I worked for it, and it was not easy, nor was it fun. I was $60,000 in debt and I put every free penny I had of my net income towards my debt. This was probably 50% – 90% of my income at times while earning about $65,000 grosss per year (which is around $50,000 after taxes and fees). Note: I was a consultant living out of a suitcase, so by the nature of my job, I was able to channel a lot of my net income each paycheque towards my $60,000 in debt. I watched every penny, and followed a budget exactly like the one I created for myself below. And that’s it. The big secret. Of course, there are a lot more details to the 18 months it took to clear my $60,000 debt, but that’s the gist of it.

WHERE AM I AT NOW?

Here’s my net worth at the end of 2009, and my net worth at the end of 2010 (I was up by +$130,100 at the end of December 2010, or by 235%). I went from November 2006 being $60,000 in debt to the start of January 2011 being $180,000 in the black. You can see most of my budget roundups starting in 2010 for the most part here.

I don’t have my old posts because I wasn’t organized AND I lost all my old monthly budget roundups when I moved from Blogger to WordPress

In about 4 full years, I increased my net worth by almost a quarter of a million or $240,000. I hit $200,000 net worth in March 2011 but then had to pay my taxes, so I’ve dropped down to about $180,000 again in April. For all of 2011 I decided to not work at my full-time job as a consultant, and take the year off to travel to Asia and spend the summer in Europe before traveling around the U.S. for the remainder of the year. I am expecting to be at about a $160,000 net worth after my little yearlong adventure, and I ended up being at $155,000 net worth at the end of 2011.

SO HOW DO YOU GET OUT OF DEBT?

You can start by reading these posts:

• Stay motivated to get out of debt
• How I got out of debt
• Are you suffering from frugal or debt fatigue?
• Cut everywhere, not just where YOU want to save