experienced in credit car debts for almost 7 years and now I'm totally debts free. The only thing to control debts is pay the credit card company first before you "swiped"!

Great job, cz! I'm a few weeks away from paying off the last of $45K in CC debt. Can't wait!

We paid off our cc about a year and a half ago. Freed up over $1300 in monthly expenses. What a wonderful feeling of freedom and a pretty good bundle to start throwing toward student loans.

Debit cards all the way for us now--if we can't afford it, we don't buy it!

-Gin

Well done CZ. Credit cards are a real scourge if you dont know how to use them, and most people dont. Easy money is easy spent. It's amazing that when you go through the pain of paying off large cc debt over time, it's only then you realise how dangerous they are.

Pity it has to be that way.

Well done again.