Welcome to the New Blog Alert series! One of the BEST things I remember about starting this blog from scratch was networking and getting onto “the scene” here. Every last click and comment dropped excited me like no other (it still does!) , so my hope is that we can bring a little jolt of motivation and excitement to these new guys starting out.

I can’t promise you’ll like them all, or that they’ll even be around next month (Lord knows blogging takes some time no matter how much you enjoy it!) but hopefully these will at least bring refreshing voices to managing our money better. Sometimes all it takes is hearing one new way of doing something ;)

So give it up for our first New Blog Alert today: Deliver Away Debt! I asked Jeff to send us a bio on his background and why he started blogging, and here’s what he had to say:

I’ve made some financial choices. My driving force has been to obtain the status and things that my parents have. They have a nice house, new cars, boats, snowmobiles and purchase whatever they want.

I’ve made some bad financial choices in my life. I’ve lived paycheck to paycheck for as long as I can remember. I’ve made a great salary most of my career. I received overtime pay for years and based my life on those two pay structures. By the time I was 25 I was making more money than my father. At 26 I was even my father’s supervisor at one of the big 3 auto companies. I’ve tried keeping up with my parents since I graduated college. I bought new cars, I bought toys, and I went out to the bar almost every night. I spent money like it was going out of style. I thought my pay would catch up to my debt. I moved up in the company and every time received more money. That only allowed me to spend more and help to ensure I would be in debt forever. My wife and I finally woke up and decided this had to stop.

I started to search for answers; I needed to find some help on how to get out of debt. That led me to Dave Ramsey. I listened to and read books by Dave. I found out that delivering pizza was a great second job for people who are working the 9-5 “normal” job. I walked into the local pizza joint and was hired on the spot and started to deliver. Dave was right, the money was good.

I started my blog DeliverAwayDebt, to help people understand the process of getting out of debt. I log my weekly earnings from delivering pizza so others might be inspired to work a second job to get out of debt. I’m a true believer that you have to make your own “bailout.” Nobody but you can make the sacrifice to eliminate your debt. I realized that my behaviors are what got me into debt, so my behaviors are what are going to get me out of debt. Get off your butt and make it happen for yourself!

I’m 34 years old and I currently have $82,296 of debt. I’ve paid off $19,247 of it since May. Yes sir, that means I started with $101,543. The debt includes; 2nd mortgage, personal loan, 1 credit card, 401k loans (stupid move), and a student loan. I will be debt free in Aug 2011 working the plan I have in place right now. I’m always looking for better ways to scratch together some more coin to help pay down my debt. I’m approaching the wonderful years of the Male Midlife Crisis. I sure as hell don’t want to be in debt for it sweet period of life. It’s much sexier being able to buy the red corvette with cash than with a 5 year car loan. I’m sure my beautiful wife and two little kids will have other plans for our money, but I still need to have a dream.