YEAH, bitches!

My credit score finally earns me an "A":

I've had a very healthy credit score in the mid-700s for years, but this is the first time my score has swung up into the "A" range (max score is 850). A credit score is determined by a large constellation of factors. Among them:

• the timeliness with which you pay your debts
• the number of outstanding debts you have
• the dollar amount of each of those outstanding debts
• the speed with which you zero out various debts

Read more about how this works here.

I normally get paid on the 16th, but because the 16th is a Sunday, I'll be paid on Monday, which means another trip to the bank to send off another $5000 to my US account. Once that money is in place, I'll pay off a $10,000 chunk of my remaining debt. I'll do that three more times throughout next year, and poof—debt gone.

What I'm really looking forward to is what happens after that: I'll be able to save like crazy, and by the time I'm in my mid-50s, I'll have a decent chunk of change to my name.

PS: for people who want to warn me that a $10,000 pay-down of my debt is going to trigger some alarm at the IRS: I did some research, and the notion is mostly bullshit. It used to be said that people would do transactions in segments of $9999 or lower to avoid the federal tripwire, but this practice is called "structuring" and is illegal. Secondly, if the IRS does flag you, what happens next is that you get quietly monitored to see whether you're engaging in any untoward activities. Me, I'm not buying a villa on the side for my mistress, nor am I involved in illegal drug trafficking, so I'd say I'm pretty safe from judgment. I'm just paying off a debt. And boy, does that feel good.