I'm actually feeling rather optimistic about my finances (or, rather, my future finances) lately. Which is good, because sometimes I can become so depressed and hopeless about the sheer volume of my debt that I need to go out immediately and buy a pair of shoes or some Almond Roca to soothe my anxieties.
The reason for my optimism? Well, my March zero-based budget is done (and it doesn't look half as bad as I predicted), my April budget is shaping up, and I've decreased my 403b contributions to 1% of my salary until my credit card is paid off and my emergency fund has doubled (to at least $2,000, though hopefully more). I'm hoping to put $550 a month onto my credit card starting next month, which should shave a month off of my ETR (estimated time to repayment).
I took the step of creating an estimated future budget based on NO CREDIT PAYMENTS, and while I'll still struggle, I'll be able to sock more money away into my emergency fund in 2009, while beginning to tackle my student loans (currently around $55K) or double the payment on my second mortgage.
I've put a reminder on my electronic calendar for January of 2009, at which time I'll up my 403b to 5% and open a ROTH IRA for another 5-10%. Writing this post just gets me more excited to reach some of my financial goals!
Wednesday, March 19, 2008
Frugally optimistic. . . .
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2 comments:
Hello! Thanks for finding and commenting on my blog. I have been looking over your posts and I see you have made progress (and still have some to go). While your student loan debt is nothing to sneeze at, I was glad to read your credit card debt was kept under $5,000. I shudder when I read about consumer debt in five figures.
One suggestion: your various posts that describe how you got into financial trouble--please add links to the next post to make it easier to find your story.
Thanks for the comment and suggestion, Frugal Pursuit! I'll go back and add in links to relevant posts. . . . (-:
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