I’ve been wanting to do this again since I eliminated the last of my credit card debt last month.

Should be interesting to see how things fall and how the credit card companies treat/tempt me now that I’m not carrying any balances.

For a recap, here’s how things panned out in previous roll calls:

  » June 2007 Roll Call : Limit = $98500, Balance = $13026

  » January 2008 Roll Call : Limit = $108400, Balance = $8125

I haven’t added any new cards since I started, and really, I haven’t gotten an offer sweet enough to even consider opening a new account. Anyway, here goes:

Bank of America Business MasterCard
Originally an MBNA account before they were bought out by Bank of America, I opened this account in March of 2005 when I started to divide my personal and business expenses and keep track of them separately. Turned out to be a great move as it was shortly there after I realized how much money I was bleeding on business expenses. I do not carry this card, but automatic payments are set-up for business expenses.
Balance: $0
Credit Limit: $26620 (up $2420 since January)
Rate: 9.9%

CitiBank AT&T Universal MasterCard
I opened this account in April of 2007 utilizing a 0% for 12 months offer. I wrote a $6000 check to myself, which I originally dropped into my ING Direct savings account to jump on the “arbitrage” bandwagon. Shortly afterwards, I pulled the money out to finance the siding project. Now paid off, this is the only card I carry in my waller for things like gas.
Balance: $0
Credit Limit: $8500
Rate: 13.48% 11.26%

Chase Bank Visa Card
This was one of my first credit cards. I opened the account in 1998 and it was one of the cards that I ran up a considerable balance on before I got my act together. The highest it ever went was $12905 and that was in October of 2005. By August of 2006, I’d eliminated the balance, but continued to use the card for gas and the occasional purchase. Balance was always paid in full each month. In June of 2007, I took advantage of a 4.9% for the life of the balance offer to fund the siding project. This was the last card with a balance that I paid off.
Balance: $0
Credit Limit: $19200
Rate: 17.27% 15.24%

Bank of America NHL MasterCard
Another of my original credit cards originally opened through MBNA in 1997 for a free t-shirt. This is also another card that I ran up a 5-figure balance on. In May of 2004, it topped out at $10915. By November of 2005, I had wiped the balance out. Now I have my internet service provider automatically bill to this card each month, and like clockwork, I pay back the $42.95 automatically on the same day using an autopay set up from the MBNA days. I do not carry this card and have not carried a balance since November of 2005.
Balance: $0
Credit Limit: $27400
Rate: 20.99% 18.74%

Bank of America Platinum Plus Visa Card
Originally opened in March of 2005 as a failed plan to use balance transfers to consolidate balances at a lower rate. At first I transferred $5000 to this card. Evidently, not having learned my lesson the first time, I transferred another $5000 to this card in March of 2006. Luckily the rate was only 6.25% for both transfers. I wiped out the balance, which topped out at $6925 in March of 2006, in January of 2007. I do not carry this card.
Balance: $0
Credit Limit: $15400
Rate: 18.24%

Bank of America LendingTree GoldOption Loan
This was a loan for $10000 I took out in December of 2002 to, again, consolidate a few balances and put some much needed cash in my hands. At the time, it was LendingTree.com that found me the loan at 9.9%, and when the big check made out to me came in the mail, it was from MBNA. After a couple years of paying it down in regular $226 intervals, MBNA sent me a credit card attached to the account and started treating it like a credit card. With each month, the rate would rise another half percent or so. Not cool. I made my final payment in March of 2005 when the rate had climbed to 13.24%. I do not carry this card and don’t plan to ever use this line of credit.
Balance: $0
Credit Limit: $13700
Rate: 24.99%

So, since January, other than a $0 balance, there isn’t really much to report. I’m a little suprised — I’d expected a little more movement.

My total credit limit increased $2420 and now totals $110820.

Apparently due to the Fed’s interest rate cuts, my card rates have also dropped around 2%. That’s always welcome even if I’m not paying finance charges these days.

Unfortunately, the cards that lowered their rate also happen to be the ones with rates so high that it’s unlikely that I’d choose to use them for a large purchase anyway.

Well, today is the day I’ve been waiting quite some time for.

