As I always do at the beginning of a new month, I sat down yesterday and totaled up all of my debts to get a picture of where I’m at and how I’m doing. I was excited to realize– the credit card portion of my debt is officially under ten thousand! Woohoo!! I may even be able to get it under the 9,000 mark by the end of this month if I can “find” some extra money. I probably won’t quite get there, but it will be close.

Even if I don’t get to the 9k mark, the Chase card that I’m currently focusing on will be under one thousand as soon as I get paid tomorrow. That’s exciting! Still, I have a long way to go yet. Working over my budget for the next few months, it’s certainly clear that I won’t be affording one of those teeny little netbooks any time soon. Actually, I’m thinking I might not even be able to go to the conference in Florida this fall, even with the free conference ticket. Every time I try to figure out where to pull the money for a plane ticket and a hotel room, my poor budget cries. I’ll be disappointed if I can’t go, but it won’t be the end of the world. With the economy and the job market, I think paying off as much debt as possible has to be my first priority.

*sigh* Sometimes being a responsible adult sucks.

That’s what I’ve been doing this week… pouring over my budget and trying to figure out how it’s all going to work. And wishing I’d been able to pull off a debt consolidation last summer when I was trying to make that work. Maybe then I’d feel a little less pinched.

See, I’d worked out my budget for the next couple of months with one goal in mind: Pay off the laptop, and pay down as much as possible on my Chase credit card. Then I won a ticket to a conference this fall that I had wanted to go to, but decided I couldn’t afford. The price of the conference on top of the flight and the hotel just put it out of reach. But then! I won this ticket, and now all I have to cover is the flight and hotel… and figure out where the money is going to come from. And how much I’m willing to sacrifice all of the progress on my credit cards that I’d projected for the next couple months.

I know it will all work out, but man. Working and reworking the numbers sure does stress me out. I’ll be far less stressed as soon as I get a plan on paper.

Man, it sure seems like all the interest rates are heading in the wrong direction! My credit card interest rates keep creeping up through no fault of my own, and the interest rates on my savings accounts are dropping like rocks. When I signed up with ING, they had a 3.0% interest rate, and they’re now at 1.65%. Recently, I decided to sign up for an account with FNBO Direct who was advertising a rate of 2.60%. By the time my account was fully opened, it was at 2.40 (sorry to all the current customers, the rate drop is clearly my fault!). I hadn’t planned on chasing a good interest rate, but with the way things are going, today I withdrew my car insurance money from the ING account and will send it over to FNBO to wait until that bill is due. I try not to spend a lot of time worrying about the economy because all I can do is all I can do, you know? But I still can’t help but wonder where it stops…

So I *finally* got my W-2 on Monday… I know, they don’t have to have them mailed out until January 31st, but I’m impatient. I wanted to know exactly how much I’d be getting back so I could make plans. Besides, the earlier you get your tax return in, the faster you get your refund! I filed my taxes this week (still have to mail in my state return, thanks to a processing error), and I’m expecting a decent chunk of change back. Now I just have to decide what I’m going to do with the money! Buying New York Yankees tickets is not on my list, but I do have a few other ideas…

First I thought I’d buy a treadmillbecause I’ve wanted one for a long time…

Then I thought, well, I could take that money and use it for an upgrade– I could buy the camera I’ve had my eye on for agesand I really liked that idea…

But then I thought about the conference I wanted to attend this fall, but couldn’t afford. I could use my tax refund to pay for my conference ticket, airfare, hotel and extra expenditures.

Or I could be really boring and put the money in savings or onto one of my credit cards. Mark this one in the “what I SHOULD be doing with the money” column. Realistically, I’m leaning toward options 2 or 3… or both, but I’m having a hard time deciding.

I’ve gone and done it again… I started a new blog! I previously mentioned that I might go ahead and move all my financial talk onto it’s own blog where it might find an audience. I’ve still got some things to tweak over there, but I’ve got the blog up and running.

Financially Foolish: Because everyone makes money mistakes is my blog, so click on that link and go check it out. I posted some exciting news over there today!

