Yeah for Me!!

I got paid today and it's my extra check in the pay cycle, so it gives me some extra money to kick towards my emergency fund!!

I took care of all of my necessities, so all of my bills are paid, I have a fresh rent check for February ready for the boyfriend (he's my "landlord") and the last half of my gym class payment all set.

I also set aside $25 in my regular expenses savings account (basically where I transfer money that I know is going out soon, so it's not just sitting in my checking account). This is 1/3 of my spring fee for my sport, so I'm ahead of the ball there and won't get hit by some big $75 ping in two months.

But more awesomely, I took $500 and using a referral from Paid Twice (who I read all the time and totally dig snowflaking!), I opened my first ING savings account for my emergency fund. Yeah! Yeah! Yeah! Plus, I got a $25 bonus for opening it due to the referral and because I opened it with over $250. So I made an extra $25 today on top of everything! So excited. Plus Paid Twice then gets $10 from her referral for her son's college fund. Quadruple yeah!

My plan is to fully fund my emergency fund at ING and let that money do it's thing and build interest, then move on to my debt snowball and hit my debts hard. Plus, it takes a few days to transfer any money from ING to my checking, so I'm less inclined to dip into my emergency fund for non-emergencies, but it's still there and liquid for emergencies.

I updated my savings and my net worth on the sidebar. My networth increased a positive 1.2% today to 3.2% ...

So, today is a good day. Sweet. Quadruple sweet.

Itchin' to Do Something ...

The downside to having your paychecks every two weeks and wanting to get rollin' on your personal finance plan is that it's a lot of hurry up and wait sometimes.

Some good things for this week ... I think I'll be getting an extra paycheck working into my finances. Which will help my Emergency Fund a lot.

I'm planning on protecting my Emergency Fund from myself by putting a big chunk of into a new ING account, so I can earn some interest on it too. I can start a new one for $250 and use somebody's referral that I've seen out there in PF land.

I've not got a new habit of listening to Dave Ramsey's day-old online show while I work. I like to hear the stories - good and bad - and it kind of keeps me motivated to keep working even when my usual tendencies of procrastination and surfing try to kick in.

Tonight, I'll go work for my brother and we'll get started on our plan.

Good stuff ...

Fitty

In my office on a Saturday, taking care of some paperwork before I go work that freelance job for $60.

Look at my checking account, realized I'm in good shape for less than the next week until I get paid again, so I transferred another $50 to my emergency fund.

Little by little ...

Good Karma?

A lot of people say that if you start moving forward in a positive manner and moving towards positive health, good things will happen to you more often.

They say that if you start paying off your debt, more money will its way to you too.

So it's pretty cool that just as I was updating all of my bills and feeling calm that I had paid off my bills for this month and tucked away some money to my emergency fund, I just got an e-mail giving me some part-time hours doing something fun AND it'll pay me $60 for just a few hours of work.

Sweet!

11%

So, part of updating my debt payoff totals for this month was figuring out the percentages of my payoffs. I have - in just two payments - paid off 11% of my remaining car loan.

That's much more motivating than 2% or less on the others. But even with 2%, I think "Wow, only 50 more updates to go at that rate!".

Kind of cool.

Part of my discussion with my brother was telling him how I'm educating myself by reading different books, writers and PF blogs, specifically Suze Orman and Dave Ramsey. As it turns out, one of his close friends also mentioned Dave Ramsey. So I explained Dave's methods with the baby steps, snowball method and that I've been listening to Dave's shows online at work while I work on projects. Much like it did for me, what I talked about struck a chord with my brother too. So he's going to listen to some of Dave's shows too and I'm going to bring him my copy of The Total Money Makeover.

It's nice and reassuring to have someone close and important to me walking alongside me in this journey.

So, right now I'm listening to Dave's show from yesterday. I have to admit that a small part of me gains solace from hearing some of the callers call in with much worse situations than I have. And I really enjoy Dave giving them No Bullshit answers.

Brother

I'm going to make a commitment to go work for my brother at least one night a week - Wednesdays. Hopefully twice a week, maybe on Sundays or Mondays?

But last night, I went over there and while he didn't have any work for me, we did start talking about money, our finances, how we're trying to fix our personal finances and then our family situation.

