Hi r/personalfinance. I posted something similar to this a while back and accidentally deleted it before it got much traction. I really wanted to share my story with you guys because my life has changed so much in less than five years. I never imagined that I could be financially stable and enjoy the freedom that comes with it. I had such a mental disconnect when it came to budgeting and spending. If I can get my head out of my ass, anyone can. (I'm in the US for reference)
Four years ago, I was a 27 year old woman with a decent career. I had graduated college a couple of years early at 19 and immediately found a job in my field. I'd been working for 8 years, steadily receiving an annual pay increase every year since I started.
When my computer broke and I needed a new one, I headed to the store with stars in my eyes. At the time, the laptop that I wanted cost around $900. I had nowhere near that amount in my savings account, but surely I'd be able to finance it. I remember very clearly standing in front of a clean-cut kid ten years my junior, against a background of sleek, glowing screens as he told me that my application for financing had been denied and he was sorry, but there was nothing else that could be done. I had to face reality. I was broke.
Even making $50,000 a year and with no student debt, I had somehow gotten myself in financial dire straits. That year, I moved in with roommates to try to save money and even when I cut my rent in half, my situation did not improve what-so-ever. I had several very high interest (25%) credit cards totaling about $10k and I owed around $3k on my car which I was paying 14% interest on. I was living paycheck to paycheck, I had no money in the bank and my credit was abysmal.
I began to think that some people just aren’t "good with money” and that was it for me. Well really, to be honest, I just tried not to think about it at all. If I had money in the bank, I spent it. Instead of working to fix that situation, I worked harder at making money. I got a second job and put in more hours. I was working myself to the bone and I was burning out before turning 30.
It was around that time that I met my future husband, J. He could see how tired I was with my job and encouraged me to quit and pursue something that I really wanted. I explained that, in my financial situation, there was no POSSIBLE way that I could afford to make any less money. He started to inquire about my finances and, of course, was surprised to see what a mess I was in. However, being someone who was financially savvy, he assured me that my debt was not insurmountable and vowed to start me on a path to financial stability.
Now, a couple of years later, I work in a different field doing something that I really love. I make a little less money, but I work a lot less and I am happy to say that the stresses of my old life are a distant memory. Last year, I actually took a hiatus from work to travel abroad. Even on a reduced income, I have five figures in my bank account, a new car and a credit score well above 700. Getting control of my finances changed my life significantly because it allowed me the freedom to live how I want to without the constant pressure of working to pay my bills.
I am certainly not rich, nor am I a financial guru, but I would like to share a couple of things that I have learned throughout the course of this journey.
First, if you want to change, you can’t ignore your situation. I was the queen of ignoring. If I thought my bank account balance was getting low, I wouldn’t look at it. If I missed a credit card payment, I didn’t want to see the late fee. I would forget about it. I didn’t look at my credit report because I didn’t want to see all of that red. And in the beginning, when J was trying to set me straight, it was hard. There were a lot of fights because I refused to look the issue in the face. I’d do literally anything else before I would sit down and call my credit card company. Admitting that I had been stupid with my money and committing to actively change was very difficult for me, but obviously extremely necessary.
Second, consolidate and stay organized. One reason things got so bad in the first place was that, in my early twenties, I couldn’t keep up with my credit cards. I couldn’t remember which ones I had paid or when the promotional rates expired and I had no method for keeping track of bills. Once I missed a payment and the interest shot up to 25%, I felt helpless and didn’t want to look at the statements anymore. The very first thing that J and I did was consolidate my debt so that it was easier to manage. We went to a local credit union and took out a consolidation loan using my car as collateral. Credit Unions are a good place to start because they are small and locally owned. You can sit down face to face with someone and talk to them about your situation and I found that they were willing to help. They gave me a loan that paid off all of my credit card debt, so now I only had to pay them each month instead of making payments on four different cards. The interest rate was high, but for the first time, all of my debt was in one place. I set my payment to auto-pay and put it on the back burner.
Third, pay attention to those offers in the mail. After I had consolidated my credit card debt and had been making regular payments for about 6-8 months, my credit score started to improve and I began receiving credit card offers in the mail. Eventually, I was getting offers for a 0% balance transfer. I picked a card with no annual fee, a low transfer fee and 0% interest for 12 months. (BTW, I couldn't pay off my credit union loan with a credit card. I needed a card that would give me cash that I could use to pay the credit union. This is a thing I didn't even know existed, so examine all of your options) By this time, I had a spreadsheet with all of my bill pay and credit card information so I made sure to make a note of when my promotional rate expired. I transferred all of my high-interest debt to a 0% credit card and then, a year later, just before that rate expired, I moved it to a new card at 0%, so that I had several years to pay of the balance without paying any interest.
Finally, and for me, this was most important, pay attention to your spending. I used to HATE looking at my bank statement - mostly because I knew I would feel bad or guilty about the low (sometimes negative) balance. Once my situation became more stable and I started saving money, the opposite happened. I felt proud and I wanted to look at my account and see a growing savings. In turn, this made me more frugal and I started to become very aware of how much money I was really throwing away.
Clothes were my weakness. My closet was overflowing with cheap “retail therapy” items. Now, rather than buy cheap clothes every time I go to the store, I allow myself to buy one luxury clothing item from a high end store a couple of times a year. I've changed a lot of my habits and reduced spending in almost every area that I can. We also live very frugally, in general. We set a budget every month and stick to it religiously. I could go on for another three pages just about budgeting but that will have to be a post for another day. Most of the furniture in our house was purchased second-hand and we rarely go out to eat or make large purchases, since we prefer to spend our money on travel.
I never thought I'd be a financially stable person. I never imagined that I would enjoy budgeting or checking my bank account balance but once I discovered how much freedom I could have by making small, meaningful changes, I feel like the whole world has opened up to me. I hope I can inspire someone else to do what I dreaded for so long. It is possible to fix things even when you've lived with bad habits for a long time.
Submitted August 04, 2017 at 01:40PM by Nica-sauce-rex http://ift.tt/2ubS1YN
