>As you all know one of my roommates is my brother. We have a lot of similarities, but at times we are drastically different. Personal finanace is one of those areas.
Currently he is 28, collecting unemployement and going to school full time. His tuition and books are paid for and he qualifies for money above and beyond that he lives off of. I on the other hand work full-time and am paying back my student loans.
Yesturday, on our way home from a friends house, he told me that I am paying my debt off in vain. This started a huge discussion. His kept saying “What if you die the day after you pay it off?”. If you don’t get to live debt free everything you are doing now is in vain. I disagreed with him, because I feel that I have learned alot from this process, met people, helped others, applied the principles to other aspects of my life where I wanted to see different results, etc. I do not regret anything I have done in my journey so far and I do not feel like I have acted in vain.
I know there is a possibility that I may die the day after my debt is paid off, but I am smart enough to know that it is not likely. Therefore paying off my debt is a caluclated risk that I am willing to take.
Sometimes these types of interactions make me wish that my battle against debt was less public with my friends and family. As I move in to paying down my student loans, I hope to make it a little more private by talking about it less.
What are your thoughts? What kind of reactions have you had from your friends and family?
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This week I made another payment on my car loan that brought my balance down to $1950. (I am so excited, this is a long way from $30,000). The car loan is my second to last debt and I expect it to be paid off by the end of March. At this point I will only have a student loan for $52K standing between me and debt freedom. Being that I am so close to the last loan, I have noticed that my perspective and sense of urgency is changing.
I have had this debt so long it is like it is a part of me. I have stronger feelings about becoming debt free than I did about graduating HS, college and grad school combined. I think I might cry that day. In any case, I feel like I am on the home stretch even though the amount is huge. I have become very determined to pay it off over the next 11 months.
Up until a couple of weeks ago, I worked part-time as an on-call employee for a retailer. To remain employed you have to work once every 60 days, well they didn’t use me for 60 days, so I got a letter letting me know I was no longer employed. My boss had not idea, because last week she called to see if I wanted to pick up some hours. At the time I wasn’t so concerned, but know I wish I was still on the list.
Now, I take advantage of every opportunity I have to bring in some money. Below are a few things I have started or inquired about.
- Plasma Donation: Up to $200 per month. Must complete 8 donations to get the entire amount.
- Change IRS withholding: I went from 0 to 3 and will find out next payday how much more I get each month ( Check out the IRS Withholding Calculator)
- 2010 Census: I have an interview tonight with the 2010 Census people in my area. (Check out the 2010 Census Jobs website)
- Amazon Mechanical Turks: Pays you to complete little task like test new websites or provide feedback or surf the web for specific information. You get as little as $0.01 to over $20 for a task. (Check out Amazon Turks)
- Inquired about being a non-alcoholic bartender…haven’t heard back
- Inquired about banquet staff…haven’t heard back.
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As you already know, my brother is living with me. Before he move across country to my city, he got rid of all his belongings. He arrived only with what could fit in his car.
Over the past few months he started school and worked on getting his money under control. Last week he got he was so excited to get his income tax check. Like most people he had a list a mile long. On the top of that list was to get a bed and bedding.
His current feeling is that he needs to have the best, which means brand name and/or most expensive. I was able to talk him into getting the $700 bed instead of the $1000, but I was not able to convince him that he could get quality bedding at TJ Maxx or Ross. I know this because I have dug trough the piles of linens that laid on the floor a time or two. He on the other had was willing to pay top dollar for the convenience of not having to dig.
Yesturday, he brought home a very nice comforter that cost about $160 from Bed, Bath & Beyond. The first thing he did was put it in the washer, which was too small. The blanket got caught and ripped around the edges. I saw this and told him why it happen and not to put the blanket in the dryer. Once again, I know this is a bad idea from experience. Today, I talked to him at work and asked if he took it to the laundry mat. Of course he said “No, it is in the apartment dryer”. I told him that it is going to be ruined and the filling will melt in areas. I WAS RIGHT.
Now he is out $160 and is frustrated because all he wanted was something new and nice. If he would have dug through the pile, he would have the money to go get a new comforter. Now, he has to settle for his old one.
He showed me the mess when I got home and told me he was throwing it away. What a shame!
Have you ever spent really, really good money on something and then ruined it by doing something so simple?
>It is 9AM and I have been at work for about an hour today. Like most people I am ready to go home. Yesturday, my brother said to me ” You think about money all the time.” This got me thinking. Why do I treat my debt as such a burden when I don’t have to?
In my brother’s mind he doesn’t understand why I focus so much on getting out of debt because I bring home about $4010 per month and my minimum payments are about $900. To me my debt has become the reason that I work at my current job. Don’t get me wrong I don’t hate my job, but I don’t LOVE it either. I find the work to pointless at time and nothing I have done has given me the satisfaction that I desire. To me paying off the debt, is the key to unlocking the handcuffs that keep me in my desk chair.
There are other things that I would like to try my hand at and some that I know will be for satisfying, but the all come with a paycut. If I did not have my debt, I just might walk away from my current job for the chance to follow my heart.
Last summer a good friend of mine was let go from her job with a steady paycheck and benefits. To some this may be terrible news, but she has gone on to follow her dream to teach internationally. In the fall, she packed up her belonging and put them in storage prior to heading to her final destination. She was in a position to leave behind the luxuries of her life in the US for a third world country where she follow her passion for teaching.
I want to be like her.
Are you in a position to make such a big change? If not, do you want to be and what would you do?
>Back from a week of traveling for work. Since I was on business the company picked up the bill for everything. This is always nice, but I really learned what it means to be aware of the value of a dollar.
I imagine that most people don’t have a problem throwing down the company card to pay for their meals, but I found it conflicting. In most cases I paid higher prices for my meal because I did not have a rental car which forced me to eat in the hotel. (It was raining most of the time so walking wasn’t always an option). First of all the menu never changes, so choices are limited. Most of the options are not very healthy or delicious. At meal time I dreaded going to eat, because I felt like I was wasting money on such a bad value.
These feelings apply to many other things such as airport food/drinks/stuff, hotel rooms, going out to friends when you don’t find value in the activity (bar/club/movie/etc.).
The best meal I had was at In-n-Out burger. It was a double, double and a drink. I picked up desert at near by grocery store and spent less than $5….MONEY WELL SPENT.
Does you ever get this feel now that you are more aware of your money? This has been tugging at me all week.
