The reason I wanted to include the previous post here, is because there have been more recent developments in the whole "pay off my credit cards" goal.

See, I got another credit card. With a much higher limit than any of my previous ones. Yikes!

It may not look like it, but this is actually a good thing.

First, it allows me to transfer the balances of my other debts to this new card, consolidating them -- and, of course, then eliminate the other lesser cards, just close those suckers right down.

Second, because this new card offerred me 0% APR on transferred balances (which is the reason I applied in the first place), I have eliminated finance charges for the rest of the year. And the new card has a $0 annual fee, and a relatively low APR on purchases, although it's a variable APR that can fluctuate depending on the Prime Rate. So I gotta watch that.

The downside is that, because of timing, transfering the balances adds one more pay period (half a month) to the time until I'm free once more of debt. But as I said, it's still a good thing.

It appears that I have managed to repair my credit to the point where it was before I screwed up -- wait, let me find a more positive way to say that. Ummm... How about "...to the point before I began exploring the challenges, risks and rewards of fiscal adventure." Heh.

However, even though I'm keeping two of my credit cards, the total amount I can go into debt has gone up significantly. As a hedge against plunging too deep into debt again, my new revised savings target is at least enough cash to pay off my total unsecured debt, which will be $3500. I should be able to set aside this amount by mid-2006.

In fact, a side point; I'm going to be retiring $1800 in debt in the next two months. Wow. Until I sat down to figure that out, I didn't realize how much extra money I have. And I'm not going to have to make any major lifestyle changes to do it; I live pretty simply, but even so. Extrapolate that out over the course of a year, and that's $10,800, or around 25% of my gross income.

I need to be holding on to some (most!) of that money next year -- my new financial goal. • 6:56 AM

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