I just sent a $508.13 payment to Chase and effectively eliminated the very last of my credit card debt!

I received my first credit card, the first one that wasn’t attached to my parents’ account, back in the summer of 1997. The very first thing I purchased with it was a computer from Dell.

That $4k computer served me pretty well, allowed me to start my own company, and held it’s own until 2001. In fact, I’m still using the monitor from that computer purchased back in 1997. I’m pretty proud that my first purchase wasn’t one I regret.

But the rest of the purchases I made on that credit card, and the numerous others I’ve used since, haven’t all been such profitable or wise decisions.

In 2000, I took a personal vacation that cost $7k, financed entirely on a Visa card. Can you believe that?

The crazy part, while I have fond memories of it now, at the time I didn’t really enjoy it all that much. To date, it stands out as the biggest and most frivolous 10 day spending-spree of my life.

Since I purchased my house, just 6 years ago, I’ve bought a new furnace, a new washer, a new dryer, I’m on my third (!?) refrigerator, a new roof, new siding, new doors, lots of new furniture and I charged every single one of them.

I’ve also charged well in excess of $50k on game used hockey jerseys over the years.

Thankfully, they tend to hold their value and often increase in value. It’s tough to call that a stupid expenditure when I really enjoy it and the option is always there to sell them, but at the same time, the amount of money I’ve thrown towards it over the years is staggering — especially when I was casually using a credit card to finance it because I really couldn’t afford it.

One of the most intelligent things I’ve done using credit cards was financing last year’s home improvements by spreading it out across multiple cards and taking advantage of promo offers.

In the end, I believe we financed the entire project just above 4%. The previous year when we went the more traditional route, taking out a home improvement loan to finance the roofing project, the rate was a ridiculous 15.5%.

As a result, in the future, credit cards will be my financing method of choice when an expense comes along that I can’t afford. That is, if they still offer the nice promo rates in this “new” economy.

If you click on the chart above, as recently as June of 2007 (less than a year ago!), my total credit card debt was near $20k.

Today, it’s 100% gone.

The hockey jerseys are paid for. The vinyl siding is paid for. The roof is paid for. The furnace is paid for. The computers are paid for. The camera equipment is paid for. The BMW is paid for. Even the $7k vacation nearly a decade ago is paid for…

It feels good. Even had a little extra spring in my step as I walked into work this morning.

All that’s left now is the one remaining auto loan and that shouldn’t be there for long…

While paying down my debts, I’ve noticed that there is one thing that stands out more than anything else as being responsible for my success.

I’ve been doing some calculations recently on how I’ve managed to pay down my debts as rapidly as I have.

What I’ve found is that the pace seems to exceed my income — I mean, I can’t believe that I made $4615 in payments to credit card companies during my January 2008 billing period, but I actually did.

The secret?

Weekly payments. More specifically, automatic weekly payments.

Some will say that the difference it makes in finance charges alone is reason enough to go the weekly route (or the often mentioned twice-monthly mortgage payment), but for me, it’s just easier to part with, say $100 each Wednesday than it is to part with a big number like $400-$500 once a month.

That’s a big noticeable drop in the checking account for people like me who generally only have between $1000 and $2000 in there at any given time. $100 is like a new outfit or something — I dunno, it’s totally a mental thing, but it really doesn’t hurt the wallet as much as a huge one time payment.

The $4615 “payment” in January is admittedly very high for me and I’m not usually able to make payment even close to that.

It’s also a little deceptive because of the way my credit card due dates overlap — January isn’t just 4 weeks, it’s more like a time period of 6-7 weeks depending on when each billing period begins and ends.

Besides the down payment on my house, and a couple of the high priced renovations, I have *never* written a check for even close to $4615 dollars. I don’t have the funds available to write checks that large.

But let’s divide that $4615 by 7…

$4615 / 7 weeks = $659.29 per week

Still a high number, and not an amount I’d like to part with, but it’s an amount that I’m at least capable of parting with.

Yeah, it’ll bring my checking account balance down by over 30% with each payment, but on a short-term basis it won’t wipe me out before the next pay day comes around.

It’s this process that allowed my debts to fall so quickly.

I’m certain that I wouldn’t have been mailing in $1000 each month to the credit card companies (that’s a hefty sum), but $250 per week? Well, that’s not so bad.

