I've wrangled the debt monster, to the tune of over $15,000. Looking back.. eek, those days were pretty horrible. (Daily Ramen, anyone?) But once I stopped the bleeding by not accumulating more debt, I did manage to pay off the balance within two years.  I was absolutely livid that a car loan was suddenly hanging over my head like that, and used sheer anger as my determination point to shovel on through it.

Nothing compares to writing that last check out and knowing your money is once again yours.

Now if only savings interest rates would stop being so pitiful. Online savings accounts had nearly 6% rates a few years back, anyone remember?

Why?

Well I make 10+% from real estate.

I like echo JT sentiments about leverage.

Car Loan - $18,000

Student Loans - $27,000

Credit Cards - $7000

We currently only have a home mortgage of about $114k and plan to have that paid off in 6 years. Find out more details at my post called "Paid Off $52,000 in Debt in 18 Months"

As far as current credit cards, my wife has one, but usually pays it off the same day as using it, and always by the end of the billing cycle.

Since I paid off my credit cards, I have not carried a balance.  I track my spending and budget for everything. 

I've also learned the power of the word "no," and I exercise my right to say it quite liberally now--this is a HUGE accomplishment for me b/c I used to just charge things I couldn't afford instead of telling someone I couldn't go out to eat/on vacation/shopping/etc.

since then, I've managed to get the credit card debt paid off through a combination of living at home and increasing my wages. I've used debt snowball (paying the lowest balance off first in credit cards) - Helped so much in the mental aspect! After two cards were paid off, I just went after the bigger fish and set it on automatic.

then came grad school..

i've incurred another 70k in debt for grad school @ a scorching 6.8% (thanks Uncle Sam). And this I was lucky to do without any additional credit debt due to me working full time, going to school part time and ta'ing. 

Now, I am in the process of getting the student loans paid off as quickly as possible and increasing my income at the same time. It's been a challenging process, and i hope i can shed some light for others with whatever i can.

Unfortunately I've stalled on the next few student loans, but I'm getting back on track and hope to have them paid off soon - there was quite a bit going on, and along with all that, I simply spent too much money.  It now looks like I got comfortable with debt for a while (because I had no cc debt) but Now Im back to hating it!

Hopefully will be debt free soon enough - but I Know that my circumstances will change quite a bit between now and then, so it may take longer than I'd like.

My plan right now is to tackle the first two aggressively as I hate the feeling of them being there. I just finished off paying my car loan of $15000 in 3 years so I am super happy about that.

7% interest is quite high ... My mortgage rate is currently 2.4% (Variable - .6% up in Canada).

In my opinion, credit card debt are usually an indicator of bad finance or lack of knowledge on borrowing options. You should do what you can to minimize interests. Negotiating for better rates is sometimes as good as saving more money or making extra payments.

Currently saving $460 a month in a "car fund".  When that balance gets big enough to pay off the car in full I will do that.  I don't send it as extra payments right now as I would rather have the savings until I can lose the car payment. 

The biggest balance I've ever carried on a credit card is about $3,000 and I was obsessive about it until it was paid off.  I really hated it.

Bingo, bango!  Unsecured debit is flexible, secured isn't.  Lose your credit score, not your home and wages. ;)

I carry balances all the time on the business end.  A little bit of liquidity is nice, and when it isn't liquidity, it's leverage.  As far as I'm concerned, BT offers at 0% for a year with a 3% fee (I hate how rare these are getting!) are the best deal since sliced bread.  As such, I usually open one line each year, max it out, and then pay only the minimum until the last month.  Then I do it all over again.

Obviously it's not the preferred method, but it definitely helps bridging out a net-30, 60, 90 income cycle.  Plus, when it's not all used it can be applied toward leverage.  I think one person who gets this right is TFB; surprised he hasn't chimed in yet.