So I’m very late in posting this update, however the numbers are from early in the month. Not a whole lot of excitment in the past 30 days or so – still chipping away at that debt. My ‘year’ ends in October, so I’m going to pass the $10,000 mark in debt payoff within the past 12 months.

I’m looking forward to that number increasing in the next year as well – which would hopefully make it my last year in debt (besides upcoming student loans…gulp.)

A dive in stocks this past month didn’t bode well for my overall net worth, however I continued to put money towards my credit card debt and am close to getting that monster down to the $10k mark.

So, during my last net worth update, I mentioned that I had increased my 401k contribution from 5% per paycheck to 8% per paycheck. Many friends of mine either don’t contribute to their companies 401k plan or if they do – they never increase their contribution amount. Typically, most set their contribution amount to the minimum amount to qualify for a company match. That’s fine – but many have told me that they won’t increase their percentage because they don’t want the amount taken from their paycheck.

So, if you’re reading this, it’s a pretty good bet that you’ve heard that you should pay more than the minimum monthly balance on your credit card debt.

Well, what you may not realize is that advise is now more relevant than ever. The credit card reforms that went into play this year make it possible for those of us with credit card debt to save a lot of money and hopefully get out of debt faster – if we abide by the rule and pay more than the minimum. In fact – the Center for Responsible Lending says that the reform will save about $2 for every dollar you pay above the minimum. Pretty sweet, huh?

The good news this month is that my 401k rollover has finally taken place – the bad news is that, due to just missing the vesting period, about $4K of my previous 401k fund doesn’t get to make the trip to retirement with me. Oh well. It’s a marathon, not a sprint and I’m hopefully doing just fine considering where I am in life and debt.

So, in the past month, my net worth has shot up incredibly. This is largely due to a big lift in stock prices that has affected my 401k, brokerage account and my Roth IRA. While I feel great about being “in the black”, it’s really a false sense of accomplishment. I haven’t been able to chip away more debt – or rather – I haven’t been disciplined enough to chip more debt away. In fact, I have added to my debt through the use of an “emergency credit card”.