Happy Anniversary to me.

A funny thing happened a couple weeks back and I completely omitted mentioning it:

I've been writing this blog for just over a year now!

It's an interesting milestone for me - not because I've never blogged for a year straight before ( because I have). But this blog seems to have relevance in the world and by blogging about my finances not only have I learned a tremendous amount about personal finance, I'm also learning a bit about running a part-time business.

Not only that, I think I've met and at least become familiar with other bloggers who are also goal oriented and I think that's a positive influence on my life when every thing's said and done.

Unless, I get bored learning & talking more about finance - I will continue to do this blog for at least another year.

Thank you for reading!

Financial goals for the week of 8/27/07, and results for the past 2 weeks

My financial goals for the week of 8/13/07 were:

1. To budget money for west-coast vacation, approx $600 available - SUCCESS
   
2. Save some of the vacation money, approx. $200, and put towards clothes shopping when I return - SUCCESS
   
3. Add full coverage to auto insurance while on trip ( to avoid paying rental companies insurance) - SUCCESS
   
4. Have frugal fun while on vacation - SUCCESS - I did have fun.
   

So it appears I was able to achieve all of my financial goals directly prior to my vacation. While on vacation though, I got a little nervous and lowered my expectations for week of 8/20/07:

"Goal for this week - not to break $150 + left in discretionary spending money until I've returned to Ohio." - SUCCESS

Fortunately I was able to obtain this goal as well as I had $201 on hand when I landed in Northeast, Ohio.

For this week I have quite a few new goals seeing as I am once again, no longer debt-free due to a $1600 medical bill that went to collections that I was never contacted about. I only found it after pulling my credit - expecting a great credit score.

I'll try my best not to whine about that too much but here are some goals for the next week:

1. Call rental car place and find out why a $200 credit hasn't been placed on my credit card as I reimbursed them in cash once returning their rental car at the end of my vacation.
   
2. Send payment of $200 to medical bill collector
3. See if it's possible to get a new-new cell phone as my 2-day old cell does not have speaker phone. Send in cell phone rebate for $50 either way. (lost my cell phone on Friday)
   
4. Make plan for paying off medical bill in the next 3 months (2 months if possible)
   
5. Continue looking for an inexpensive-yet-dazzling engagement ring for my girlfriend (I've shopped around a little already and seriously thought about going further into debt for a literal steal on a healthy sized rock through my 2nd job that I thought someone was holding for me. Luckily, that associate apparently already sold the ring to someone else - so I don't have to worry about the irrational demon on my shoulder whispering 'charge it, charge it Reggie!")
   

Hopefully, the coming week will bring with it at least a few financial blessings. The end of this past week has not exactly helped me financially.

Why I didn't use Credit Counseling...

to get out of debt.

About a year and a couple months ago, I made the decision that I was going to get out of debt. The only thing was, I didn't know quite how to do it. I knew there was a Credit Counseling office a few blocks away so, on a day off, I went in.

I met with a gentleman who had the title 'Financial Counselor' listed on his business card. We went into his office, and for the first time, I told someone about all of my debt. I had explained to my mother some of my debt, but didn't want to overwhelm her with all of it.

When we were done though, I decided I needed to 'think about it' before signing up. Ultimately, I didn't choose to get out of debt through credit counseling, and here's a couple reasons why:

1. I didn't like being charged extra - When I went into the credit counseling office, I initially thought 'hey, this is great' that is until the F.C. brought up the $30 month fee for using the service along with a '$50 1-time set up fee" - that's right they wanted to charge me $80 from the word 'go' to get out of debt. I thought I could do better. I did and saved about $500 in the process...
   
2. I was too impatient to get the debt paid off - After doing all the calculations, the financial counselor found my debt to be $18,830.64 at the moment I stepped into his office. When one calculated the $560 monthly debt payment he suggested, I would be debt free by 'August 21, 2009' after only 40 monthly payments.
   
3. I didn't want my credit cards canceled, just paid off - I knew from a little research beforehand that by canceling my credit cards I would not exactly help my credit score. SO when the F.C. suggested that by using their system they would effectively 'freeze' my credit and only pay on the remaining balance I became more concerned. Also, while in this freeze mode, the best interest rate he could promise me was around 11-13% - as opposed to 0% which I was shooting for.
   
4. I figured I could do it myself - Ultimately, I just felt like something was slightly up when I was going through the budgeting process with the F.C. and he kept assuming my budget for different monthly things should be pushed upward because 'most people' have a budget of '$XYZ'. For example, as I look at year and a half-old packet, he had a category for 'work lunches' & a category for 'grocery expenses' that totaled $450 a month! Currently, I spend about $80-$150 monthly on both categories combined. But I guess I'm not 'most people'.
   

Given these as well as other reasons I just figured I wanted to get out of debt faster, pay less and have the satisfaction of knowing I had control of my life. I think I accomplished all of these goals.

Credit counseling is a great resource though, for those who just can't trust themselves with credit cards. One especially beneficial thing I did take out of the credit counseling experience was the importance of budgeting - The Financial Counselor did make out a very itemized budget of everything I was spending each month. This woke me up quite a bit and showed me where the 'leaks' in my budget were and what I could afford to cut in order to tackle the debt.

One thing's for sure, paying off my debt in just over a year felt a whole lot better than waiting three years & three months to get out of debt.

August 2007 - Financial Goals

After the first month of keeping track of my financial state, I've decided to set some financial & semi-financial goals:

1. Raise net worth to $8,200 -this is a very small increase but, I will be spending money out West while on vacation later this month. I will also be going on a much deserved 'spending spree' mainly to buy clothes once I get back
2. Raise passive income to 'double digits' i.e., $10 or more -this is something I want to focus on more in the future. $5-7 in interest a month is not too impressive.
   
3. Work with friend on children's book illustration. -I have a friend who wanted me to illustrate a children's book she is working on - only in the planning stage now.
   
4. Call at least 5 book agent's about their submission process -This is probably the goal I'll have the least time to face but, I guess before I faced my debt, I thought I had 'no time' to face that either. This will truly be a challenge.
   
5. Pay off debt [verify it's paid off] - self explanatory