making progress
Newsflash: I don’t have to get everything done in one day. Just a tiny bit everyday is better than a whole lot all in one day. My checkbook is balanced. The household online bill pay is mostly set up. The little details are starting to come together, and when I get them out of the way, I can focus more on the big picture – paycheck calculators, federal withholding, loan balance killing, credit score guarding…
I feel much better than I did the other day. I don’t have any more time than I had, I’m just using the time I do have more wisely (and procrastinating less).
management
So… I haven’t done anything but spend money since my last few posts. No budget, no checkbook balancing, nothing. I’ve been so busy! This is going to be harder than I thought…
Apparently time management is as important to money management as money management.
I have to make the time to manage the money, or it’s just like letting a lawn go crazy without ever trimming it. I’m feeling like my “money lawn” is looking really chaotic right now. It’s a new year, and I have new priorities that need to be taken care of. I can’t just let things go wild around here. I am the CFO of the household. If I don’t pay attention, and Mister Ant is trusting me to keep up with our business, then things can go bad. Really bad.
I got a call from my aunt today about refinancing her mortgage – she had a question about how it might work. I could tell from our conversation that she is the CFO of her household, too. She asked a really good question about the bank’s motivation for offering the refinance: “What’s in it for them?” I was inspired by the thought and care that she is putting into finding out whether the refinance makes sense for her family.
I’m going to get to work. I’ll do a little bit right now, and the full monty over the weekend.
glad to be able to give
I gave to the Haiti relief effort. I hope you give too. I tried giving by text – “Haiti” to 90999 – to the American Red Cross. Seems to have worked just fine. You can give more than once, if you want. I find that I have the best of intentions sometimes, but life distracts me from giving. This time, it was as simple as sending a text. I’m glad to be able to give.
watch out for the drugstore
I didn’t realize how liberal I had become about spending my money until I had a hard time talking myself out of the drugstore last night. I only went in for one thing I needed, and the next thing I know, I was actually browsing all over the store. And then something in my head said, Sis, look at what you are doing. Get what you came for, and get the heck outta here! Can I tell you, it was SO HARD! Reining it in was so much easier when I was a) broke, or b) emotionally invested in a goal.
I gotta get my emotions back into this!
*sigh* happy new year
Oh the horror!
The triumphant spirit I had this time last year has given way to contrition this year. If I don’t want to feel like this in 2011, some things are going to have to change.
I made a deal with myself that I could keep my head in the sand until the end of December. I allowed myself to turn a blind eye to the hard numbers, buy whatever Christmas presents I wanted, eat lunch out if I felt like it, ignore contributing to my retirement account or my stock purchases, ignore my debt reduction goals… I did all of that. I am done with that. This has been such a mediocre year! I feel like I haven’t moved forward and like I’ve abandoned my goals.
I’ve been so busy with my new work hours and other activities, and I used that as an excuse to slack off on my diligence with checking the numbers and blogging about my progress or the lack thereof. I even finished 2009 with credit card debt because of a house improvement and a very expensive engagement gift I wanted to buy.
Which brings me to my newest motivation – marriage and babies are only as imminent as my (our) ability to handle our money correctly and progressively. I have a renewed commitment to debt reduction. The credit card debt will be gone by the end of the month. The medical bills will be gone by June. The car note will be gone by June 2011, and only because we have to save for our ceremony, since we will not incur debt for it. by June 2011 – mark my words – my only debt will be the mortgage and the student loans, provided the Lord helps us to avoid emergencies.
Regarding savings, I have found that it’s harder to keep the money I save. This year, I wound up spending what I saved so that I can avoid using credit cards and avoid raiding the savings I had already. I’m not completely uncomfortable with this, but I would like to increase my savings. So, I’m counting on the 7.6% raise I got at the end of the year and the 401K program at work, which kicks in for me in a few months, to help me feel like I’m making saving progress.
My challenges to debt reduction and savings will be home decorations (we’ve made improvements/repairs but hardly any decorations) and the wedding ceremony. I hope to do everything for the cheapest prices we can get, and I’m willing to compromise on those things in order to achieve the goals I want. I have to use better time management and abandon my excuses if I want to do that! So here goes…
Oh and one more thing, I told myself that I would only update the value of my home once a year, so there it is. My actual net worth progress has been kind of stagnant, and the bump seen this month is due primarily to the increase in the market value of the house (which I listed conservatively last year).
back on the saddle
As my latest net worth update says, “I have finally included the doggone medical bills. (In “other debts.”) So there, $2000 more debt. And it’s taking a while to pay off because I have other things to take care of – house repairs and decoration, mainly. I’ve had very few indulgences because I know I have all this debt. I know it’s been a while since I’ve updated, but honestly, I’ve been discouraged by the slow progress with paying off debt and building up my investments. Most of the progress you see has just come from making minimum payments and saving to use cash instead of credit. This update is as of the middle of October. It’ll be another month-and-a-half before I do another update on the net worth, at the end of November.”
