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I didn t know what to do! Then a friend of mine sat down with me and showed me what I could do to get out of debt - completely.

I expected that the balance would be shrinking considerably - but it had hardly moved! That s when I actually started to pay attention to what was happening with all of my debts.

But then one day I got the shock of my life! You see, I had one card that I had not used in over a year.

What if you could invest $2,000-3,000 per month because you had no debt payments? My friend showed me that....

When I added it all up, I discovered that I had slowly amassed about $35,000 in credit card debt! And I discovered that a huge portion of my monthly income was going to debt maintenance, but I wasn t getting anywhere with paying off any of my debts! (I call it debt maintenance because my debts were not being paid off - they were just being maintained.

My debt elimination plan took a little longer because I had a higher than average debt-to-income ratio because my income had dropped a little after our move to Pennsylvania.) I was excited! I had a plan.

It was so simple, I couldn t believe it! I was already spending money on paying the bills every month.

I could finally see a way out.

Including the mortgage on the new house that I had just built and moved into.

And that made me a slave to my job.

But it gets even better.

For most people, that comes to about $2,000-3,000 per month.

We had no trouble making the required minimum payments on all of our credit cards.

The constant pay down - charge up cycle was masking from me what was really happening.

It took time for both of us to build a new clientele.) Suddenly, we couldn t make our debt payments for a few months, and we were in trouble.

One month, when I was making the payment on that particular card, I actually stopped and looked at the statement.

Then my wife and I moved from southwestern Virginia to northeastern Pennsylvania.

My friend showed me how that after I m totally debt free, I can take all the money that I used to be wasting on debt payments, and invest that money instead, without affecting my standard of living at all.

We were happy.

I had been paying on this credit card for over a year without putting any more charges on it.

I was stunned.

I was in bondage to debt.

Add up all the debt payments that you re making right now.

Soon, we ll have our mortgage polished off as well.

My wife and I diligently applied our new debt elimination plan and we found that, just as promised, we paid off all of our credit cards in about two and a half years.

That s when I got the shock of my life.

Credit cards, car loans, mortgage, education loans.

We were doing okay.

He just showed me how to use that same money in a more efficient manner to get my debts paid off in just a few short years.

(After all, I m already spending that money right now - on debt payments.

I m sure you know what I m talking about.

I had no way to pay off all of these credit cards.

(The average person can do it in about 7 years.

I looked at my monthly expenses (for the first time).

We would use a credit card, then pay it down a little bit (though we never actually paid one off), then charge it up again.

) Suddenly, I realized that I was stuck in a trap, and I didn t know what to do about it.

We re-established our incomes within a few months, but by then we were far enough behind that we couldn t catch up.

Our housing expenses went up a little bit, and our income faltered for a few months until we got re-established (I was a self-employed residential contractor, and my wife was a self-employed piano and voice teacher.

After we did the simple calculations that he showed me, we determined that I could be completely debt free - including my mortgage - in about 8 years and 2 months.

Then we started working on paying off our mortgage.

I kept close watch on my situation, but it continued to get worse, rather than better.

Why not invest it instead?) Think about this for a minute.