Scorsese. Hudson. Mirren. Whitaker. The Departed. They're more than just names, jack ... they're success stories. Every one of these joes and jills was an Academy Award winner last night, but it didn't come cheap. It took years of hard work, chances taken, then one day ... BOOM; the big payoff. It's the stuff that dreams are made of, baby.

You may not walk down the aisle and accept a little golden trophy, but that doesn't mean you can't win. If you've got mountains of bills and are looking to get out of debt, then get gazelle-intense and send your debt up the river. Create a budget and focus all your extra cash on making a baby emergency fund, then getting out of debt.

It takes hard work and dang sure won't be cheap, but the payoff is priceless. Financial freedom ... no bills to anyone. That's free advice ... more to be found on The Dave Ramsey Show.