My credit card debt crept up slowly over the years, and hovered around $20,000 for quite a while. It seemed that just when I'd get serious about paying it down, another expense would pop up... a major car repair, soccer and hockey registration for the kids, Christmas. My interest rates seemed reasonable, and I got comfortable with the monthly payments as my salary crept up over the years as well. Paying off debt never became a huge priority.

Last year, after months of enticing from "Flip That House", I decided to invest in real estate. My strategy was to "fix and rent", with an eye towards building income for eventual retirement. I bought a bank-owned property in November 2007 with a new home equity line of credit, topped off with some more credit card debt. The plan was to rehab the house using more credit card debt, then refinance using the much higher value of the house as collateral. The result was a ballooning of my credit card debt to just over $60,000.