After some real heartfelt conversation for a few hours, we decided that we can work together and use each other as sounding boards for improving our financial health (which will improve our mental, emotional and physical health too!).

We're also going to sit down with a plan and talk with my mom about our lives and then about how she is doing. We want her to know that she doesn't have to be there for us, but that we can be there for her too.

After this, we plan to bring our younger sister into the planning. And then we're going to tackle our dad.

My father has been an alcoholic as far back as I can remember. Until just a few years ago, the four of us had moved away and left him because he would not stop drinking and all of the negative behavior that went with his drinking.

Three years ago, he finally decided to become sober. He moved here and we took him back into the family and he's been sober ever since then. He's found a full-time job and is - in some aspects - a much healthier person.

But my brother and I both agreed last night that while some aspects are okay, our father hasn't changed his mentality and respect level for the people in his lives. It's often like dealing with a beligerent 16-year-old asshole instead of the 60-year-old television Dad we wish we had (Bill Cosby would be my choice!).

He lives with my mom (who divorced him before he got sober) and pays her rent. But he's taken over her house with his hobbies and has created a pretty negative and depressing environment for our mom. We think it's reaching a peak for her mental health in dealing with this everyday. She basically hides up in her room - of her own house - with our family's dogs, rather than dealing with him every day.

So, that is our next step in the planning. My brother and I are going to sit down with our dad and explain that if he wants to stay part of this family, he's got to not only be sober, but he's got to treat people better and be an adult.

The good thing we kept saying to each other, my brother and I, is that overall - big picture - we're doing pretty well. We have good lives, even with all of our debt. And we have our family. And we have lots of blessings. And that this stuff we're dealing with now is going to be much easier than a lot of the crap we've dealt with before (brother also staying sober, his girlfriend getting sober, our parents divorcing, our family falling apart, bad relationships, etc.).

So, in that way, I'm feeling pretty positive about all of this.

I think also that once we get farther along in our sharing process, I will share this blog with my brother and possibly my mom. They know I have debt, but sharing the totals with them would be coming completely clean and help me accomplish part of my goal for 2008 of being honest with myself and others.

Updates

I paid all of my bills this week. Yeah!

I updated all of my sidebar totals with these payoffs.

I also went back in and updated my net worth. It was getting confused, since I tried to update a January with new info. So I changed the old one to December 2007 and updated the new one to January 2008. I also changed my asset total for cash in December to zero, so it more accurately reflected my positive cash on hand. Since I'm pretty much working with a zero budget, this made sense. I'm just including the positive balances in my checking account after all of my bills are paid for each month and then my various savings balances.

I'll also update my car value annually, so that number will stay consistent for 2008.

I am still waiting to find out what my retirement assets are within my job's retirement system. I believe we get some report in spring of each year. I couldn't find a way to access this online unfortunately.

I haven't started my 403b yet. I am going to focus on my emergency fund ($1000!) and then my debt payoff first. Depending on what happens with my job, I'll either wait for my next salary increase at my current job or if I do happen to get the new job I'm hoping for later in this year which hopefully gives me a salary increase as well, then I'll get that 403b started.

Day Off

I had a three-day weekend thanks to MLK day yesterday. It was very nice and relaxing, plus I accomplished a few things.

- I took my cat to the vet for the first time in a few years. He's in good health and has his two vaccines which are good for three years.

- I cleaned the bathroom, vacuumed and straighted up the house. Staying on top of the cat hair so the boyfriend's allergies don't kick in.

- I made stuffed shells with yummy (and lower-fat) cheesy and fresh spinach filling (not frozen) with sauce. Enough for us to eat all week. Plus I used up some old bananas and made banana bread, which turned out awesome.

- I worked out at home for the first in a I can't even remember. Boyfriend's basement is half-finished and provides a great workout space. So Mr. Cat and went downstairs to work out and modified some of my gym class workout to fit the basement. Which actually ended up being pretty tough. I did a similar warmup, even running some short down-and-backs (yeah for a long empty basement), jumproped (although I have to be careful to keep it low and not hit the ceiling) and then did four exercises counting down from 10 sets to 1 set of each in a series. Mr. Cat did chase me and swat me a few times, so we took a slight break to go get him a toy to chase around instead.

