I just want to post a little success story.
I was going through some old budget and financial spread sheets that I'd made in 2006. Just four years ago. It was amazing!
Four years ago my husband and I decided we had HAD it with the debt-heavy lifestyle we'd been living up until then. We found ourselves with lots of credit card debt, no savings, and no financial security whatsoever. And there was no excuse for it because we made enough money to cover our expenses with a bit left over to save. But we were careless, didn't bother to budget, and spent beyond our means. Three years before that we'd been even worse off: I believe we'd had a bit more credit card debt as well as a $4000 line of credit when we bought our used car.
It was at that point in 2006 that I mapped out our financial data on a spreadsheet to try to get ourselves back on track. Since that day I've made and erased plenty of financial spreadsheets, but for some reason I forgot to delete that first one, and I just found it. I'd really forgotten how far behind and in debt we were.
Four years ago:
$15,000 credit card debt
$13,500 student loan debt
$0 emergency savings
$0 flexible savings ("rainy day" fund for vacation, auto maintenance, home repairs, annual bills, and other savings)
Today:
$0 credit card debt!
$6,000 student loan debt (at 1.8% interest)
$8000 emergency savings (2 months expenses and growing!)
$3600 flexible savings (and growing every month)
If you had told me four years ago that in so short of a time we'd be credit card-debt-free, will have paid off half the student loans, have an established and growing emergency savings, and have flexible savings for many of our large "unexpected" and annual expenses... I would have thought you were nuts!
We've been in "one track financial mode" for so long now that I really neglected to look up and see what kind of progress we were actually making.
I hope that in another four years I'll look back on my 2010 financial data and say, "Whoa! We really manged to save a lot!"
I was going through some old budget and financial spread sheets that I'd made in 2006. Just four years ago. It was amazing!
Four years ago my husband and I decided we had HAD it with the debt-heavy lifestyle we'd been living up until then. We found ourselves with lots of credit card debt, no savings, and no financial security whatsoever. And there was no excuse for it because we made enough money to cover our expenses with a bit left over to save. But we were careless, didn't bother to budget, and spent beyond our means. Three years before that we'd been even worse off: I believe we'd had a bit more credit card debt as well as a $4000 line of credit when we bought our used car.
It was at that point in 2006 that I mapped out our financial data on a spreadsheet to try to get ourselves back on track. Since that day I've made and erased plenty of financial spreadsheets, but for some reason I forgot to delete that first one, and I just found it. I'd really forgotten how far behind and in debt we were.
Four years ago:
$15,000 credit card debt
$13,500 student loan debt
$0 emergency savings
$0 flexible savings ("rainy day" fund for vacation, auto maintenance, home repairs, annual bills, and other savings)
Today:
$0 credit card debt!
$6,000 student loan debt (at 1.8% interest)
$8000 emergency savings (2 months expenses and growing!)
$3600 flexible savings (and growing every month)
If you had told me four years ago that in so short of a time we'd be credit card-debt-free, will have paid off half the student loans, have an established and growing emergency savings, and have flexible savings for many of our large "unexpected" and annual expenses... I would have thought you were nuts!
We've been in "one track financial mode" for so long now that I really neglected to look up and see what kind of progress we were actually making.
I hope that in another four years I'll look back on my 2010 financial data and say, "Whoa! We really manged to save a lot!"
This forum can never have enough stories of inspiration to get the rest of us moving.
You have done awesome!
