Quick Update for New Readers:
To all the new readers from Credit Card Lowdown Welcome. For a little more background please see my About page. I will have to say that I am excited about how far I have come from February 2006. I also realize that I have a long way to go with $3800 in credit card debt remaining and over $120,000 in student loans making money for someone else. I made some difficult decisions since then and I am pleased that I did.
Here is a quick list of what I felt were the best decisions I made in the past year:
- The biggest decision I made was to get engaged in April 2006 and married in December of 2006. In terms of dollars and cents, by combining households my wife and I managed to decrease our living expenses dramatically.
- The second biggest decision I made was to sell my truck. I had never been a budgeter but once I did I found out my truck was costing me over $700 a month in combined expenses(insurance, fuel, loans, parking, etc..) Since I happen to live close enough to the hospital and stores I decided to sell my truck. Financially it has been a tremendous benefit but it has been difficult at times, particularly meeting friends outside of work hours. We did keep my wife’s car and it continues to be a significant expense in our lives.
Amazingly those two decisions were enough to turn my finances around. I hope to have the rest of my credit card debt paid off by November 2007 when the last of my 0% balance transfers expires.
The story will not end there unfortunately; my private school loan comes out of forbearance in November as well and has accumulated over $2000 of interest in 3 short years on a balance of only $10,000. At an interest rate of 8% and I will have to make a decision to pay it off using our savings or to make the minimum payments until I finish residency.
I hope that this blog will be helpful. My end goal is to prove that no matter the current cost in dollars and time; it still makes financial sense to become more educated. It just requires a lot more tolerance for large negative numbers and a willingness to help your fellow man.
