I was the sort of child who saved the artificially-colored grape half in my Del Monte fruit cocktail (the "cherry") for last. And so have I done with my Happy Dances. Rather than celebrate each retired card (4 total), I've saved the dance to celebrate the whole shebang -- twenty thousand big ones!

I discovered the Fool in late December of last year and vowed to dedicate 1999 to eradicating our seemingly colossal and immoveble credit card debt. Working diligently, we planned to have it all paid off by March of 2000. Inspired by our success, though, we accelerated our payments in order to start 2000 credit card debt-free. And so, just moments ago, I sent a final EFT payment and our outstanding CC debt now stands at ZERO.

I have been in CC debt since the age of 20. I'm 34 now. I can't bear to think of how much I've paid out in interest over the years. But those days are behind me now and now I'm throwing more money than ever at my student loans and into savings. CCards get paid off in full each month now.

Thanks to all of you wise and wonderful Fools for encouragement and advice. I hope I have contributed as much to other people's struggle with the debt monster.