End of the Month Tally

As promised a few posts ago, I'm going to keep track of my debt pay-down activity to keep me motivated and to get some of y'all motivated. I think I'm doing fairly well considering that I haven't been on a binge shopping spree. I am, however, using my credit cards way too much - they're supposed to be for bills and gas only. Or maybe gas is that expensive that I'm not noticing???

Either way, I'll be giving regular end of the month updates and posting any new and interesting money management articles/tips/tricks I come across.

I'm using Dave Ramsey's snowball method coupled with the lazy snowflaking method I learned from Florida Chic over at Debt Smack and I think I'm off to a fairly good start:

Starting Balance
CC1 - $0
CC2 - $0
CC3 - $0
Student Loan 1 - $3500
Student Loan 2 - $12204.79
Student Loan 3 - $27000

Current Balance
CC1 - $12.99
CC2 - $79.06
CC3 - $124.05
Student Loan 1 - $3106.91
Student Loan 2 - $12122.69
Student Loan 3 - $27000 (still in deferment)

Since I'm in the habit of paying the cards off every month, my snowballing goes toward my student loans. I'm expecting the first one to be paid off by May '09 or earlier with the added snowflakes. The expected payoff date for the second one is April 2021, but that's going to change very soon. It seems very daunting now to be paying all of this money back, but I keep reading that little by little, it will become more and more manageable.

Looking at all those numbers makes me happy that I don't have a car payment. YAY for 13 year old cars that are still running!

On to new business. I'm hoping to more serious with my writing, so I'll be posting more regularly. I don't know if I'm going to go the schedule route, but hopefully I can give you something twice a week. I'll try and redecorate too. =)

Word.

Something truly life changing...

While on one of my many frequented blogsites, Get Rich Slowly, I came across a link to another blog which has, in the span of less than an hour, changed the way I view the world and the limitations therein. The Art of Non-Conformity is a definite recommendation for those of you who are tired of an average life and are ready to do something remarkable with the time you are given.

I highly advise that you download and read the Brief Guide to World Domination (which the author Chris has made available for free-99) and seriously consider the information he has provided. Based on that manifesto and the article he contributed to Get Rich Slowly, I've made a commitment to contribute to kiva.org and am planning on how to go overseas - right now, I'm really feeling China after seeing the havoc that the recent earthquake wreaked on so many areas. I've always wanted to help, but for reasons I can only attribute to excuses and fear, I never managed to do much of anything after a major crisis hits an ill-prepared and underfunded region of the world.

And I'm still trying to find a way out of L.A. and up to San Francisco. I swear, I need to just jump on a plane and make a way when I touch down. It's about the best plan I could come up with, so I may just go that route. It's all just a matter of time now (*tenting fingers*).

Thank you for your writing, Chris. I only hope you are affecting many, but you have definitely affected me.

Contest Time!

While browsing my "kill your debt" blogs like I like to do, I came upon this great giveaway at John Chow - apparently Market Leverage wants to give away a bag full of stuff to someone who either comments at the John Chow blog or links back to the contest post. Simple enough, right?

Almost forgot - the "stuff" is...

*drumroll*

• Flip video camera
• Market Leverage clothing (shirts, a jacket and cap)
  
• $200 Market Leverage Amex Rewards card
• USB drive that is also a pen
• iPod Nano.

Good luck and hurry up! Contest is over on June 20th.

Perspective

I was browsing a blog dealing with debt (because I'm manically obsessive about it) and other issues, and I saw this in one of the entries:

"And I think the BIG issue here is that I am not requiring enough of myself. I have let myslef take the easy way out for a couple years. I have not set a major goal for myself. I have not been working toward anything substantial."

I stopped reading and really thought about that for about 48 seconds. I'm extremely guilty of the same. I make all these plans and goals and then don't stick with them. Then I wallow and cry about why I don't have the money to move to San Francisco like I want to. Or why I'm $41K in the hole because of student loans.

Well, and here's hoping, that's the end of that. I'm going to make a plan and stick to it. I'm going to be snowballing and snowflaking my way out of student loan hell which is scheduled to have me trapped until 2021. It's a big goal to start with, but if I don't focus, I'm going to be paying out the ass forever. I at least want to tackle it while my rent in L.A. is $350 a month (I got EXTREMELY lucky). In addition, I'm going to try and chart my progress here and blog more regularly overall. Yes, they will be even more random than they are now, but it'll be something new and fresh for the good folks who stop by to see my ranting (THANKS btw).

Wish me luck...

So I lost my engagement ring...

Not that I needed it because the wedding didn't exactly jump off, but today I lost my engagement ring. I blame it on the subprime meltdown that affected my mother's ability to afford our house after my father's untimely passing. This weekend was spent packing up boxes, our lives, and 16 years of memories.

Most of them anyway.

I first realized that it was gone when I was canvassing my room for the final time today, I was initially freaked out. I tried to remember when I'd hidden it with no luck. I called to see if it was with someone else. There's no telling at this point because most everything that was in my room is in a box or piled beneath tons of objects.

I started to freak out just a little bit, but then I remembered a conversation I had two days ago with my current beau. He's a widower and was telling me that he'd somehow lost all of his past wife's memorabilia. At first I thought, "damn, that sucks," but he believes that this was the best for him. He said that losing all those pictures, clothing items, and things helped him to move forward with his life. That thought made me wonder if I was holding on to too much of the past and not moving forward because of it. Not cool.

I decided to charge this one to the game and not worry about it. I wasn't using it and at present, I'm not all too keen on my ex, so hell - it's just gone. Congrats to the lucky SOB that happens upon my white gold princess cut diamond. Sucka.