So that’s what I did.

And you know what?

It worked.

I updated the progress bars on the right this morning and you’ll see that I didn’t pay off the credit card balance in full with my last paycheck like I had originally planned on.

I have the funds in my checking account to do it, but it would make things rather tight for the next two weeks so I’m putting it off until the end of the month when I get paid again.

In the end, at worst, the delay will cost me less than $2 in finance charges, so I’m not going to let it bother me too much.

I also took a bit out of savings likely due in part to ING dropping their rate again. I guess I felt like the money wasn’t doing anything for me just sitting there.

The progress there is almost embarassing, but once the credit card goal is complete, the auto loan will begin to rapidly evaporate and then I should have a few months right at the end of the year to build up savings.

We’ll see.

Here’s one of those perks to having a business credit card that isn’t often mentioned.

I have my own business, which is why I have a business card, but I’ve heard that pretty much anyone can apply (and receive) a business credit card.

That doesn’t really make sense to me, but whatever…

Recently, I had to activate a new card because my current one was expiring. I hate this process.

Most times, they want you to call from your home phone. You have to go through a huge automated menu, entering your account number, social security number, phone number, favorite number, favorite prime number, favorite odd number that isn’t prime, etc…

Then you wait on hold.

Wait for it.

Wait for it.

Your call is important to us. Please stay on the line. A representative will be with you shortly.

And when you finally get a human, they ask you all of the questions over again, then pepper you with offers for things like accidental death insurance like a seasoned telemarketing pro.

It’s horrible.

And I hate it.

You can say “no thanks” fifty times and they’ll still come back with, “Well, how about a subscription to Family Circle?” or “But the 30 day trial is free, there is no obligation to you… Why don’t we just try it out?”

Argh?!

So, last week, I had to make this call on my business card. I was dreading it.

I called the number, punched in all of my info and then sat on hold.

A moderately friendly voice answered the call, asked my name and home zip code followed by:

How can I help you today, Mr. Smurf?

Hi, yes, I’m just looking to activate my new card this morning.

Alright sir, one moment…your card has been activated. Is there anything else I can help you with today?

Nope, that was it! Thank you very much!

And that was that.

During this lull in my finances, instead of looking ahead one month at a time, I’ve been extrapolating the data out farther and farther to try to set a plan for the future.

I used to think there would always be bills to pay. No end in sight. That’s just the way it was — and I think a lot of people think that way.

I have to admit, that sort of feeling really sinks in when you grow accustomed to carrying a $20k credit card balance from month to month. It almost became, dare I say it, comfortable?

There was no end in sight, but you know what? That was okay.

Keyword being *was*.

Though I find myself broke today, and a little uncomfortable as a result, I’m not carrying a 5 figure balance anymore. That feels good.

That’s better than comfortable.

It’s been a, for lack of a better term, crappy 3-4 years trying to get rid of my credit card debt, but now that I’m on the last leg, well, things feel great.

The line, “I’d rather live for a few years like most people won’t, to live the rest of my life like most people can’t,” really applies here.

I look at some of the things I’ve put up with over the last few years, and while I’m not struggling, compared to those around me and those with similar income, I’m practically camping in comparison.

Last week, I saw CleverDude’s photo of the inside of his home and laughed out loud at the comment where someone called it “ghetto”. I was thinking the same exact thing.

The funny thing is, he’s a guy who’s got his finances totally in order and is headed in the right direction — someone to look up to really.

So then I go home and see that I’ve got cheap shower curtains hanging in my doorways and think, “You know, this looks bad but I’m just a couple of steps behind CleverDude. I’ll get there.”

Side note: while his “doorways” are to prevent heating unused parts of his house, mine are for dust control. Adding insult to injury, my living room has piles of crumbled plaster all over the shredded and unfinished hard wood floor and exposed knob-and-tube wiring all over the place. You could say we’re in the midst of a construction project, but it’s looked this way for nearly six months.

See, told you it was ghetto. ;0)

I truly have been living the life most people won’t. Thankfully my wife has gone along with it.

But that’s the thing, I’m *that* close to being able to start living the life most people can’t.