Well I made it about 12 whole hours into the new year before I decided that I probably should have added one more goal to my Financial Goals for 2009 list. That would be Number 5– Buy home insurance. Well, renter’s insurance, as I am currently renting an apartment and likely will be for a while yet. It’s on my 101 Things list, but on New Year’s Day, I definitely set my stove ON FIRE. I mean ACTUAL FLAMES. Whoops? Don’t worry, everything is fine… a pan boiled over into the drip pan, burnt, and then ignited. I was standing in the kitchen in front of the pot when it happened and put it out immediately. But you can’t help but think… what if I hadn’t been standing right there? What if one of my neighbors had set THEIR stove on fire, and couldn’t put it out? After all, the security of my home and my belongings also counts on 7 other people not doing something wrong, not just my own actions!

But back to the goals I DID make. I’ve been crunching the numbers and trying to figure out how to make it work so I can come to you on January 1, 2010 and say YES I accomplished them all.

1. Pay off my car — I’m counting on selling some belongings to accomplish this one. In specific, I’m selling my Wii to my mom. Like I mentioned here when I first threw out the idea of selling it, the MSRP on my Wii and the games is $480. (I may have spent a slight bit more than that due to the Wii Fit being out of stock EVERYWHERE). It was one of those purchases that was almost immediately regretted because I bought it when I couldn’t afford it, but I persisted anyways. Of course the guilt of “Do you realize what you could have done with four HUNDRED and eighty dollars?” kept me from really enjoying it. I’ve barely turned it on in a couple of months, my mom really wants a Wii, and I can use the money she’s giving me more than I can use a $480 dust collector on my TV stand. Mom’s got the money budgeted out of her next paycheck, so as long as nothing changes, hopefully within the next 2 weeks my car will be paid off.

2. Put money back in my emergency fund — my modest goal is $500 for the year. I can either put $42 a month back for this, or put the whole amount back when I get my tax refund.

3. Save money for Christmas in cash– this is basically the same as number 2.

4. Pay off WaMu Credit Card– I’ve been playing with this one alot since this is the one that I’m worried about. According to the many calculators I’ve found online, this will take $278 a month. And for those of you playing at home, no the monthly payments for all three are not in my current budget. I’m trying to decide if I’m going to use the monthly budget for my savings budgets, and put the whole tax refund on my credit card, or the other way around.

Putting the lump sum on my credit card probably makes more sense, given the interest rates in question, but I like the idea of being able to set aside the whole amounts (or just about) into savings at the beginning of the year, having the money there in case something were to happen, and being able to focus on just the one goal that’s left. That’s the way I’m leaning, but I probably won’t decide until I know just how much my tax refund is going to be (I’ve played with the numbers and have an estimate) and when it will be here.

Also, I still don’t know what a regular paycheck at the new rate is going to look like, so that will affect my numbers a little bit. It probably won’t make a huge difference, but it should make hitting those target numbers at least a little bit easier. Either way though, I’m going to have to be good about finding extra money and really snowflaking where I can… right now, when categories come in under budget, sometimes the surplus finds it’s way onto the focus debt, but sometimes it just stays in my account and becomes a checkbook leak.

We all know how quickly things can change, but at this point, I’m optimistic. And hey, even if I don’t hit all the goals, at least I’ll be in a much better position at this time next year!

I never made any official goals for 2008 when I started this journey back in February, so I don’t have a list of goals to review right now. Maybe some goals would have helped? I will say that I am not where I had hoped to be, and that’s mostly due to a few occasions where I completely abandoned the program and went shopping. A lot.

The only way to make progress is to be honest, so here’s the dirty truth: In February of this year, I had 14,255.08 worth of credit card debt (plus a car loan). If you add in my student loan debt, I had a total debt load of $33,479.07. As of today, my credit card/car debt stands at $12,252.92, with a total debt load of $30,424.19.

