Debt Reduction 101

“I’ve learnt that if you’re not desperate for the money and you’re not in debt, you have more freedom of choice.” – Viggo Mortensen

For anyone who has lived under a rock since 2001 when the first “Lord of the Rings” movie came out, Viggo Mortensen is not an economist or a self-help guru. He was the actor who played the character Aragorn in the Lord of the Rings trilogy. But since I will shell out money for any movie that has Viggo Mortensen in it and will force my husband to accompany me to the theaters so I don’t feel like I’m committing film adultery, I tend to pay attention to interviews that feature this very talented (and oh so gorgeous actor).

For obvious reasons, Mr. Mortensen’s quote really resonated with me. The closer that I get to paying off my debt, the more I realize that the extra $300 a month or so will allow me more freedom.

So today, I was determining my next payment towards my debt “snowball” and had a revelation – if I pay $200 a week for the next 16 weeks, I could be debt free by November 5. I’m still crunching the numbers, but I think it should be do-able.

Oh … and if you really want to know how much I love Lord of the Rings? I’ve read all of the books at least three times (the first time I read them was PRIOR to the movie madness, thank you very much …) And when it comes to the films … when the first “Lord of the Rings” movie came out in December 2001, I think I went to that movie five times in the theater. Or as one of my friends said it, “you basically spent 15 hours of your life in a theater watching the same movie.” It’s kind of embarrassing to admit it now and even when you factor in the cost of the matinees that I went to (I can’t remember off hand how much, but let’s assume $5 for a movie, another $5 for goodies if I was so inclined), so basically $50 to scratch my LOTR itch.