Some may interpret that quote differently than me, thinking the “good life” is the one where you buy your own tropical island, but I tend to think things through on more realistic level.

As I said earlier, it’s almost the norm to carry huge amounts of debt these days. Finance everything. Enjoy now, pay later. The premise of the good old Lending Tree “I’m in debt up to my eyeballs” commercial.

Now that I’m on pace to be debt free in a matter of months (excluding the mortgage), I’ll already be living the life most people can’t. That’s exciting. I mean, I’ve almost grown accustomed to piles of broken plaster right inside my front door but I certainly wouldn’t mind a whole nice new room instead.

Pretty soon, I’ll be able to do it. And be able to afford it.

For real.

That’s the good life.

Time to see how things have progressed on my goals for 2008…

Eliminate all credit card debt by the end of June 2008. Current credit card debt is $10318. I’m aiming to achieve this goal slightly ahead of schedule, by about a month, according to the snowball plan I started in November.

At the end of February, the balance was down to $2750. This morning, I’ve already knocked another $750 from that. So, with $2000 remaining on the total balance, I’m hoping to use the next paycheck and a little from savings to wipe it out for good and mark it up as a completed goal before the next progress report.

Eliminate PMI from the Mortgage by the end of December 2008. Right now, it’s costing me over $1000 per year. For what? Nothing. To meet this goal, I’ll have to contribute an additional $160 per month towards my mortgage.

With the added biweekly $25 my wife is now tossing in towards the mortgage, this goal is also rapidly approaching completion. We’re a little over one third of the way to eliminating PMI already.

Pay off my auto loan by the end of December 2008. Current balance is $7418. This is also included in my snowball plan and it’s scheduled to be paid off in October if all goes as planned. I’m not looking to speed this up; just finish it off.

I’m just making the payments on this one… Balance is now $6920.

Increase my 401k contributions to 15%. This way I’ll receive the maximum match allowed from my employer. Right now, I’m contributing just under 10%. I’ll plan to make this move once the credit card debt is eliminated. Achieved 12-27-2007

I achieved this goal before the year even started. Woo-hoo for me! Too bad I’m down 3.5% on the year even with the added contributions…

Increase my passive income. Now that I’ve dumped my largest client, the hockey team, I’ll soon find myself bringing in a lot less income. But, I also find myself with a lot more free time. Free time that I should use to optimize my other ventures to make up the difference; except now I’ll focus on more passive income streams because, in all honesty, I’m tired of working so much. Right now my 100% passive income hovers around $50/month. With the least effort possible, I’m looking to triple that in 2008 and pick-up a few low maintenance clients as well.

Getting there… January brought in $79.48 and February brought in $74.09 of totally passive income. I’m not quite there yet on this goal, but I spent a lot of time this past weekend tweaking things to ensure that March is even higher.

$10k in savings. This is my lofty goal. I’m not sure it’s even possible. Right now my ING account is holding a mere $1k. No matter how far rates fall, with a 5-figure balance working in my favor I’ll have to be making atleast $1/day in interest and for whatever reason, I like that. I’d also like to pay for some still needed interior renovations in 2008 with cash and this is where I’ll draw from.

Still tanking. Not sure I even want to talk about this one… No, but really, I think that once the debts are eliminated, progress on this one will take off and I still think it’s possible to reach $10k by the end of the year.

Run a marathon. This is a goal that I just added into the mix last week. To be happy, I’ll need to keep a pace between 7 and 9 minutes per mile.

I laced up my sneakers for the first time yesterday and went out for probably for a little over a mile. My back hurt almost immediately and afterwards my legs were really tight, but that’s to be expected on day one. Hopefully it goes a little better tonight. By the end of this week, I hope to be putting in atleast 3+ miles per day as I build up my stamina.

As I peruse all of my banking websites this morning, I’m finally starting to notice rates dropping in accordance with the fed rate drops over the past few weeks. Citi, Chase, Bank of America…

Okay, well, not Bank of America, but I think they’ll come through eventually.

It’s nice to see credit card rates dropping from 17.99% down to 15.24%. Sadly, these relatively large drops are all coming on cards that I’m not carrying a balance on anyway.