- I didn't get to my money day, but I'll be working on my finances later today.

- I also shoveled the whole driveway (my second time in a week!) and our sidewalks. We got a lot of snow yesterday, so I helped boyfriend a bit with having less overall snow this morning. I let him shovel our next door lady's house though (we help her out), because I did that the first time earlier this week.

- I keep reading about this tax rebate thing that Bush might give everyone. Mine would fund my emergency fund! I will not spend it, unless it doesn't come through for a few months in which case, I would pay off some credit card bills b/c my emergency fund will be already funded.

- Oh and I'd like to note that I went grocery shopping yesterday for the second time this weekend (which I know is bad and has become my little vice), but I stopped to see what Whole Foods was like because I had never been there. And even though it was gorgeous and healthy and full of samples and so much I would love to buy at it's rediculously overpriced prices, I walked out with absolutely nothing and went to my favorite and least expensive grocery store. A battle at a time, you know?

Late at work

Sitting here late at my office on Friday night because I need to wait 15 minutes before braving the cold for the next bus home.

Am going to a party of an alum from my sport tonight. And also going to see bull riding! My mom won two tickets to a local event on the radio, so free bull riding for me and my boyfriend. Good stuff.

Am very sore from workout last night. Really tough. Walking like a crippled old lady, but not as bad as I thought. Hopefully tomorrow is better and not worse.

Looking forward to this weekend to just sit home and get the new digs organized. I'm still living out of a laundry basket since I haven't made the boyfriend commit to a set-up for our now communcal living arrangements.

Also, I have to trim my cat's claws. They're getting long again and he's misbehaving for attention and going after boyfriend's nice furniture. Will have to set some money aside and look into declawing possibly if this keeps up, but he's really being a bad little guy. Last night I had to lock him in our basement (with all of his necessities) because he was waking us up by chewing on electrical cords and using the nearly new couch as his new personal scratching post. Can't take the chance that his bad behavior makes boyfriend want him out, so looking into options.

So happy it's Friday. Have a good weekend.

Total Money Makeover

Still reading Total Money Makeover on my daily bus rides. So far, I like it a lot and will likely follow it to get out of debt.

I'm working on developing my "gazelle intensity".

A lot of this applies to my health goals as well. About 90 minutes of sprinting last night, so I'm worn out and now finally a tad sore from Tuesday's fitness testing. Tonight is the first hard workout at the gym. And I need to start drinking more water every day.

Do gazelle's get sore?

Gym Class Day 1

This is my third year of taking these winter gym classes. Day one we always do fitness testing to set the bar, if you will, for improvement.

I did better than I thought I would in some aspects. I am a weakling in others. All in all, I was slightly surprised that I had my natural strength considering I have been a very lazy butt since October.

I ran a surprisingly decent 14.92 second 60-yard shuttle. The slower girls were running 16-second times while our fastest were in the 13-second range (who are both awesomely fit and gifted athletes). My time was only slightly slower than one of our speedier players, so I was kind of happy.

My balance tests were awful. We have to stand on one leg, with our arms crossed over our chest and our eyes closed (hard to do!) for 60 seconds. If you wiggle too much, lose your balance at all or touch your foot down, you get a point. You count all of your points at the end. My left leg had a 4, while my right had an 8.

I was not so bad in the pull-ups, but I did the 90-degree pull-ups from the ground versus the full-weight hanging style. I know I couldn't get even one on those, but I had 14 in the 90-degree.

Push-ups were my worst. My full plank was only 7. That said, they were full plank and not on my knees. Later, I used the power-wheel to do pike-ups and had a 6.5. I fell attempting my 7th, because I didn't keep decent form (which means I'm done).

We had to do a weighted-throw with 20-kg balls. My chest and my backwards throws were decent, a 17 and a 15 or 16 I think. Not too weak, but could be better.

And my walking lunges holding a 12-kg weight in each hand sucked horribly. I only made it about 12 yards before I was done. But that's a bigger weight than I initially wanted to use, so that's pretty good considering. My knees were bothered, but boy were my legs not happy. They did not want to move up.