So in the last 11 months, I’ve paid off $3054.88 worth of debt. The year is not a complete loss, but I had hoped to be, HAVE been, and should be further along than that. If we’re being completely honest here, one of my credit cards went the wrong direction even though the total amount is down. I’m a little sad that the progress is basically accounted for in minimum payments… but forward is forward and tomorrow is a new day. With that in mind, I’ve made a few goals for 2009.

Financial Goals for 2009

1. Pay off my car loan. This goal should be accomplished within the first two months of the year. My car loan is currently 451.18 away from being paid off. Between what should amount to an “extra” paycheck and selling my Wii, I should be able to knock this out quickly. Even if I just make payments on schedule, my loan is slated to be paid off in July. So either way, in 2009 I will own my car free and clear!

2. Put money (back) in my Emergency Fund. I’m not looking to fully fund my EF this year, but I raided what money I had set aside to pay off the CitiCard earlier this year, and my emergency fund is still sitting with .01 in it. I don’t regret using the money the way I did, but it is a little uncomfortable to have that paid off credit card be my only “emergency fund.” Basically I want to put at least $500 back into my savings account at ING. I know it’s a small amount, but I’m just looking to put a little distance between me and Murphy while I focus on other goals.

3. Set aside money to finance Christmas next year in cash. I had planned to use cash this year, but since I hadn’t set it aside in advance, it didn’t quite work. I would have had to wait until 6 days before Christmas to do the bulk of my shopping since that’s when the paycheck with the majority of my available money came in. When I’ve had time to sit down and rework my budget, I’ll try and come up with a dollar amount that I’m shooting for, and a per paycheck/per month amount to put into a special savings account.

4. Pay off my WaMu credit card. This is my smallest credit card, which is part of why it’s the one I’m going to focus on, but it’s also the one with the highest interest rate. Between the other goals I’ve already listed, and just keeping up with the rest of the minimum payments in my life, paying this one off ENTIRELY may be a bit of a stretch, but I’m sure going to try!

So there you have my four financial goals for the coming year… I didn’t really expect to be ready to discuss the difference between term life insurance and, well, all the other types of life insurance available, but I did expect to be a whole lot further along. I can’t change the past though, so I’ll just have to move forward from where I’m at. And I can be grateful that I’m three thousand dollars closer to freedom than I was a year ago… it’s better than nothing, and for the most part, I’ve stopped digging.

I should be getting a small raise in a week or so, and when I find out what a “normal” paycheck looks like, I’ll be sitting down to rework the budget. It’s not a lot of money, but hopefully it will be enough to help me move these goals along. I’ll keep you posted!

Now that we’ve closed another long week, I’m grateful that I get to spend a weekend not thinking about the state of the economy. That might sound a little strange, but really the days seem so long now. I know I’ve complained about different aspects of my job in the past, but for the most part now, I’m just grateful that I HAVE a job! And I might wish I could make more progress paying off my debts, but it pays the bills. I have shelter, heat, food, and there are a lot of people out there who are having a hard time providing those for their family.

All that being said, I do have a new least favorite thing about my job. Since I’m the one sitting in the lobby when people come in, and I’m the one answering the phone, I’m the one who gets to tell all these desperate people that there are no jobs available. Some people are looking for jobs in business, some for jobs in manufacturing… some people just walk in the door with a haunted look in their eye and ask me to tell them if they’re wasting their time. Unfortunately, that’s exactly what I have to do. Like many other companies in the area, ours is starting a lay off.

We live in an area that was greatly affected by the failing RV industry, and that was only the first wave of lay-offs. Every morning on the news, another company announces cutbacks. The jobs section in the classifieds is down to 2 pages, and is mostly jobs in the medical field, or ads for an employment company that charges you to see their job listings. There aren’t part-time jobs to come by, either to get a second income coming in, or just to try and squeak by.