The one card I do still carry a balance on in with Chase. In the past month, the APR has dropped from 18.99% to 17.24%. That’s a good thing, though it’s not affecting me because my entire balance is sitting on a 4.99% promo rate. Drat. Foiled again…

The other place I’m seeing a rate change is on my ING account.

Dropping.  Like.  A.  Rock.

It was only a year ago that I started using a savings account — the rate was up above 5%. Now, it’s 3.348%. That’s too bad.

Just as I find myself finally overcoming debt, the interest rates start to work against me again.

Yep, it’s me against the man.  It’s personal.  (okay, that’s a little over the top…)

In the grand scheme though, I’m really glad that I’m finally digging out of the hole when I am. With all this news about a recession (I don’t see it coming personally), slumping home values, rising gas prices and, I dunno, total world destruction, it’s nice to know that 95% of it doesn’t affect me at all… other than that crappy 3.348% rate.  

And that costs a guy like me, what, maybe $20/year?

Okay, so January isn’t quite over yet, but you get the idea.

I didn’t really have any New Year’s resolutions, but I did lay down a few goals for 2008 and I guess now is as good a time as any to see if things are still on track…

Eliminate all credit card debt by the end of June 2008. Current credit card debt is $10318. I’m aiming to achieve this goal slightly ahead of schedule, by about a month, according to the snowball plan I started in November.

Progress is far ahead of schedule on this goal. This morning, my total credit card debt is under $5000 and with Thursday being another pay day, it’s likely to fall even more by the end of the month. I’m hoping to have all of this wrapped up by the end of March now.

Eliminate PMI from the Mortgage by the end of December 2008. Right now, it’s costing me over $1000 per year. For what? Nothing. To meet this goal, I’ll have to contribute an additional $160 per month towards my mortgage.

I’m on pace for this, though it doesn’t really feel like it. At the start of the year, I began throwing $125 towards the principle each Monday. So, with the extra payments this month, I’ve climbed $500 closer to my target of $6100. In total, I have $5124 left to go.

Pay off my auto loan by the end of December 2008. Current balance is $7418. This is also included in my snowball plan and it’s scheduled to be paid off in October if all goes as planned. I’m not looking to speed this up; just finish it off.

Nothing worth mentioning on this one. I’m just making the payments…nothing extra. This goal comes in a distant second to the credit card goal. Current balance is $7177.

Increase my 401k contributions to 15%. This way I’ll receive the maximum match allowed from my employer. Right now, I’m contributing just under 10%. I’ll plan to make this move once the credit card debt is eliminated. Achieved 12-27-2007

I achieved this goal before the year even started, but with the way the markets have been going, my increased contributions habe only resulted in larger losses. That’s okay though — in the long run, it will be a very good thing that I got this back up to the full match percentage when I did.

Increase my passive income. Now that I’ve dumped my largest client, the hockey team, I’ll soon find myself bringing in a lot less income. But, I also find myself with a lot more free time. Free time that I should use to optimize my other ventures to make up the difference; except now I’ll focus on more passive income streams because, in all honesty, I’m tired of working so much. Right now my 100% passive income hovers around $50/month. With the least effort possible, I’m looking to triple that in 2008 and pick-up a few low maintenance clients as well.

I’ve made a few moves in the past couple of weeks to get this goal on track, but nothing really impressive. I missed out on a generous advertising opportunity last week because I took too long to respond to the email offer — but that won’t happen again. I’ve got everything forwarding to one address now so nothing sits and waits for a week. Eitherway, things are headed in the positive direction. Passive income for January is looking to top out around $80.

$10k in savings. This is my lofty goal. I’m not sure it’s even possible. Right now my ING account is holding a mere $1k. No matter how far rates fall, with a 5-figure balance working in my favor I’ll have to be making atleast $1/day in interest and for whatever reason, I like that. I’d also like to pay for some still needed interior renovations in 2008 with cash and this is where I’ll draw from.

I’m tanking on this goal. On January 1st, I had around $1000 in savings. Today, I’m well below that, and the interest rate is falling so I’m not real *excited* about trying to right the ship on this one. I haven’t thrown in the towel just yet, there are 337 days remaining in the year, but I’d be shocked if I come close to realizing this goal.

