First Post

Hi,

My first ever post to my new blog.

A bit of background.

Way back in 1996 at the age of 33, for reasons that I won't go into here I changed jobs from a reasonably well paying one to a poorly paying one that did however offer the promise of fairly quick pay rises until it would become a very well paying one.

I therefore didn't mind using credit cards to help me meet my month to month expenses, knowing I'd be able to pay them back when those pay rises started to arrive. Sadly those pay rises never did arrive and those credit card debts just got bigger and bigger.

By the time I changed jobs again to another reasonably paying one I was well on the slippery slope, and at their peak in December 2005 those debts - by now owed to several credit cards and a couple of loans as well - topped £47,000.

Starting in November 2001 I used to post fairly regular updates about my battle to get free from debt to The Motley Fool UK's "Dealing with Debt" board: http://boards.fool.co.uk/dealing-with-debt-50079.aspx .

Having finally paid off my final debt in March 2012 ( http://boards.fool.co.uk/gostevie-update-debt-free-at-last-12513183.aspx ) I find I miss writing those updates, but since I am now in credit they would be "off topic" there and, quite rightly, get pulled by the TMF moderators.

That's why I have started this blog instead. It's mostly here so that I can keep a record of my post-debt endeavours to build up some sort of wealth, but if anybody else wants to read it and comment on it, then fantastic.

I'm not sure at this stage how frequently I'll post, or even what form those posts will take, but every blog has to start somewhere, and that somewhere is here.

If anybody apart from me has read this far, many thanks, and if you happen to be in debt yourself I'd thoroughly recommend having a look at the TMF Dealing with Debt board that I've linked to above. There are a lot of good Fools there who can offer practical advice, encouragement, and the occasional kick in the rear when it's required.

Good luck to all,

Gostevie