I can’t believe it’s 2009! The years are flying by but my debt seems to hang in there.
I’m feeling really hopeful about 2009. We made a ton of progress in 2008, and paid down a bunch of debt, we paid off back taxes owed to the state of California and paid off a vehicle. I’ve made more progress towards paying down debt in the 2008, than I’ve made in the past 10 years. Sad isn’t it?
Back when I started blogging about our debt situation I felt so hopeless, I felt like there was no way out. I’d had paid some credit cards late out of laziness and not wanting to face the truth. I dreaded opening my credit card bills so I just choose to deal with them later and later often involved a phone call from one or more credit card companies demanding payment. As a result we had skyrocketing interest rates. I think my highest rate was 31% on a credit card with a $18,000+ balance. Not a pretty situation to be in but completely my own stupid fault.
If you are in a similar situation, and have a ton of soul crushing debt, I highly recommend starting a debt blog and coming clean about your debt and debt reduction plans. Keep it totally anonymous if you’d like. You can get a free blog at blogger or wordpress (my favorite). Put up some adsense ads on the blog and who knows, you may even make some money!
Financial Goals for 2009
- Paid Off 3/09! Pay off at least one vehicle. We owe $8,000 +/- on a truck and I want it paid off ASAP so I can apply this payment to our debt. I have the cash to pay it off right now but due to my husband being a consultant and getting paid a month + after billing, I’m scared to spend the money.
- Pay down our credit card debt by $8,500. I’ll be paying more once we on a better handle on when my husband gets paid, right now I”m hanging on to every dollar we have.
- Build our savings account up to at least $10,000. A nice comfy emergency fund.
- Set a good financial example for my kids by keeping our spending down and living within our means.
- Increase my online income to at least $600 a month or more, and apply this extra money either to our savings account or to our debt.
Personal Goals
- Make more time for romance. I want my husband to know how much he’s loved, not just with words but with actions, little things here and there. Sometimes life can get busy with our four kids, all their activities, our dogs, and livestock. I don’t want to put my marriage on the back burner. We’ll be celebrating our 14th anniversary this summer. My man still opens doors for me (even the car door) and leaves me little love notes on my grocery lists and makes sure I always have some cash. He makes me feel special and I want to make him feel special too. I want to step it up some and do more little special things for him.
- Kept the house clean. I’ve gone back to the FlyLady cleaning plan and have stuck with it for over two weeks now! This is a HUGE accomplishment for me. My house looks great! The bathrooms are sparkly clean and I love it, best of all it only takes me about 15 minutes a day to keep them looking and smelling so good. I still need to work on doing some more de-cluttering, it’s a never ending job.
- Exercise more. Once it warms up, I plan on resuming my daily 1-2 mile walks.
- Enjoy more time with my kids. They are growing up so fast. I need to turn off the tv, slow down and enjoy my kids while they are still little. In a few years my three youngest (9, 11, & 12) will start thinking I’m lame and will be wanting to hang out with their friends more. I think I’ll start spending more one on one time with them and inviting one of them to help me cook dinner, I think they’d like this.
Here’s the best news yet! I know I’ve written about this before and doing this probably makes me seam mean but I don’t really care. LOL My husband’s child support payments to his ex end this year! We’ll have almost an extra grand every month to either throw at debt or throw into savings. I can’t believe we are finally at this point, it’s so dang exciting!
Everything is coming together in 2009, and I think it’s going to be one fabulous year! Here’s to 2009!
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{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
Great job!! isn’t it amazing how now that you have less debt, you can look back and be amazed at how you managed to juggle more debt before? I used to have 5 credit card debts that I juggled with and I’ve been done with them for the past 3 years. I look back and think OMG, how did I manage with so many debts?? It seems so stressful…
yeah for real, GREAT list!!! i’m digging the “get rid of 1 car loan” one for sure – you’d save mad money each month
My goal is to get out of all my debts and then I am gonna get a new mortgage
Jack´s last blog ..Credit Score