Stupid debt
Four minutes ago, I made one last payment on a looming loan from six years ago. I went into overdraft to pay the bloody thing off ($500+) but lemme tell you…. how SWEET does it feel to get the bloody thing paid off. Plus, paying off the loan from my old car this week? That was nice too.
But, I still have A LOT of consumer debt and education debt to pay off.
I’m going to guess I have about $70 000 in debt.
Lucky me.
It’s overwhelming and I can’t believe I’ve paid already, large chunks of it off.
And what do I have to show for it?
Not much.
It’s pretty sad.
In the car the other day, my mom was like, “I made $17 000 last year and what do I have to show for it?”
Fortunately, she has no debt. But she doesn’t have any money either. She works hard to break even. She buys stuff she doesn’t need (think kitsch!)…
But, she’s at that point where she WANTS to save for her future. Buy RRSPs… stuff like that.
What do I have?
Not a whole lot. I’ve got about $22 000 in retirement socked away. I’ve got a crapload of education that I have no way of paying off.
This army stuff HAS to pull through. I *WANT* this debt paid off within 3 years. That’s my goal. In three years? I want to be completely debt-free.
How nice would that be?
And I want my next vehicle? I want to buy it cash upfront.
And, I vow to NEVER use credit again.
That’s my goal.
To make things worse? Four years ago, I had exactly 0$ in credit card debt. Now? It’s almost $40 000. That includes two years of school… and four years of not having a good job or any job or… whatever. You know. Bad choices.
I’m taking responsibility TODAY… from this point forward… to NOT buy a single more thing on credit.
Never again!!! If I don’t have the cash? I don’t buy it. The only thing I WILL dip into credit for, is if I need to make a car or insurance payment. Those are my only two “outgoing” things right now (plus my phone but I can hold off on those payments sometimes). And, if I do have to dip into the credit for it? I will make sure that the payment that month on the credit cards, accounts for EXTRA $$ to make up for it. I won’t go any more into debt, EVER.
Got that?
EVER.
Amen.
February 9th, 2010 at 12:14 pm
Yeah debt totally sucks! *fingers crossed for army stuff* just a question…maybe this is totally out of line but how can you have 40000 on credit cards? Do you have more than one? We only have 1 and had to jump through hoops to get the limit we did on that one, let alone any other credit cards…. Canada is probably very different from here.
February 13th, 2010 at 3:13 am
Cat, pretty much when you go to college/university here, they thrive on giving you as many different cards as you can. Plus, I had a good job and they just kept increasing my credit limit. When I didn’t have jobs? They kept increasing it as I always paid the minimum and never missed payments.
So, it’s very very very easy here to get into the debt game with credit cards.
February 16th, 2010 at 4:49 am
ahhhh i see how that works yes, here it’s not allowed, all credit card companies have access to your other accounts and if you have debts you can not get another card and they only increase limits if you send papers of your last 3 months of income, all your tax papers proving you’ve paid your taxes and of course an estimate to the income which will come over the next year. Then maybe they’ll raise the limit lol we’ve only been able to have it raised 3 times since 1998 and will try again soon lol crazy assed bastards not wanting people to get in debt! bring on the american dream! 200,000 in debt but having the biggest car & house on the block! weee!!!!