So, tonight, we have our team indoor sessions. Lots of running and ball-handling. I need that cardio badly, but I know I will be sucking wind. Worth pointing out, it will only cost me $5 for all eight indoor winter sessions. $5!

Thursday, I'm back at the gym and I'm not looking forward to the big workout, but the sadistic inner fitness babe in me says bring it on.

Suckola

I started a Networth IQ profile last March. Haven't bothered with it since then. So I updated it today finally.

Mine's private, but I posted the newest total on the sidebar.

It's very ugly. And sad.

I look forward to making it pretty. And happy.

About the only thing that I have any positive net worth from is my car. And then it's only worth about $5620 according to Kelley Blue Book in good condition. And I still owe 4404 on it. But I'll take the positive $1200 on it.

$1.36

My boyfriend's parents gave me a $25 gift card to Borders for Christmas.

I invested it by purchasing Dave Ramsey's Total Money Makeover. Which I've heard so much about, but was never willing to spend the money on (it costs $24.99!) and couldn't find at the library when I looked.

I know a lot of people preach Dave as gospel. But I just like to read as much as possible. So it's my new bus book for reading to and from work. So far, I like it. He's preachy and I don't totally agree with everything, but I kind of like his attitude. And I like the stories about other people.

I'm not a strict practicing Christian, but I'm spiritual and I identify with the scripture passages he uses too.

I only had to pay $1.36 for the book after taxes too.

Job Lead

Today my friend N messaged me with a potential job offer down on the north side of Chicago.

One back in my previous career route in athletics, basically saying it could be mine if I wanted it (he's a good old friend from college and we both know I have 3 job pluses of education, experience and networking) plus I'd likely be handling a major client that would likely win a major championship this year.

Definitely thought about it for five seconds ...

But I said no because not only have I just moved in with my boyfriend to his great newer house (he's just had it one year), but I've got pokers in the fire for a potential return to that same career route here in my town.

Plus, Chicago ... I know I couldn't afford it. It would likely ruin my killing off debt plans. And I miss everything up here too much. My boyfriend is even from Chicago (college and after anyway), but he wouldn't move back down there.

It's nice to know I'm thought of though. And I just think, offers like this will come up again if I keep moving forward down the right path.

This week ...

The holidays are officially over. Sad.

I love the holidays so much so I hate seeing everyone take down their christmas trees and seeing them laying in the snowbanks by the roads.

This week is also the first work week in four weeks that I'll be here all five days. I had some vacation time and then all of my holiday time off as well. It was fun while it lasted. But there is the MLK day off in two weeks, so yay! I've decided that that day will be my personal organization day at home - my finances, setting up my new office space (with all of my old stuff), all kinds of fulfilling goodness.

Tonight we start our gym workouts for my sports team. I am an amateur athlete and part of a sports club team. This is our offseason, but we start our conditioning and organizing for the spring now. I have been very lazy since we finished up our last games and practices way back in October. I haven't done much of anything fitness-wise. So these classes will be painful, but exactly what I need to jump back into my fitness.

These gym classes are twice per week with a certified trainer in a class of my teammates for 8 weeks at just $15 per week. And I don't have to join the gym. It's really a very good bargain and one I feel is a important investment in my health and fitness each winter (physical and mental!), not just for my sport. Additionally, I have set it up so I can pay for my 8 weeks in two smaller payments of $60 each tonight and again in four weeks. I set aside money on my last payday into my irregular expenses to cover this, so I'm square on my budget.

I clarified two of my goals for 2008 in my sidebar and added a new one.

I said originally I wanted to lose 15 pounds. For the record, I am a genetically-blessed 5-7 woman (actually like 5-6.8, but hey still a few inches taller than the average American woman at 5-4) who's natural body shape is thinner and athletic. My sport and genetics keeps me in the healthy Body Mass Index range even when I know I'm out of shape. Currently I weight 150 pounds. This puts me at the higher end of "Normal Weight".

But I don't take care of myself very well and am pretty lazy. I know that my healthy weight should be 135 and I could maintain this by eating better (than I already do), drinking more water to stay hydrated (I'm a diet soda addict) and exercising regularly on my own (not just with my team schedule).

So the clarifcations are that I will lose at least 10 of those 15 pounds by March 1 and I will learn to like running and run at least 20 minutes 3 (or more) times per week by March 1.

