I have a positive net worth!

$10,207 in savings
and
$9915 debt!

Lame Sayings I Live By (or try to live by).

"Over prepare, then go with the flow."
"Slow and steady wins the race."

Under $10k and Bored!

I now owe $9996! I'm under $10k in debt.

My finances have been quite boring. It's kind of on auto pilot right now. I just wait every payday and disburse my money to the bills, debt and the rest is mine.

I'm feeling stuck in a rut, but it's a good rut I guess!

June 28th, 2012!

If my calculations are correct (they are) and there are no unexpected large expenses and no overspending I will be debt free on June 28th, 2012! 15 months after starting this debt free journey $25k of debt will be gone!

This past year has been tough. I still have some bad habits that I need to work on, but I know I've also accomplished a lot.

June 28th can't come any faster. I'm looking forward to 2012! Ready to close the 2011 chapter.

Cheers.

When It Rains, It POURS!

2011 was actually a pretty calm year.

Aside from my wonderful debt free journey and a really bad car accident that resulted in a financial windfall, the year has been pretty normal.

Within the last month, it has been going to hell in a hand basket, pardon my french.

My boyfriend's childhood home is now officially owned by a bank. Thanks to his dad who didn't pay for the mortgage. FYI his parents are no longer married.

My parent's are legally separating after 30+ years of marriage, my dad is moving back to his homeland in January (a third world country in Asia).

It has been quite overwhelming! I can't help but feel these mixed emotions of disappointment, sadness, anger, etc. etc. mainly disappointment.

These are our damn parents making really bad decisions! People we used to put on pedastals.

And what does it all lead to?!? BAD "FINANCIAL" DECISIONS.

My boyfriend's dad gambles. That equates to losing your home even though he has a great job and military retirement pay.
My dad is impatient, and at 57 is cashing out his large 401k so he can go back home and party hardy! Hello taxes and penalties!
I don't feel like my mom is protecting her property and finances from my dad.

My naturally positive and optimistic self is trying to deal with this in the best way possible.
- These are lessons to learn. Personal & emotional.
- It will only get better, when you're down the only way is back up.

OH YEAH: My Car!

I'm back and I feel good!

I'm officially down to 1 more student loan and a little thing called my car loan!

I didn't mention this before since the car loan was under my dad's name. I've been giving him $250 a month to pay for it since I started my full-time job in 2009.

WELL, After accompanying my boyfriend to purchase his first car a few months ago (he's been driving hand me downs). He wasn't approved for the preferred rate with the dealership because he's never had a car loan before.

My boyfriend has great credit and savings so he called his credit union and they approved him for a car loan in just a few minutes.

I've been giving my pops money to pay for my car since 2009, I should be getting credit for paying my car! So we transferred the car loan to my name. It's now officially my debt.

Here's my numbers!
Student Loan: $6469 at 5.72%
Car Loan: $6851 at 3.99%
Emergency Fund: $1000
Savings: $5360

I'm very proud of my numbers now! The little savings fund is actually a big pile of money I'm stacking to pay off my car loan in one nice swoop early next year.

Wise Decision: Financial Windfall.

So I made the best of my bodily injury settlement and paid off a student loan!
The rest went straight to savings.

I now have two student loans left.
Student Loan 1: $6556 at 5.69%
Student Loan 2: $1989 at 2.22%

I'm planning on paying off my Student Loan 2 in 5 paychecks! So come October, I will have my last student loan left.

$8545 left! I'm going to finish the rest of this year strong!

Debt Update & Financial Windfall.

I'm back!

Slowly paying down debt, but haven't made any huge strides lately. I'm hoping I'll get back into the groove 8/25/11 paycheck.

I now have a $1000 emergency fund.

My three student loans are at $11038, almost in the 10k range.

I didn't mention this but I was involved in a very bad car accident in late June. Blessed and lucky I came out of it with little injury.

Because the other car was 100% at fault I'm in the process of getting a bodily injury settlement. Extra money is great, but not under these types of circumstances. Just that type of experience stinks!

Planning on putting it straight into savings. And let it sit for awhile.

CREDIT CARD DEBT FREE!

