For the past little while, I've been reading everyone else's blogs about personal finances and it's been a huge help for me. Considering that I'm deep in the hole, it just might do someone else some good to know what I go through. First off, let me tell you a little about me and how I got in this deep =)

I'm 22 years old, and since I was 16 I've been self-employed as a contract web developer. In those early years I was making $20/hour on average, and as one of my clients once told me, "the more you make, the more you spend." Regretfully, I lived that mantra to the max! After hundreds of CDs, burgers, [insert anything and everything here], I managed to spend every penny I had. Along came the credit cards... "I'll pay it back when I get my next check." We all know that game - I'd never pay it back, the balance would go up and up, and pretty soon I had no more credit. Sooooo...I'd get another card, transfer the balance, and start all over again (don't we ever learn?!)

Long story short, here I am today with $14,000 in credit card debt and another $3,000 owed to the IRS on a payment plan.

I was married on October 14, 2005, to my beautiful wife Leslie. She knew I had all of this debt, and thankfully she still loved me enough to saddle herself down! We're now 9 months into marriage, and we're ready to take control of our finances!