And Here Endth the Lesson

I'm done.

I'm finished.

I owe nothing to nobody.



For those who need the back drop to this outstanding achievement - lets go back 4 years.

My freshman year of college I was young, I was naive. I had bad money skills, lived outside my means, and let things get way out of control.

Flash forward to the beginning of this year. I had almost 5,000 dollars worth of credit card debt. And a whole lot of guilt. It didn't help that my last semester at school I took a finance class that literally left me begging that we wouldn't spend our 'free' Fridays talking about personal finance because I felt so guilty carrying that much debt on two credit cards which were on me at all times - including that class.

I always made it a goal every year to pay off my debt. But I never could at school. My parents never even really knew the extent of my debt until I came home. I hide my sin and tried to cover it up.

Until I came home in January. I have always wanted to pay off my debt, just never had the means [I mean I still was a starving college student trying to survive at school with a job that paid me 8 dollars and hour and not even that] but when I came home and got a "real" job, I felt that this was the time to literally pay for my mistakes.

So April 2010 I made up a plan to pay off my debt. I borrowed money from my parents to pay the credit cards out right so I wouldn't have to pay interest. That alone removed 600 dollars worth of interest, or one month's payment. And then it started - the ritual of handing over 600 dollars every month to an always willing mother to pay off my debt.

And today I paid my last one. It's done, it is finished.

I still use my credit card now, but I haven't paid an interest payment in almost a year. I pay off what I use each month and it feels good. I have no more student debt -- I am free from that burden that I carried for four years.

But the lesson doesn't end there. I have also learned how to take better care of my income. So I don't have to be that strict again to try to pay off debt. I have learned, and I learned good.

And here endth the lesson.