Credit cards are gone! I've managed to pay off more than $4,000 since March.

Now it's my 3 student loans that add up to $11,124 that I'll be working on starting in August.

It feels good.

Almost Consumer Debt Free!

My credit cards will all be paid off as of July 14th! Now the hardest part is to keep balances off of them.

I will be tackling my student loans the rest of the year and saving, saving, saving!

UPDATE: Credit cards are officially done tomorrow! Let someone borrow money and they paid me back earlier!

CREDIT CARD DEBT FREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!

Re-Think!

Okay I've been paying off my debt so much that it barely leaves me with anything to live off of. It's really uncomfortable for me!

I'm not going to stop my debt repayment plan but I've re-done it. I was planning on paying off Student Loan #3, but instead I've decided to save.


2011 Paychecks: Snowball/Plan
14 7/14/2011 $1,044.00 SAVE IN CHECKING
15 7/28/2011 $1,044.00 SAVE IN ING
16 8/11/2011 $1,044.00 SAVE IN ING


I'm not going to be debt free by the end of the year, because I moved some stuff around. But I really want to beef up my checking and savings account.

I will have one student loan left at the end of the year, I keep telling myself it's okay.

$11k Range!

Hello $11k!

STUDENT LOANS $11,211.00
CC $690.00
TOTAL: $11,901.00

Feels good. Summertime is here and although I'm working 9-5 Monday through Friday, a lot of birthdays, graduations, parties are coming along!

It's leaving my checking account at an uncomfortable level. I guess that's the norm when you're paying off your debt in huge chunks, leaves little room for fun money.

The debt reduction journey continues!

Reflection.

I've been on the road to financial self-improvement.

I understand that it's all a choice and day by day progression.

In the beginning of March 2011 I was about $16,375 in debt and now I'm staring a much smaller number of $12,428. Next paycheck I'll be in $11k range.

I'm really proud of myself.

Debt Update: Paycheck 6/2.

5/23/11
STUDENT LOANS $11,258.00
CC $1,733.00
TOTAL: $12,991.00

TODAY:
STUDENT LOANS $11,211.00
CC $1,217.00
TOTAL: $12,428.00

Did $516 worth of debt damage to my credit card. Two more payments of $517 and $700 and it is gone.

I've introduced credit cards back in my life. I have been using a credit card for daily purchases. It's actually one of the first credit cards I've ever had from 2005. It has a cute max credit limit of $200. Of course, I've been paying it off before any interest is applied to my purchases.

Mentally I'm still all in this debt elimination plan. I can't wait for July, credit card free and I'll be tackling my student loans $700 at a time!

$80 between now and 6/2!

I have $80 to live on between now and next payday 6/2/11. I'll probably use $40 of it for gas next week.

I think I unknowingly set myself up for a per paycheck zero-based budget! I don't feel comfortable with just that much in my checking account, but then again I know that every bill has been paid for and nothing will be automatically deducted.

I did have some random expenses that led to it being at $80, a quick trip for fast food, a really nice dinner, contact lenses and dog grooming expenses.

Hello $12k!

I'm in the $12k range!

I have 1 credit card left, then I'm tackling my student loans the rest of this year.

The Plan:
I will try to eliminate my last credit card of $1733 in 3 paychecks. That's almost half my take home pay per paycheck but I'm determined!

Now for the numbers:
3/15/2011
Total Debt: $15,655

5/10/11
Total Debt: $13,490

5/23/11
STUDENT LOANS $11,258.00
CC $1,733.00
TOTAL: $12,991.00


I found a wonderful blog called Debtspiration (www.debtspiration.com). It's a blog full of money quotes. I come back and read Debtspiration from time to time.

My favorite quote:
"I want you to realize that whether all of this takes a week, a month, or a year, that precious and limited time is going to pass whether you are doing something about your life or not. I promise you that at this precise moment next year, your life will be better or worse than it is right now. It will not be the same; the choice to improve it or let it decay is undeniably yours."
— Phil McGraw, Ph.D., Self Matters

Love it and all it's applications! You'll either be fatter or skinnier, more in debt or less in debt, have more savings or nothing at all at this precise moment next year. I wonder where I will be in May 2012? One day at a time.

