first of all, i have to give a shout-out. my sweet husband had a little birthday get-together for me over the weekend. after we ate, he and his brother tried to start a fire in out firepit...unsuccessfully. their 10-year-old cousin, JACE MCKINLEY HAYNES, suggested they try newspaper. after exhausting all other options, they tried newspaper. it worked. so thank you, jace, for making my birthday party a success :) i owe you a big ol' sloppy kiss! (and sorry to report there are still no plans for sports to appear anywhere on this blog)
and now back to the "fun" stuff...
1. if step 2 in the previous post did not apply to you because you have no credit cards (and never have), you may have patted yourself on the back. not so fast. right now i'm telling you to get a credit card. do not get a store card, like a gap card or a target card. go to your bank and sign up for a credit card. you have to have credit to buy a house. so get a credit card, go fill up your car with gas, and immediately go home and pay the bill online. you may do this once a month if you think you can, but ONLY if you immediately pay the bill.
2. make a budget. write down every single thing you pay for monthly, or even yearly (for this, figure out the amount you need to put back monthly). write down your bills first, then the flexible things. make sure the total of what you pay monthly is EQUAL TO what you make. if it's more than what you make, then guess what, cable becomes a "flexible" rather than a "bill" - cut it back to what you can actually afford. be sure to include amounts you're paying toward debt. which leads me to...
3. attack your debt! write out the minimum payments for each. for that smallest debt, see if there is any room in your budget to sacrifice something in order to pay double the minimum. for example, if you can get your hair done every 8 weeks instead of every 6, that gives you a little extra money - which you can put toward the debt. when you get that smallest one paid off, move to the next smallest; add what you were previously paying to the smallest debt (which you have at this point paid off) to the next smallest's minimum. keep snowballing these until everything is paid off. i say this like it'll happen next week. it won't. this will take a really long time. but you feel so great paying things off along the way! (and, if your situation changes, you have a little extra money freed up in your monthly budget to where you could go back to paying just the minimums on your debt, only now there are less to pay that on)
4. apply what you've learned from both credit & finances posts. when you feel comfortable with your new money practices - say, after maybe 6 months or so - go see a financial advisor. you do not have to have tons of money to do this. he will be able to help you see more long-term, and he may have some additional tips that (gasp) i may not even know about. this step in particular will be a very empowering one. you will feel like you really have a grasp on where you are, and where you're going, financially. it may take a while, but it will be so worth it.
and enjoy this! the rest of your peers are likely living a life they can't afford. they will leave their heirs nothing, or worse - debt. live within your means not only for your posterity, but for yourself. you will not have to worry about what you owe who (or whom?), or have to scrape by to pay the minimums on things you truly can't afford. this is such a freeing way to live :)
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