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.

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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.

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Lookout Greece, here we come!

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. 

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I flew to Las Vegas for BlogWorld a week or so ago and of course as Murphy’s Law would have it, I forgot to pack my make-up. I stopped in at Walgreens on my way to the airport and picked up some mascara, eye-liner etc.. Then as I was driving and *cough* applying my new lipstick, I didn’t read the sign at the Orlando International Airport and parked on the wrong side of the airport. This may not be a big deal at your airport but at MCO it’s a BIG deal. I parked on the wrong side anyway because I was running out of time to catch my flight.

I get in the airport and have to walk what seems like a mile across the airport to the correct airline to print my boarding pass. 

The line was really long inside, so I went outside and asked if they could print my boarding pass for me. They said since I was not checking luggage that they could not do it for me. I asked really nice for them to make an exception because if I had to wait in the long line inside I would miss my flight. 

The baggage handler ran inside to print my ticket for me. Meanwhile I knew I should tip him but realized I only had a $20.00 bill.

He brought my boarding pass back and I thanked him. Then he asked me for a tip! Since when do people ASK for a tip. This put me off. I will tip you but if you ask for it, that makes me less likely to tip someone. I told him I only had a 20.00 dollar bill, he said that is ok I can make change.

He pulls about 4 dollars out of his pocket and realized he needed more. So he slowly walked over to someone else to get more change. 

Meanwhile I am frantically waiting because I still have to run through the airport, go through security, take the tram to the terminal and make it to my flight.

After waiting about one minute for him to find change I said, I am really sorry I have to go or I am going to miss my flight.

I thought the nerve of him to hold me up and possibly make me miss my flight because he wants a tip. 

So not only does American Airlines charge extra for each bag you check, they ask for tips! 

I think I will stick with Southwest. They are friendly, hand out free drinks and snacks (American makes you pay for snacks), they are funny and they have low fares.

Thanks, American! I realized why I like Southwest so much.  

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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!

Gary Vaynerchuk Blog World Expo Keynote Speech from David Peralty on Vimeo.

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