I've already started trying to incorporate less meat and more fruits, vegetables, grains and legumes into my diet. Which isn't too hard since I love my veggies!

I'm not going cold turkey on the soda. If I focus on improving my health and fitness, my unhealthy pounds will decrease, my muscle and cardio will increase and I will naturally want to not drink soda (it's happened before).

And I figure all of this along with my finance goals (which take priority) are already enough for big goals.

Additionally, staying busy with fitness and healthy eating means I'm not out there spending money, falling prey to all the media messages telling me to spend, spend, spend and in general, getting healthier and stronger to build that big snowball.

Oh and I added two new blogs I like - I've Paid for this Twice Already and Generation X Finances.

The Big Freeze?

I was doing really well in not using my credit cards all of this fall. Which the companies hate, but hey, I kind of hate them back. :)

But Christmas threw that out the window. It doesn't help that everything is so expensive. Gas, food, presents ... Again, my lack of self-discipline aided and abetted my idiocy.

So to force myself to not use my credit cards at all ... even in an Emergency (hence the Emergency Fund!), I made the decision that I would put them in the deep freeze. I'm going to get a tupperware container, fill it full of water and freeze the bastards.

Because I just moved in with my boyfriend though, and don't want to have to explain why I need to freeze my credit cards, I'm going to ask my mom to freeze them for me at her house. Just back in some dark corner of the freezer.

This will accomplish several things ...
1. I won't be able to access my cards instantly from my wallet
2. Knowing I don't have my cards to fall back on, I will have to plan any spending according to my available finances.
3. If after this, I still feel the need to use them, I will have all of the time it takes me to travel to my mom's house and thaw out the card before I actually use them, thereby having enough time to realize how stupid that is and not doing it.

I plan to do this this weekend. This is an important step, I believe.

A Hope and a Goal for 2008

I have a "good" job.

I work 40 hours a week, barring a major emergency (which hasn't happened in the three years and three months I've been here). I have weekends and major holidays off. Pretty good benefits. And last fall, I asked for a salary adjustment and my boss worked hard to give it to me.

All of that said, I'm feeling pretty stagnant. I don't respect this job the majority of the time. I often arrive late and sometimes I leave early. I always procrastinate. I think some people realize I'm a slacker. But I get away with it. And because of this, I am sad and disappointed in myself.

I believe most of this is my fault. I don't have any self-discipline. Well, not much anyway. I don't find ways to challenge myself or work to be an "achiever". I'm definitely an underachiever who's gotten through life on being intelligent and personable. I know this about myself. I can remember very few instances in my life where I ever worked hard - and worked hard the right way - to achieve something and accomplished it. I think a lot of people out there are like me, but I don't want to be like me anymore.

I want to be known as a hard worker. I want to be known as a person who accomplishes. Who people remember first when opportunities arise. I had a manager at a bar where I was a bartender tell me once that if we were on Survivor, he wouldn't throw me off the island. I want every person in my life to think like that.

I also believe that I have created these issues at my job because I don't feel challenged naturally by the job. It's becoming stagnant and I know I don't have a future here - at least one I truly want and see myself in. If my job was a person, it would feel the same about me I think.

Prior to this job, I had a two-year fulltime internship in a similar field. It was longer hours, less pay, but ultimately more challenging and satisfying. I talked to my old boss a while back and mentioned to him that if something should open up there to please let me know. He said that actually they might be adding another new fulltime position and he would keep me in the loop.

I had been considering returning to school in a few years to become a Doctor of Physical Therapy. Sometime I know I would enjoy and something that would challenge me, etc. I still am interested in this, but when my old boss mentioned the possible new position, that really clicked for me.

I see that possible opportunity as a means to be challenged more and move forward. In turn, I know that if I'm going to leave this job, I need to leave it in a much better state than I have it right now.

I truly hope that this new job happens. And then that I have a real shot at it and I get it. But even if I don't, I know that it's time for me to move on to something new before 2009 rolls around. And I have a lot of work to do ...

Not Zero Technically ...

Just for the record, my start dates on my sidebar are by no means my actual start dates of my overall debt repayment. Just where I'm keep tracking of it on here and for the "record".