The last time I did this was back in June of 2007 and I thought that with just having eliminated two credit card balances recently, it might be a good time to go back and see how the landscape has changed.

This is a list of my open credit card accounts as of January 2008:

Bank of America Business MasterCard
Originally an MBNA account before they were bought out by Bank of America, I opened this account in March of 2005 when I started to divide my personal and business expenses and keep track of them separately. Turned out to be a great move as it was shortly there after I realized how much money I was bleeding on business expenses. This is currently the only card I carry, but I rarely pull it out.
Balance: $0
Credit Limit: $24200 (up $2000 since last update)
Rate: 9.9%

CitiBank AT&T Universal MasterCard
I opened this account in April of 2007 utilizing a 0% for 12 months offer. I wrote a $6000 check to myself, which I originally dropped into my ING Direct savings account to jump on the “arbitrage” bandwagon. Shortly afterwards, I pulled the money out to finance the siding project. As the original plan was to make money on this card, I do not carry it in my wallet – though in the near future I plan to use this card for personal expenses as it’s the only card I have with a “rewards” program.
Balance: $0
Credit Limit: $8500 (up $1700 since last update)
Rate: 0% until April 2008, then 13.81% 13.48%

Chase Bank Visa Card
This was one of my first credit cards. I opened the account in 1998 and it was one of the cards that I ran up a considerable balance on before I got my act together. The highest it ever went was $12905 and that was in October of 2005. By August of 2006, I’d eliminated the balance, but continued to use the card for gas and the occasional purchase. Balance was always paid in full each month. In June of 2007, I took advantage of a 4.9% for the life of the balance offer to fund the siding project. As a result, I no longer carry the card for expenses.
Balance: $5227
Credit Limit: $19200
Rate: 4.9% 17.27%

Bank of America NHL MasterCard
Another of my original credit cards originally opened through MBNA in 1997 for a free t-shirt. This is also another card that I ran up a 5-figure balance on. In May of 2004, it topped out at $10915. By November of 2005, I had wiped the balance out. Now I have my internet service provider automatically bill to this card each month, and like clockwork, I pay back the $42.95 automatically on the same day using an autopay set up from the MBNA days. I do not carry this card and have not carried a balance since November of 2005.
Balance: $0
Credit Limit: $27400 (up $4600 since last update)
Rate: 20.99%

Bank of America Platinum Plus Visa Card
Originally opened in March of 2005 as a failed plan to use balance transfers to consolidate balances at a lower rate. At first I transferred $5000 to this card. Evidently, not having learned my lesson the first time, I transferred another $5000 to this card in March of 2006. Luckily the rate was only 6.25% for both transfers. I wiped out the balance, which topped out at $6925 in March of 2006, in January of 2007. I do not carry this card and don’t ever plan to use it again.
Balance: $0
Credit Limit: $15400 (up $1400 since last update)
Rate: 18.24%

Bank of America GoldOption Loan
This was a loan for $10000 I took out in December of 2002 to, again, consolidate a few balances and put some much needed cash in my hands. At the time, it was LendingTree.com that found me the loan at 9.9%, and when the big check made out to me came in the mail, it was from MBNA. After a couple years of paying it down in regular $226 intervals, MBNA sent me a credit card attached to the account and started treating it like a credit card. With each month, the rate would rise another half percent or so. Not cool. I made my final payment in March of 2005 when the rate had climbed to 13.24%. I do not carry this card and don’t plan to ever use this line of credit.
Balance: $0
Credit Limit: $13700
Rate: 24.99%

I think it’s funny how each month I get correspondence from the banks notifying me of credit limit increases as an attempt to lure me back into using their card. Hasn’t worked yet — though some of the included promotional teaser rates are attractive enough to get me to read the fine print.

My total credit limit has increased $6000 to a total of $108400 over the last 6 months. In theory, it’s comforting to know that if push came to shove, I could charge 6 figures. That’d be crazy though.

At some point, I’d like to sit down and figure out how much it actually cost us to finance the siding project using credit cards though. At the time, it wasn’t exactly what I had in mind, but now that it’s nearly paid for, it may have actually worked out to be a pretty good move for us (compared to alternatives like a home equity loan) in the long run.