I’m not too worried about my job, but watching the lay offs happening all around me does make me nervous, especially knowing how much debt I have left to pay off, compared to how much money I have in the bank, compared to how much money is required just to eat and keep the heat on every month. It’s definitely changing the way I’m approaching my finances… I’ve gone from paying things in the way that mathematically makes sense to the way that makes me the most comfortable. I’m currently focusing on one of my lowest interest rate debts because it’s the minimum payment I’m least comfortable having to pay. Will it cost me more in interest in the long run? Yes… but I think it’s worth it to have that debt paid off, and not hanging over my head anymore. A couple more months and it will be gone. Then it will be back to doing it the “smart” way.

I updated the progress in my sidebars over the weekend, but never came back to explain how things changed this month.

My CitiCard remained paid off. Obviously I don’t need to point that out, but since it’s the only debt completely paid off, I enjoy claiming it.

Car Loan went from 70.67% to 73.66%
WaMu card went from 9.91% to 11.34%
Capital One card went from 15.80% to 16.95%
Discover card 5.19% to 5.34%
Perkins loan went from 9.13% to 10.12%
Nelnet loan went from 3.15% to 3.81%
And the grand total of debt went from 11.08% paid off to 12.04% paid off.

With the exception of the car loan, all of those changes are accounted for simply from minimum payments. The car loan doesn’t have a minimum payment (long story about a standing financial arrangement), so that change is accounted for with a bit of snowflaking. Also this month, I mailed off the check for my December 1st car insurance payment.

The totals for this month will probably not change a whole lot from where they are right now. It will be another month of minimum payments across the board. All of my “extra” cash this month is being funneled into Christmas presents. I’ve actually started shopping, and the first present arrived on my doorstep today! As far as the rest of the shopping goes, I’m probably going to put it on credit. Before you panic, the money IS in the budget, and I have no plans to spend more than I have available for Christmas shopping. I know technically the smartest thing to do would be to wait until I have the cash on hand, but since some of it won’t get here until a mere 6 days before Christmas, I’m really not comfortable waiting that long. I’d rather purchase the things now and pay back the credit card 6 days before Christmas. If I’m going to buy someone rc helicopters (I’m not but you never know who is reading, and I don’t want anyone to know what they ARE getting), I might do that online, and I don’t want to worry about things being sold out, or not arriving in time. In past years, the gatherings have started a week or two before Christmas, so I just don’t want to take the chance.

So my Capital One card will slide backwards for the next month and half or so, but will be right back on track in January. Maybe not the best decision ever, will cost me a few dollars in interest, but it’s the one I feel most comfortable with.

Consider this a public service announcement from yours truly. If you have an online savings account, but you still use your regular checking account, it is very important to leave at least a little money in your brick and mortar savings account. You know, the one that is attached to your checking account, and may provide some sort of overdraft protection? I bet you can see where this is going. Because someday you may forget to write something down, and eventually you will get hit with $93 in overdraft fees because your checking account was short 19 cents needed to process a check. Yeah…

This happened on Monday. I logged into my bank account and noticed that my account balances and available balances didn’t look right. I realized right away what happened, but because I didn’t have any extra money in the same bank, there was nothing I could do to stop the ball that had started rolling. I did call my dad and ask him to transfer some money into my account, which he did, but not before they pushed through pending payments and charged me two more overdraft fees. (I’m still mad about that, by the way. I’ve NEVER seen a debit card payment run as credit post the very next day. It’s ALWAYS 2-3 days before it posts. No, I didn’t make those payments counting on the 2-3 days– I didn’t realize I had a math problem until the check was 19 cents short. But I was counting on the usual 2-3 days to avoid the rest of the overdraft fees. I’m not convinced that the bank didn’t see my account was overdrafted and pushed things through early, but I digress.)

In the end, I went to the bank and talked to them about the 3 overdraft fees. I understood exactly how it happened, but I wasn’t going to pay $93 in overdraft fees for one 19 cent mistake. He eventually agreed to refund two of the fees, but because I had no money in my savings account, I still had to eat $31 in overdraft fees over 19 cents. That hurts. So when I got paid today, the first thing I did was transfer a little bit of money into my savings that is attached to my checking account. Consider it one very expensive (and stressful!) lesson learned.