Farewell

by Ashley on January 20, 2011

My journey out of debt has ended, and so now it is time to end this blog as well.  I have never ended a blog before, so I’m not sure what to do, especially considering I’m not really going anywhere.  I guess that gives me a place to start.  If you’re interested, here are some of the many other places you can find me:

Writing to Reach You – my personal blog
Twitter – I tweet a lot
Email – I’m pretty good at responding
Tumblr – I post pretty things
Dailybooth – I’m a narcissist

If you’re just coming across this blog for the first time, then here are some of the posts I’d recommend reading:

Thank you again for all of your support!  This blog will remain, but if I choose to write more about personal finance, I will probably do so on my personal blog.  Don’t be a stranger!


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Going Forward

by Ashley on January 17, 2011

Here are my financial goals now that I am out of credit card debt.

1. Save. I got out of debt with really nothing of an emergency fund. (I wouldn’t recommend this, but this is how I did it.)  $10,000 is the goal I have in mind.  That’s about 6 months worth of expenses.  I’d like to accomplish this by the end of 2011.  That’s a pretty doable goal and will also allow me to save for other things like travel.

2. Work less. It is tempting to keep working 15 hour days, because I can do it and it would mean reaching all of my financial goals very quickly, but I don’t want to.  I want more time to be a student and more time to be a human being.  This means quitting one of my jobs.

3. Retirement. This is kind of embarrassing, but I’ve been saving for my retirement for a couple years now and I have no idea what I am doing.  However my employer originally signed me up is exactly how it has remained and whenever I receive a statement, I look at it like it’s written in another language and then I put it away.  There are counselors we can meet with, but I’ve put off doing so until I paid off my debt.  I don’t have a retirement savings goal in mind yet, but I do want to figure out what I’m doing.

4. Student Loans. Ah, yeah, those.  I’m not really out of debt at all.  I have a ton more still to pay off.  I’m several years from graduation, so my loans are not yet in repayment.  I want to have a solid emergency fund in place and then I’ll dig in on the student loans.  I will be paying on them for quite a while, but not forever like I once thought.

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I Hope This Is Obvious

by Ashley on January 13, 2011

When I first started paying off my debt, I was looking at a balance of more than $20,000 and thinking, why didn’t I do this earlier?

I thought that for two reasons.  First, it turned out that doing something about my debt was so much easier than just stressing about it.  I cannot say how miserable it was to feel crushed by the weight of not just all the money I owed, but the guilt over having put myself in that position.  Second, if I had started earlier, then I would be further along, of course!

I took the only option available to me and started at the beginning.

I never despaired, but it was not easy. I sometimes experienced the never-tweeted-about, never-blogged-about “ZOMG. I work more than anyone. I never get a break. My life is so hard. No one understands” thoughts, but I always had enough perspective to remember I was doing this for myself.  I was giving up my free time to make my own life better.  Selfish, really, but the good kind of selfish, because how much can you help anyone out when you’re limited by debt?

What I’m saying is that it’s worth it.  Worth it to do whatever you have to do to get your own life in order.  And worth it to sacrifice a little so that you can live better later.  Not when you retire, but sooner than you might expect.

But, as cool as it is to be out of credit card debt, the year I spent working toward it was pretty amazing too.  I gave up stuff, and stuff is great, but it’s probably the easiest thing to give up. This year, I was just as happy and had just as much fun as years previous.  I kept working toward my academic and career goals.  I wrote a lot.  I met amazing people.  I made plans, imaginary and real.  I remained sane.  And all with the extra bonus of feeling good about what I was accomplishing in paying off my debt.

If I gave up too much, then I would regret it now, but instead I thank everything that I was smart enough to just get started already.

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I’m Not Sure About This Being Reasonable Thing

January 11, 2011

I have a confession.  When I was in debt, there was something kind of thrilling about buying stuff.  It was knowing I shouldn’t, but doing it anyway.  I’m not a wild person, so I guess this was the lame way I rebelled. Part of it was this thought I often had where, like an addict, [...]

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It’s Really Nice

January 4, 2011

It is so nice not to worry about money all the time. I thought I’d feel a greater sense of relief after paying off my debt.  Maybe I would run up some stairs, listening to “Gonna Fly Now.”  Or pull out a big red marker and cross Get Out of Debt off of every list I’ve [...]

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Thanks!

December 27, 2010

Thanks for all of your congratulations everyone.  The same people who wished me well on day one were congratulating me last week and have been cheering me on this whole time. I was never dependent on this blog for motivation or accountability, but it has given me this tremendous opportunity to work through the kind [...]

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Balance: $0

December 23, 2010

As many of you know by now, I paid off the last of my credit card debt today! I am so excited.  Mostly about what it means for how I can live my life now.  I feel like I can finally take a deep breath.  I’ve put so much pressure on myself to pay off [...]

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No More Makeup

December 16, 2010

Part of preparing for the reality of being out of debt has been going through everything I have and getting rid of what I don’t need or want.  I should say that I’ll take just about any opportunity to do this.  I love getting rid of things.  I always have at least one bag in [...]

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The Debt As It Stands (12/14/10)!!!!!

December 14, 2010

So, this is the last of these posts.  How crazy is that?  The next time I update you on my progress, I will be out of debt. I’ve thought several times to write a post about how excited slash impatient I am to be out of debt, but not only is that incredibly obvious, but [...]

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I’m Good

December 9, 2010

In the Summer of 2009, I thought for a moment that it might be a good idea to at least face my debt, so I decided to pull my credit score.  I don’t remember the exact number, but it was bad.  Technically speaking, it was poor. It had taken quite a while for it to [...]

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