An introduction ...

Last Saturday it was my 29th birthday. I have one year to go before I hit the big 3-0.

A lot of magazine articles these days say that "30 is the new 20" and "40 is the new 30", and I certainly don't feel as if 30 is "OLD". But on the other hand, it is a major birthday. When I was in highschool, I always thought of 30 as being the point where I would have "made it" ... a great career, married, kids or thinking about kids, etc etc. (Although I'm not sure how I thought I would balance all of that).

Well, 30 is rapidly approaching, and my life is no where near I want it to be. On the one hand, I have "made it" in my career - I'm certainly not at the top of my field yet, but I have a good job - which for the most part I actually enjoy, a very decent salary, and a clear career path in front of me.

I'm not married (or in a relationship) and I don't have kids. For the most part this doesn't actually bother me. I have always been more focused on my education and career, and don't even know if I want children. I'm not saying I never want to get married, but I don't want to marry the wrong person just so I can say I'm married.

The one place in my life where I feel a complete and utter failure? Money management. I am in debt. Serious debt. As in "how could I dig a hole so deep" debt.

There is no excuse for it. I will be writing posts in the future to try to explain how I accumulated so much debt, but the reality is, I bought what I wanted, when I wanted, and as long as a bank would give me a credit card, I would use it.
If you look at my profile, I originally "set up" this blog in January. At that point, being credit card debt free by September 2012 seemed achievable. Since then, what I have done? Added more and more debt to my name, and realistically, unless I win the lottery (which I don't play), I will not be credit card debt free by the time I turn 30. But, I'm going to get my debt as low as possible by my 30th birthday.

One important point: this blog is detailing my credit card debt.

I co-own a house with a family member. So I have a mortgage, but I know if we sold the house today, even in a fairly depressed housing market, we would have more than enough to pay it off. I also have "student loans", but I live in Australia, and our student loan program is very different from the US or Canada. It is through the government, the "interest" is only CPI increases, and is paid through increased tax payments. Once I tackle my credit card debt, I can then think about paying extra towards the mortgage and/or student loans.