The Debt/Debt-Freedom Rollercoaster.

So over the past 3 months I have gone from Debt-free to indebted to Debt-free again and now I am again in the Indebted category.

It's like a bad debt-rollercoaster: One minute I'm high in the air and financially free, the next moment I am plunging back down into debt-hell.

I'd like to stop this debt-rollercoaster and get off on top, or at least on level ground.

I guess part of the problem is that I've lost my focus and intensity. I used to have signs up everywhere that had my goal:

PAY OFF ALL CREDIT CARDS/DEBT BY BIRTHDAY

I had this sign up everywhere - Above my computer, on top of my big TV. Below my little TV, by the fridge, it was an avoidable goals and my mind never lost sight of that goal for too terribly long. and when I missed this goal, I made a new goal:

PAY OFF ALL CREDIT CARDS/DEBT BY 8/23/07

I also put this sign up everywhere and I got excited because even though I didn't make the Birthday goal, I was not that far off at all from it when my birthday came and went. In the end, I paid off my debt (the first time) about 3 weeks ahead of my re-scheduled goal and 2 1/2 months after my original goal.

Now I sit with a much smaller amount of debt but still - it keeps coming back after I pay it off - I guess the goal now is to build up an emergency fund that will stand the test of time over minor $1000+ emergencies that will undoubtedly come up over the next several months as me and my fiance plan out wedding and try and come to a compromise on expenses. I might have to raise that emergency fund to the 5-10K range - which will take a lot of work and most likely another job.

I guess it's time to put up another set of signs.