Posted by Maneesh Sethi :: January 2, 2008 @ 10:36 am

Congratulations to J.D. over at GetRichSlowly. GetRichSlowly is one of the personal finance blogs I read daily, and it is definitely one of my 3 favorite blogs. J.D. just got himself out of debt after 20 years. That's an amazing feat – getting out of debt is certainly a life-changing experience. Fortunately, J.D. was nice enough to share his story with his readers.

So what's his story? J.D. was $20,000 in debt only six months after college, and that number ratcheted up to $35k in 2004. In only three years, he was able to get out of debt by following some excellent guidelines. If you find yourself in serious debt, consider J.D.'s story – it took a lot of work, but after only three years he is free of the shackles of debt.

What's J.D's advice? First of all, set goals. Having goals is an excellent way to change any aspect of your life, and money is no exception. By setting goals, you know exactly what you want to achieve, and it is easier to follow steps to make your goals a reality.

Begin tracking all of the money you spend so that you can see exactly where it is going. Don't let yourself spend money without knowing exactly what it's for. You can track your expenses in a software program like Quicken, or on a piece of paper. Once you have a list of your expenses, you will find it easier to know what to cut out.

J.D. offers a lot more excellent advice on his post, so you should definitely read it. The most important step, however, is simply not to get discouraged. If you stay motivated to get rid of your debt, roadblocks will disappear. We at Lending Club want you to have a debt-free life. Once your debt goes down, so do your monthly payments. You can then put some of that newfound money into P2P loans on Lending Club and earn a great return while you help others improve their own financial situations.