Hello! This is the first post for my new blog! Exciting!
I started this blog because I was inspired by an article by Cait Flanders to finally get my financial shit together. Her article talks about how she paid off 30K in credit card debt in two years and finally started saving money. That's great except she makes 55K a year; neither I nor anyone in my peer group makes 55K a year. We don't even come close! And furthermore, the way these self help stories nearly always focus on a highschool-to-college-to-career type path is not really relevant to our lives.
I'm in my thirties. I do have some college, but not a four-year degree. I dropped out of highschool because it wasn't fun and I spent four years traveling around the United States because it was. When I did settle down I wasn't much more stable; I still moved frequently back and forth across the country and I rarely kept a job more than a year.
All that being said, I have always been a hardworking and responsible type. I pay my bills on time. I do my job efficiently. I quickly figured out that tipped jobs with full hourly wages provided me a livable income with a minimum amount of responsibility. And so, though I usually live below the poverty line, I have always managed to get by.
Over the past couple of years, though, my debt has gotten out of control. Being poor means I can never afford a new or even newish car so I take gambles on older used models. A series of bad cars (including the one that caught on fire on the side of the interstate!) saddled me with $2700 in car shop credit cards for unexpected repairs and another $500 left of a $1500 personal loan to buy my current vehicle. A card I got to help me get by two years ago when my then fiance, now husband, jumped out of the window of a moving vehicle in an alcoholic rage is close to maxed out at $2900. My oldest and smallest card is also nearly maxed out at $650. That puts me at around $6750 in credit cards and loans (I also have about $30K in student loan debt but I'm not focusing on that right now).
Reading that article was kind of a lightbulb moment for me. I'm finally ready to face my debt and I can see a way past paycheck-to-paycheck living. My current job pays me about $600 a week. If I pay $200 a week toward my debts I can expect to have my credit card debts wiped out in about eight months, so shortly after my birthday in October. On top of that, if I save 10% of my income I can expect to have right around $2000 by the same time.
It's not going to be easy; I'm the primary breadwinner in my household and the one who has to find creative solutions when things come up short. I'll have to work harder than I'm used to working.
But man, I am so fucking ready.
I started this blog because I was inspired by an article by Cait Flanders to finally get my financial shit together. Her article talks about how she paid off 30K in credit card debt in two years and finally started saving money. That's great except she makes 55K a year; neither I nor anyone in my peer group makes 55K a year. We don't even come close! And furthermore, the way these self help stories nearly always focus on a highschool-to-college-to-career type path is not really relevant to our lives.
I'm in my thirties. I do have some college, but not a four-year degree. I dropped out of highschool because it wasn't fun and I spent four years traveling around the United States because it was. When I did settle down I wasn't much more stable; I still moved frequently back and forth across the country and I rarely kept a job more than a year.
All that being said, I have always been a hardworking and responsible type. I pay my bills on time. I do my job efficiently. I quickly figured out that tipped jobs with full hourly wages provided me a livable income with a minimum amount of responsibility. And so, though I usually live below the poverty line, I have always managed to get by.
Over the past couple of years, though, my debt has gotten out of control. Being poor means I can never afford a new or even newish car so I take gambles on older used models. A series of bad cars (including the one that caught on fire on the side of the interstate!) saddled me with $2700 in car shop credit cards for unexpected repairs and another $500 left of a $1500 personal loan to buy my current vehicle. A card I got to help me get by two years ago when my then fiance, now husband, jumped out of the window of a moving vehicle in an alcoholic rage is close to maxed out at $2900. My oldest and smallest card is also nearly maxed out at $650. That puts me at around $6750 in credit cards and loans (I also have about $30K in student loan debt but I'm not focusing on that right now).
Reading that article was kind of a lightbulb moment for me. I'm finally ready to face my debt and I can see a way past paycheck-to-paycheck living. My current job pays me about $600 a week. If I pay $200 a week toward my debts I can expect to have my credit card debts wiped out in about eight months, so shortly after my birthday in October. On top of that, if I save 10% of my income I can expect to have right around $2000 by the same time.
It's not going to be easy; I'm the primary breadwinner in my household and the one who has to find creative solutions when things come up short. I'll have to work harder than I'm used to working.
But man, I am so fucking ready.
Your New Blog! Right On!
ReplyDeleteYes! Thank you!
DeleteGreat Work!
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