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This is how I paid off $165,000 in debt and saved $20,000 in just 15 months. Like so many Americans Cheri and I were in a cycle of accumulating credit card debt and paying it off by rolling our credit card debt into our mortgage and declaring, "Never again!" Without any skills or tools to change our behavior, it happened again and again... for nearly sixteen years.I believed the lies. I believed that debt, credit cards, and car payments were tools that would allow me to live "the good life". Indeed, spending unconsciously and living in debt was giving me something I wanted - the ability to pretend that I was achieving my dreams and avoid my reality.Our dream. Since before Cheri and I were married we had talked about taking a year off from work to travel the world. At times, when our debts had been rolled into their mortgage, the dream seemed more likely to happen. Of course, moving debt from one place to another did not really ever pay it off; it just hid the reality of our situation. The truth was I had stopped dreaming. It was the easiest way to stop the negative judgments of myself without having to give up my behavior and confront my choices around money. Over the span of those 16 years, the price became too high. The pain of not living my dreams was greater than the pain of changing.In February 2007 Cheri and I began taking control of our life and our money. Over the following fifteen months, we paid off $165,000 in debt and saved $20,000. No, we didn't have huge incomes. We had received a $40,000 inheritance when my parents passed away - which we didn't use to go to Hawaii. Instead, we paid off some of our debt. In addition to using the $40,000 to pay off debt, we harnessed our $80,000 annual income to pay off an additional $25,000 in debt and save $20,000.Best of all I found a passion for teaching other people how to take control of their money and life, get out of debt, and live their dreams.