Personal Finance Tipping Point

Free From Broke inspired me to write about my Personal Finance Tipping Point, thanks for the inspiration!

It was May 2005. At the time, I was suffocating under ~40k in cc debt. In an attempt to save money I had moved into a wretched, dirty, crowded four bedroom house with 6 people living in it (and 7 more in the illegal in-law!). I had been deluding myself for years and living beyond my means. It was only a matter of time before circumstances caused a disaster. I reached the point where I couldnt make the payments on 2 of my credit cards and both went to just beyond 30 days late.

I felt like I was falling into an abyss. I was fortunate to rebound from those missed card payments and catch up. I remember hiding in a conference room at work to make the phone payment on my late cards. I was so relieved, but also terrified at the thought 'what if this mess just snowballed?'

From that point I made the simple vow to stop using credit cards - a cash diet. Of course, I had a few slip ups in the next couple months, but I was on the right track. Its been an uphill battle since then, but I feel an ever increasing sense of freedom as each dollar is repaid.