When I started this blog about a year and a half ago it was to document my efforts of getting out of debt. There was two car payments, about six credit cards, student loans and misc. other debt. I don’t have an exact figure but at one point before I started this blog it was over $50,000.
I am proud to say that I don’t owe anyone a single penny! My car is paid for, all of my credit cards have a zero balance and my student loans are paid for.
I have to give a lot of credit to listening to Dave Ramsey on the radio everyday. He is financial advisor that I really admire. He has written many books (I have read them all), has a radio show, television show on Fox, created Financial Peace University and tours around the United States educating people on how to get out of debt.
With the current market, there is no better time to be debt free. Having no debt gives me freedom to do what I want and travel where I want. I just have the usual bills of rent, power, cable, cellphone and car insurance. I no longer slave to Visa and Mastercard.
It is a terrible feeling when you get paid and all of the money that you worked for goes back out the door to things you already bought. Most of the time when you charge something on a credit card you don’t even remember what you bought when the bill comes in. Dunn and Bradstreet did a study and found that people that purchase items on their credit card spend between 12%-18% more. Spending cash hurts, swiping your credit card doesn’t hurt as much!
I would encourage everyone to pay off your debt. The peace that you will feel in your life is priceless.
A friend of mine that I lived down the road from and went to Deltona Middle School with was recently in a motorcycle accident. His wife is nine months pregnant and is expecting any day now. Sean will be unable to attend the birth of his baby because he is in one hospital and his wife is in another. My best friend and I are planning on going to see him in a few days. I will update his status once we see him.
There is a Charity Poker Run in his honor. Please donate for this wonderful cause.
We just booked a 10 day trip to Greece with a couple of my friends. We aren’t leaving until April but that gives me plenty of time to save for the trip and lose some weight. I don’t want any fat girl vacation photos.
That will be my first trip outside of the country other than the Caribbean or Canada. We got a steal for $1500.00. It includes hotel, breakfast, transfers between cities and a flight from New York. We just need to book our flight from Orlando to New York.
I need to start reading up on Greece and see where the hot spots are.
If you are looking for some inspiration in your life regarding your career, I highly suggest you watch some of these keynote speeches done by Gary Vaynerchuk at different conferences. He sent out a Twitter the other day saying he is booked until July of 2009.
He is amazing, passionate and can inspire just about anyone.
I interviewed him in August on the Social Media Bus. Check it out!
I attended BlogOrlando this weekend. This is the second year that I have attended this free un-conference. Josh Hallett has put this event on the past three years. It is free because of the sponsorships that Josh brings in. They have different tracks that offering different sessions that you may be interested in.
Of the three sessions that I sat in today the Monetization track was my favorite. Ted Murphy from IZEA was leading this session. He is so loud and passionate it gets you excited about the topic. He could have been talking about a topic that I don’t particularly care for and it would have kept my attention. Some of the other presenters got up there and you could barely hear them and they didn’t seem happy to be there. Ted handed out two $20.00 bills to people and told them to write about him on his blog, whether it be good or bad, he didn’t care. That captured the audiences attention right away. Then people were more tuned in to what he had to say.
So if you are going to lead a session… be passionate!
A friend of mine that I lived down the road from and went to 