It's an important distinction for me, anyway.

I'm going to be using the whole Debt Snowball method of paying down my debt.

Starting ... Again

I deleted my old version of this blog. I didn't like it. I hadn't written on it since August. But I wanted to. And I wanted a cleaner, fresher start. So here we go.

I'm in a much better place than I was two years ago. 18 months ago. One year ago. Six months ago. Even one month ago. Moving Forward. Just keep swimming ...

Today I faced facts. I have $79,070.74 of debt. $42,688.07 of that is on credit cards or what my FICO report refers to as revolving debt. Yes, I know how it happened. But no, I have no excuses or reasoning. It is what it is.

$4404.04 of that is also my car which I only have 18 of 84 payments remaining (no need to point out 84 payments wasn't a smart loan). The remaining $31,978.63 of my debt is my consolidated student loans. Both of these amounts are considered installment debts.

In rank of "Worst" to "If you have to have debt, it's okay to have this":

Worst = Credit Card Debt of 42K
Not As Bad = Car Loan Debt of 4K
Better than Bad = Student Loan Debt of 32K

Using the DOLP idea - Dead on Last Payment - based on my current amounts, rates, etc., I have 18 payments left for my car. I have roughly 50 payments left for all of my credit cards. I have 141 payments left for my student loans.

I am 30 years old. My car will be paid off when I am 31 and a half. I have set a goal that I will my try my hardest to pay off all of my credit card debt by my 33rd birthday in September of 2010. This is two years and nine months away. Which is less than my DOLP number of 50 (just over 4 years). I feel this is a goal I can reach for. After I pay off my credit card debt and car loan debt, I will redirect more money to my student loan debt so I have this paid off before I turn 40. Actually, let's say before I turn 37.

I also paid $7 today to get my credit score while I got one of my three free credit reports (whoever's idea that was for free reports - THANK YOU!). Surprisingly, I ranked a "Fair" with a low 700. This was a pretty big surprise. I was fairly sure I was failing.

I saw that FICO will be changing their scoring system this spring. I can only assume my number will decrease.

I also noticed that one of my credit cards does not show up on the report. I don't know why. It's a long story, but that card gave me a "Business" version, even though I don't own a business. I think that might be why it doesn't show up. That is the card I had the worst history with. I have recently transferred the majority of that card's balance to others with zero percent balances and only have $425 left on it to pay off. I want to pay that off as soon as possible and then ask them to switch me back to a non-business card. I plan to leave it open, but without a balance in case down the road I need it to transfer back for a better interest rate.

I am using balance transfer deals to get ahead. I know this is risky. I didn't really have a choice. I hope to pay off enough in the next year (by 2009) to get improved rates on the cards, so I can consolidate better or possibly even take out a good personal loan from a bank and get it all off the cards.

I also have a handy little budget book I bought at one of our local bookstores. I want to start maintaining a better budget and recording my daily expenses. I started it in November, dropped it a bit and plan on starting that over too.

I am leaving this blog as anonymous as possible. For now anyway. Flip is a nickname I made up as a kid while playing with my sister. Nobody but me calls me Flip. I am also not posting an e-mail address on here. This will be a journal just for me, but I will be accountable to myself and to the anonymous world.

At this point, only my mom has a rough idea of my debt. And I don't think she knows for sure how bad it is. She struggles with her own debt (as do my sister, my brother and probably most everyone I know). One of the secondary - and most important - reasons I want to pay off my debt is so I can help my family be free of debt someday too.

I have a really wonderful boyfriend. He owns a house and I just moved in with him on New Year's Day. He only knows that I have a lot of student loans. He does too. But outside of his mortgage and a car loan, he has no bad debt and a very well-paying job. For him, "Debt" is a very evil word.

The other morning on the news, there was a story about a family that had $38,000 worth of credit card debt. My boyfriend was absolutely floored. He was already in shock that the average consumer allegedly has $10,000 worth of credit card debt. The good news was that that family paid off their massive debt in five years and I said "Wow, that is good to hear." He was still talking about that family even yesterday. I just quietly nod my head and then change the subject.

At this time, my debt is a secret that only I will know about until I have some real goals accomplished. I have lived with my shame for a long time. A while longer won't hurt me any worse.