12.03.07
Goals for 2008
While I’m on a roll, I figure I’ll go ahead and post my 2008 goals:
1. Get $1k in savings by the end of April
2. Pay off all my small accounts (subscriptions, old debts under $200, clubs)
3. Only renew America’s Civil War Magazine. If I see other magazines I wish to receive, I’ll pay immediately with my Blow money for that month, NOT check the “bill me” option
4. I will NOT subscribe to any more book/CD/movie/whatever clubs! Man! Those things are really my downfall.
5. I will pay off:
old gym account, Fashion Bug, Providian, two remaining Premier cards, possibly Orchard Bank, leaving only Capital One and my student loan.
Sidenote: I owe about $23k on my student loan. To me, that is a huge amount hanging over my head. I’m amazed when I watch TV and see commercials for cars that start at $20k. I don’t think I’ll ever have a new car, because I’m not sure I feel comfortable spending the same amount I spent for 4 years of quality higher education on a car. Once my debts are paid off, I do intend on getting nicer/newer cars than I usually buy because I’ll be able to save a decent amount to buy one with cash. I would love to buy a used Mini Cooper (which may go for $20k, anyway lol), assuming I’d be able to find one that wasn’t overused. I wouldn’t buy a used Mustang for that reason — who knows what abuse the engine has received. Oh well, that’s not something I need to worry about for a while. I’ll keep buying my low-cost but good quality used cars, like my 1991 Toyota Corolla.
The Good and the Bad
I tend to be an all-or-nothing type of person, which is why when I fall off a wagon I tend to fall hard and for longer than a few days. When I fall, it’s like “Well, I goofed that up, might as well go whole hog!” I realize that is not a healthy way to deal with things and am slowly getting better, otherwise I wouldn’t be back at this blog. 
So, instead of looking at that fall as a failure, I’m looking at it as a bump and I’m back on. A failure would be for me to simply give up completely, and I worked too hard for much of last year to do that. I looked back through my year to see exactly what I did and could do better.
Good – Went from 30 accounts to 19
Could be better – Would have been down to 14 if I hadn’t signed up for more subscription clubs, a huge weakness of mine
Good – Did great from January through July (7 months)
Could be better – Spent crazily and didn’t pay attention to my money habits from August through mid-November (3.5 months)
Good – Paid off 19 account (mostly small but they are paid)
Total paid on these accounts: $896.00 on small non-credit accounts + $2650 on car and two credit cards = $3546. total toward paid-off debts
Total paid on all debts, including those above: $4776.25 = 11.6% of salary. I’m not sure if that’s a good percentage or not, but it’s a heckuva lot more than I’d paid on getting rid of debts in a long time.
I’ve also been doing some forward planning. I realize that wages and circumstances change, but it really helps me to see what I’m working toward in order to keep on track as much as I can. If I pay $500 a month on my student loan, I’ll have it paid off by the end of 2011 and still pay off five, possibly six, of my credit accounts by the end of 2008, paying the remaining account off in early 2009. The money going toward paying off these debts can then go toward building up my 3-6 months emergency savings while paying off the student loan.
So theoretically, in 2012 when I’m 40, I’ll be debt-free and can start putting at least 15% if not 20% of my income toward retirement savings. I don’t own a home and I really don’t plan on owning one, so that’s not an issue. I also don’t have kids so there’s no college or other kid issue. I need to keep this in mind when I get down and feel like it’s taking for-ev-er to pay off my debt.
12.02.07
Update
OK, so yesterday I went through all my records and bills and straightened things up a bit. I made up budgets for the next few months and should be caught up very quickly. I was informed by payroll last week that my wages will be garnished for my student loan. I knew this was coming, and if this is what they want to do, fine. I was paying them less than they wanted so that I could pay down some of my smaller debts and get them out of the way so that I could pay about $1k a month to the student loan people in about a year. I’ve been paying them $150 a month but they want more. My contact in payroll says it’s usually about 15% of net income. Honestly? I can pay that. It means I won’t be able to pay my smaller debts as quickly as I’d like, but I can do it. If they take it out of my paycheck it’s easier for me anyway. Frankly, I’ll be glad to get the thing done with one way or another.
I also need to call Premier Bank because, although I paid their settlement offer on two of my four cards with them, they are still trying to get money for them. Uh, I don’t think so. I saved the receipt on my computer and have the confirmation code. I think sometimes companies to this because they figure if we have less-than-perfect credit that we aren’t good about keeping records. Well, I’m not perfect but my record-keeping of payments is pretty darn close. I probably sound paranoid about it, but I’m convinced that they are betting that’s what happened. The funny thing is that, while I am still paying off two cards that are in collections (and they seem to think I have four in collections) I’m still receiving pre-approved offers from them. Again — I don’t think so. It may take me several tries to learn one lesson, but I eventually do learn it.
