First post and introductions

I just wanted to start my first post introducing myself. I'm Jesse, nice to meet you. This blog is about money. There isn't going to be any "get rich quick" things in here...ever. I may write about things that will make you a little money here or there, or something that you can do to get an extra 5 or 10 bucks every week or month, but mainly I'm going to give advice about what to do with your best wealth builder -- your income from your job.

I want to let everyone know in the first post (like anyone is going to read this anyways :-P...but one can hope!) that I am not rich, I'm not a rich guy telling you how to become rich like me, though someday I hope to be in that situation. I'm an ordinary guy with a job and a wife (no kids yet, but someday). I'm an ordinary guy working to get out of debt. I'm an ordinary guy that bought into the lies of American society that said I could buy whatever I want now and worry about paying for it later. What is not ordinary about me is that I grabbed my incoming money by the throat and decided that I want to be in control instead of money being in control of me.

I recently read a book by Dave Ramsey called The Total Money Makeover and I would recommend this book to anybody that wants to turn their financial life around. He doesn't give you any "get rich schemes" and you aren't going to find many here either. He does show you how to get out of debt and get a control on your money and your life.

Many of the ideas I present here are from his book and others and if you keep returning to my blog you will see my progression as I work my way through his ideas and the ideas of others on my way to financial freedom. If you keep stopping in you'll see me work my way to ZERO debt and then my life after (which right now I can't imagine what it will be like). Please follow a long with me as I work through this journey, encourage me in my comments, and I'll try to be an encouragement to you through my posts.

I'm going to give a small overview of my financial situation as a starting point to my story. My wife an I are recently married and determined to get out of debt and stay out of debt forever. We currently have only 3 debts which amount to almost $35,000 in debt. Our 3 debts are:

Truck: $2800
Jeep: $14,500
Student Loan: $17,500

It seemed at the end of the month that we had just enough money left over to pay the minimum payments and never any extra. We lived with no budget and only "rough figures" in my head. I never overspent to the point I wasn't able to make the minimum payments, but I never kept enough control to pay more.

This month will be our first month with a plan and a desire to get out of debt. Tomorrow's post will be about our budget. This coming week will be the first paychecks that will be put into our budget, and this next month will be the first month I have some control of our finances. I've decided early in our marriage that I don't want to let money be something that will cause arguments and luckily my wife is on board too. Check back tomorrow for our budget.