Prologue

We are a family of four--a husband (thats me), a wife and two young children. We live in a nice, 2,500-square-foot house, drive a late model car, and have all of the niceties you might expect of an upper middle class family.

The problem is that we don't fully own any of it. We have over half a million dollars in debt--about $610,000 to be more precise. This is a combination of a large mortgage (about $500,000) and unsecured lines of credit and credit cards (about $110,000).

Woah. Yup. That's a lot.

How did this happen? What are we doing about it? That's a long story, and one that I will tell you over the coming weeks and months. I will start at the beginning, and won't leave anything out. I'll give you the blow-by-blow of what decisions (or lack thereof) created this situation. Why? So that others can hopefully avoid many of the pitfalls we have fallen in to.

This is not a blog about how to recover from extreme debt. At least, not yet. It would not be truthful to write about how to recover from this kind of extreme debt, because we have not done it yet. We are certainly trying, and I will write about what approaches we are taking, and how things are turning out.

I read many personal finance blogs, and have read many related books. Many have great advice, and I do not intend to restate it. Instead, I will tell you exactly how that advice works in an extreme situation such as ours, and the behind-the-eyeballs consideration that takes place before making drastic changes in your life, as much of this advice suggests.

Ultimately, I hope that by telling this story, both the parts that have already happened, as well as the parts that are yet to come, I will give comfort to those of you out there who are in similar situations. Perhaps not as extreme, or perhaps worse (although I have come across few in that category). I hope I will also give you some ideas about how to tackle your financial situation, and how you might think and feel differently about the bind that you're in.

Welcome--it is a great pleasure to have you here.