<prompt> Human: Well, pf, today is a great morning! I started aggressively browsing pf a few months ago due to being tired of living paycheck to paycheck. I am very lucky in that I net about 50k so I was wondering why the hell is this happening? what am I doing wrong here? Well, spending. Living above my means. You name it and I was doing it. So, fast forward a year to this morning. Fast forward past an awesome excel sheet for managing debt, managing budget, and we come to today. I am officially 100 credit card debt free. This is the first time EVER since I started working I turned 19. Im 25. My total debt, a year ago, was approximately 26k. As of this morning were looking at around 17k. And its student loans, nothing more. Meanwhile, Ive again for the first time ever been able to save up an emergency fund. I have CDs, one of which has a rate of 3.5, and am putting all my focus on annihilating those student loans. SO, honestly, thank you PF. The advice and motivation Ive gotten here has been an enormous help and support and I know it will continue to be so in the future. For anyone just starting, just keep at it, as much as you can. Cut spending where you can. Be smart with your money because you work hard for it!! Edit: Ah.. for braggin purposes, Im also contributing 12 of each paycheck to my TSP militarys 401k as well as adding 100 to emergency fund each month. Note- I dont have a car payment or any big installment things. I have an OOOLD 97 saturn but it runs like a champ and have had to talk myself off the ledge from buying a car at least twice.  <response>: Your future self says, thanks 