Anyway, this blog has been calling me back. It’s good for me to see where I stand, and I’m really glad I forced myself to do this update and see the numbers. It’s really not as bad as I thought it would be – not as bad as it could be. But I’m not finished with home improvements. In the next month or so, I’m going to be spending even more on the house repairs. Right now, the name of the game is to at least maintain and not slip backwards. That means continuing to pay in cash, avoid new debt, and pay down on debts, if only the minimums.
I fell off the record keeping horse – doing nothing more than balancing the checkbook. But it really does help to know your situation and keep tabs on it, so here I am, hopping back in the saddle.
bad girl
Things are crazy. I have more medical bills than I thought I would have – payment plans out the wazoo. Mister Ant and I had a cash flow problem that has since been fixed. We bought some electronics. We took a weekend trip. Home improvements in the works. We have finally started to use our central air. I did a little shopping.
Part of the reason I haven’t done my net worth update for July, three weeks into August, is that I know I don’t want to see the number. I know that isn’t right, but it’s where my head is now. I was just so happy to see that I’d finally recovered from getting the house. I don’t want to see what the medical bills have done to my progress. I don’t want to hold myself accountable for missing July’s contributions to my IRA and savings. I don’t want to deal with the fact that I aimed to pay off my car and one of my student loans and yet I haven’t paid any more than the minimum required payment on either of them.
I’m eating, my bills are paid, and I can buy things I want from time to time. My credit isn’t destroyed. I know my checking account balance. For now, that’s all I can handle.
no more ashes
I’m working a lot lately, can you tell?
I want stuff. I’m in my house now so I’m no longer saving for that, and I’m tired of stoic self-deprivation.
I’m getting started on house repairs this week. I’m getting a big ol’ flat screen digital HD television and a new entertainment center to sit it on and some cable. Yup. I don’t care that it costs money. If I want it, and I can afford it, and still save and invest and pay down debt, then dammit, I can have it. I am young and employed and I want all the stuff I’ve been saying no about. I am going shopping. I am wearing cute shoes. I am getting a new tote bag. I am pimping my ride. I am decorating my house. I want it all. When I come home after all that work, I want to be sweating myself for the car I’m driving and the house I pull to and walk into at the end of the day.
It’s going to take for-frikkin-ever. But I want it all.
I will be using my credit cards. I will not put eighty billion things on the cards at once, and I won’t carry a balance indefinitely. I will plan my purchases. I will not abandon my goals. But I will not run around in sackcloth and ashes any more.
Oh yeah. And I’m going to have to increase my income.
let’s have a good week
All my lunches and breakfasts are purchased. I have a about a hundred in the account, and a check to cash for a few hundred more. Tonight I’ll do the math to see how much is left over after I get some saving done. I might have to buy gas toward the end of the week, but that’s okay. All the bills are paid except the mortgage and car, and I get paid Friday. I’m going to start using my no-fee bank account. I’m going to call my credit union and tell them I’m only using them to pay bills now, and that it’s because of their ATM fees. Onerous fees at a credit union (and not having the best mortgage rates when I bought my house) defeat the purpose of even belonging to a credit union. So, I’m moving on. Let’s have a good week!
thinking ahead
Am I crazy for thinking, while I was at work today, that I can’t wait to scrape up some more money for some more real estate? If this surprises you, then you don’t understand me. The title of this blog is the HUSTLE of Sistah Ant. You can always expect me to try to figure out how to increase my income. Anyway, I think I am a little crazy. But good crazy. Not certifiably crazy. You know what I’d love to do? Real estate development. Residential, commercial, all of that. It may not have been what I went to school for, but that doesn’t mean that I can’t make it happen. Mister Ant is totally on board. I’m not sure what my entry into this path will be just yet, but I do know that my ears are perked open for that knock of opportunity. This is why I have to kill my debt, build my savings, and buff my credit score. Don’t think that I have no dream driving me to excel, just because I finally got my house. Shoot, this is just my first house. I’m getting another one, prayerfully before my unborn kids are in middle school. This real estate thing is no new epiphany, by the way, I’m just getting around to telling you guys about it. So now you know. Plus, I know real estate is hard in general, let alone scary in today’s economic climate. I didn’t want to invite all the caution of the well-meaning naysayers. But, what the hey. I’m a big girl. I can handle it. Besides, if you kindly take a look at my sidebar on the right, you’ll see it’s gonna be a while before I go property hunting again – I’m kinda busy.