Credit Scores.

I've never had too many problems with my credit score except for two extremely dumb things.

During college I lived in a house with roommates. We all were responsible for one bill that we had to open under our name, so I got the cable bill.

We paid on time and all that good stuff. When the school year ended, we went our separate ways and I moved into an apartment. I never bothered to look at my credit score.

Two years out of college I decide to check my score and report and see a cable bill in collections for a measely $52! It was one of those balances that lingered after we assumed we had paid the final bill.

My credit score was in the 600's. I called the collections agency and paid it off right away. Contacted Experian and told him the bill was settled and my score improved.

Another dumb thing that gets me is I applied for a bunch of credit cards in college including a Capital One card with a credit limit of a whopping $300. Yes dumb old me forgot about a small balance or ignored it (shame!) and didn't pay for it for 60 days! So there's a little red on my report.

DUMB DUMB DUMB!

Well as of this year I started at 712. I closed a few store cards, okay more like 4 of them (Macy's, Target, NY&CO, Kohl's) and it improved my score because I improved my open credit card utilization AND the average age of my credit lines got older! Yes I know. So now I'm at a 762!

I highly recommend Credit Karma for your free credit score (www.creditkarma.com). Yes there are a lot of advertisements, but they're pretty useful if you're shopping for financial products.

2009 - 2010 - 2011: Where's My Money?

I have been employed with my current company since March 2009.

I was just thinking where the heck did all my money go? I started at the company with a salary of $38,500 and received 2 raises and 2 bonuses since.

2009 is a blur. I really don't know where my money went. All I know is I spent a lot of money that Christmas 2009. It was my first time buying presents on a salary.

2010 I took a bunch of trips. I went on a cruise to Mexico, a mini vacation to Palm Springs, 4-day trip to Washington D.C, planned/paid for a baby shower, went to Las Vegas for my friends bachelorette and planned/paid for a lot of that too. Just lots and lots of random expenses.

2011 is clearer now that I have a plan. I did start off the year by adding on more debt with my trip to Miami and Europe. But I'm also on my way to paying off a total two credit cards! Working on my third soon.

I finally set a date to be debt free as well. I calculated that I should be debt free by February 2012 or sooner if I really push it.

My Living Situation.

My Living Situation:
I live a pretty simple life as a 25 year old.

- I live with my parents rent-free but pay for gas, electric, water and sewer.
- I work M-F 9am to 5pm. Boring job, but wonderful co-workers and boss.
Go home after work and relax by surfing the internet, watching t.v, running errands, hanging out at home with my parents and dogs. Sometimes I'll hang out at a friends house or apartment.
- Spend time with my boyfriend on the weekends, if there are any get-togethers or parties with friends and were up for it, well go.
- I try to travel once a year.

I live my life daily thankful for my wonderful family, my pets, my friends who I have known for years or grew up with and a great partner/boyfriend who I've been with for 10 years.


My Financial Situation:
- I make $41,241 per year, before taxes and deductions.
It's funny how the only negativity in my life is my debt! Paying for past mistakes in the present time sucks. I'm more determined then ever to get debt out of my life. That way I can save, spend, give and plan for the future the way I want to.

Budgeting.

How do you budget?

I keep it pretty simple budgeting paycheck to paycheck and I use post-it notes!

My take home pay after taxes and deductions is $1234.
I pay myself first so a direct deposit goes into my ING savings then I direct deposit my dad my car payment (he bought me a car in 2007).

That leaves me with about $919-$1044 (depends on how much I put in savings) for bills, gas, food and debt.

Let's take this coming 5/19 paycheck.

I get out my handy dandy post-it note and write the following:
- Paycheck date 5/19-6/2 (6/2 will be my next paycheck).
- All bills due between 5/19-6/2 in this case a cell phone, student loan, gas & electric.
- I put a (+) sign next to any debt I'm snowballing. In this case my Best Buy credit card at $435.
- $919 on the bottom left is how much money total I have.
- $322 is how much I have after paying for bills and debt snowball ($919-$597). So that $322 is gas, food and fun money.

I set up my next post-it a few days after payday. Tada!