$392,594.14

To within a 3% margin of error. This is the amount that I owe. I intend to have this debt paid off as quickly as possible.

Perhaps that is not the best way to start things off.

Hi, welcome to Clearing the Ledger. I'll be your guide on what, based on my preliminary calculations, will be a nearly two-decade journey to pull myself out of ridiculous debt for good. I am 28 years old, married, and live in the Chicago suburbs trying to build a life for myself and my future family. I've got one major problem, though, and it starts with a dollar sign at the top of this post.

My intent here is twofold. First, I want to keep myself accountable for paying the above completely off. This is not going to be a half-measure. I actually despise debt, but I am in this situation simply because there are some things that become very challenging to do without assuming any debt. Secondly, I want to share my discoveries with the world. I don't have any secrets, and none of the techniques I use will be unique to this blog, but sometimes just having the information present in a central location can be beneficial. If only one person stumbles across this blog and learns something, I believe that I can call that a job well done.

Most importantly, though, this blog will not shy away from the numbers too much. One of the biggest problems any person in debt has is knowing whether or not their situation is truly unique. I don't think my case is particularly special (with the exception of some overlarge student loans), so just the fact that I'm posting these things may help some other fairly average person in a similar situation get a feel for where they're at.

So, welcome! Make yourself at home, kick back, take a load off. We're in for a hell of a ride.