Good news.
I lost a lot of debt (stress) yesterday.
A few years ago I opened my first real credit card account with Target. Unofficially I opened it with my girlfriend at the time, so we could get ready for Burning Man. We were going to make sure we paid it back as quickly as possible. Well she lost her job and we broke up. It was only under my name. One of those mistakes you should only make in your youth, should you make it. The APR is 19.9%.
Well, yesterday I finally cleared the debt off that card. If I really make an effort (beyond the minimum) I can pay off my other only CC in about 10 months. That'll leave me with just a car payment for a few years.
It was bitter sweet because I didn't pay it off with hard work and discipline but rather because of a gift that only occurred because of my parents maturity and forethought many years ago, and ultimately because of my moms death. "I shouldn't be the only beneficiary" I think were the words used.
My goal is that discipline will be what keeps the balance at $0 if I don't cancel the account.
I also bought a new wheel for my mountain (and winter commuting) bike. Almost done building it. Just needs another wheel, tires/tubes, a freewheel and brake caliper. I'm lucky enough to get bike parts very cheap through work which probably makes it more expensive because if everything is at a discount, its more tempting to splurge. There is a diminishing return rate with hobbies and how happy a purchase will make you, but everyone should have hobbies. I only have a couple (biking and video games, I think). I'm not going to pay $60 for a water bottle holder (tempting though), but I understand the benefit of paying hundreds for a set of wheels. It might be a great water bottle holder, but wheels enhance the experience much more noticeably. Stuff like that.
Making a payment to the credit card takes about 24 hours to show up on the online control panel. So of course I checked it this morning when I got to work and just stared at the $0 balance. All the things I've bought with that card are now paid for and mine. Unfortunately because of poor choices, a lot of those things are disposed of (groceries, gifts, gas, sometimes bills, things you buy when moving across the country and don't have a job).
If you can't pay it off by the time you get home, or before your next pay period, don't buy it! There are exceptions, houses, cars, computers are probably the 3 most expensive things you'll buy in your life, other than your health. Fortunately its not that difficult to get really low interest on loans for those huge things. I think my car loan is 7%, or around that. After a couple of years I can make extra payments to the principal on the loan.
I wish the had been more financial classes in school. I might have paid attention more if I knew I really would be using it!
At work I'm just finishing up with our Holiday Sales Flier. It was going great until the VP / head of "checking it off" went on a week long trip as I was wrapping up the layout. All of a sudden I have to get revision approvals from someone that doesn't normally have the responsibility to make big red X's or big green √'s. Things kind of fell apart. "We'll just wait till he gets back on Tuesday" Well he got back on Thursday, things got delayed, I got sick and so on. It should be on the press, being printed. All the changes and fixes and mistakes should have been taken care off two weeks ago. But because of the hustle and bustle and haste, there was waste and I just now uploaded another revision to the printer.
What can I do better next time? Not let anyone on the project leave until the project is done.
A few years ago I opened my first real credit card account with Target. Unofficially I opened it with my girlfriend at the time, so we could get ready for Burning Man. We were going to make sure we paid it back as quickly as possible. Well she lost her job and we broke up. It was only under my name. One of those mistakes you should only make in your youth, should you make it. The APR is 19.9%.
Well, yesterday I finally cleared the debt off that card. If I really make an effort (beyond the minimum) I can pay off my other only CC in about 10 months. That'll leave me with just a car payment for a few years.
It was bitter sweet because I didn't pay it off with hard work and discipline but rather because of a gift that only occurred because of my parents maturity and forethought many years ago, and ultimately because of my moms death. "I shouldn't be the only beneficiary" I think were the words used.
My goal is that discipline will be what keeps the balance at $0 if I don't cancel the account.
I also bought a new wheel for my mountain (and winter commuting) bike. Almost done building it. Just needs another wheel, tires/tubes, a freewheel and brake caliper. I'm lucky enough to get bike parts very cheap through work which probably makes it more expensive because if everything is at a discount, its more tempting to splurge. There is a diminishing return rate with hobbies and how happy a purchase will make you, but everyone should have hobbies. I only have a couple (biking and video games, I think). I'm not going to pay $60 for a water bottle holder (tempting though), but I understand the benefit of paying hundreds for a set of wheels. It might be a great water bottle holder, but wheels enhance the experience much more noticeably. Stuff like that.Making a payment to the credit card takes about 24 hours to show up on the online control panel. So of course I checked it this morning when I got to work and just stared at the $0 balance. All the things I've bought with that card are now paid for and mine. Unfortunately because of poor choices, a lot of those things are disposed of (groceries, gifts, gas, sometimes bills, things you buy when moving across the country and don't have a job).
If you can't pay it off by the time you get home, or before your next pay period, don't buy it! There are exceptions, houses, cars, computers are probably the 3 most expensive things you'll buy in your life, other than your health. Fortunately its not that difficult to get really low interest on loans for those huge things. I think my car loan is 7%, or around that. After a couple of years I can make extra payments to the principal on the loan.
I wish the had been more financial classes in school. I might have paid attention more if I knew I really would be using it!
At work I'm just finishing up with our Holiday Sales Flier. It was going great until the VP / head of "checking it off" went on a week long trip as I was wrapping up the layout. All of a sudden I have to get revision approvals from someone that doesn't normally have the responsibility to make big red X's or big green √'s. Things kind of fell apart. "We'll just wait till he gets back on Tuesday" Well he got back on Thursday, things got delayed, I got sick and so on. It should be on the press, being printed. All the changes and fixes and mistakes should have been taken care off two weeks ago. But because of the hustle and bustle and haste, there was waste and I just now uploaded another revision to the printer.
What can I do better next time? Not let anyone on the project leave until the project is done.
posted by vectorbug at 1:09 PM
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