So, as I’ve always mentioned, I’m not claiming to know the answers to getting out of debt – this is evidenced by my attempts at climbing out of debt and the failure I encountered.

In fact, as I type that I see how debt is like the Greek myth of Sisyphus who’s punishment from Zeus (for trying to be on the same level as the gods – Sisyphus was mortal) was that he roll a huge rock up a steep hill, but before he reached the top of the hill, the rock always escaped him and he had to begin again.

Not that money makes gods of people, but you can’t deny that having money – true money, not available credit – is a powerful thing. And they say that to err is human and what is now more human (or a bigger error) than credit card debt. As ‘humans’ we pretend to be on the same level as those with money – spending borrowed money in an effort to keep up or show ‘purchasing power’. However, we are then only punished with having to fight a seemingly endless battle with that debt. Pushing the rock up the mountain only to lose our grip and watch it roll all the way down again.

…too deep? Eh – it’s late, whatever.

Anyway, so I was reading a few bankrate articles on improving your credit score and I seemed to either have lost site of the fact that an important factor is keeping the cards around 30% spent in order to not lose any points on my credit score (some articles say around 50% is okay). After doing the math this evening, the 6 remaining credit card balances that I am dealing with are 97%, 93%, 89%, 83%, 78%, and 34%.

Not good.

A while ago I read Dave Ramsey’s Total Money Makeover (on sale now for $10 on his site…wink.) and, honestly, I wasn’t overly impressed. It seemed like 200 or so pages which could basically be summed up with the sentence “Just pay it off”. However, maybe I read it wrong since Mr. Ramsey seems to be doing fine (yes…he does accept credit cards…another wink) and has a fairly large fan base. I don’t know – I just feel that debt is more a mental thing than anything. If paying it off were that easy – everyone would do it and no one would need advice, support or…ahem…a blog. But it’s not easy, it’s really hard and I think most books don’t address that. Anyhow…

Mr. Ramsey says to pay down your debt with the lowest balance first – and the term he uses to describe how to approach this debt pay-down is “gazelle intensity”. While, being from Boston, the metaphor to me is a little odd – I do understand what he’s saying and have decided to give it a try.

Those of you that have been reading a long know that I’m not a great budgeter and prefer to set up automatic systems as a way to dummy-proof things. So I’m going to refer to a basic budget that I had been piecing together and max out payments to the lowest percentage debt and work my way up to the top. With the help of an expected (knock on wood) Christmas bonus from the new job – I plan to have the first debt (34%) gone by the end of December. The next debt, with the help of another small and expected windfall in the form of a tax refund should help me eliminate yet another debt by February depending on when I receive my W2.

It’s exciting to think of this new plan and to actually watch chunks of debt go away – but I know that regardless of the plan, the amount that I have to work with (my paycheck) doesn’t change and that it will take time, perseverance and some of that mental toughness that no one writes about…well…except for a blogger or two.

According to a report on Bankrate.com, 34% of people asked had no idea what type of mortgage they had on their homes. …What? …Really? How is that possible?

I know there is an alarming amount of people that don’t really care about personal finance and that’s fine, I can understand that – but 34% of people went through the process of “purchasing” a home and just didn’t pay attention to what they were doing or being sold? I can’t imagine that.

What’s more believable is that:

“9 percent have some variety of an adjustable-rate mortgage. Homeowners in the poll who knew they had an adjustable-rate mortgage (ARM) were asked what they planned to do when the interest rate adjusts, 34 percent said they didn’t know what they’d do.”

It’s one thing to not think about the future or pose a ‘what if’ to yourself – but to just not know and pay anyway is amazing to me.

The article blames the lack of personal knowledge exhibited by this 34% on the over-abundance of product choice leading to consumer confusion. However, all interest in personal finance aside – or lack thereof, I still don’t buy it. We live in (sorry to be cliche) the information age. With all of the books, sites, calculators, and advice available to anyone that can use Google I just don’t see how that many people can not know what they’re paying for every month.

Heck – I’m a renter and even I know what I’ll be doing once the time comes for me to buy a house (it will be through a fixed-rate mortgage – unless the rates are so high it makes sense to get an ARM in hopes they fall again).

I don’t think it was a matter of too much choice or confusion. I think that – like most everything that is a ‘major purchase’ – these people were bullied or talked into whatever they currently have by being told by an “expert” that it was a good deal or the only way to do it. Oh well – I guess it’s more motivation to learn as much as you can about whatever you’re getting yourself into.