Sallie Mae

Listen to Elvis while you read!

Ok, so I got really pissed last month when the government transferred my student loan account management to Sallie Mae from their direct servicing. I've always had AMAZING customer service from the direct servicing office and I was not - NOT - happy to be transferred to a private loan servicer. Now this doesn't mean my balance was sold or anything, it's just that Sallie Mae is now my customer service office. All of the loan policies and repayment plans are the same dept. of ed ones as before.

So like I said, I was pissed. But it turns out that I didn't really need to be. Sallie Mae has been super helpful and very solicitous about my concerns over the last month when a lot of things have been changing. I've called them a few times, and I'll sort of log the calls below. There's a prize at the end!

First Call:

I got an email about my loan servicing being transferred. In a fit of pique, I call right away and they're like "we haven't gotten your account details yet, it takes a couple days." We hang up, pique subsides.

Second Call:

I got an email saying that $270 was debited from my checking account for my loan repayment. AAAHH! NO! I'M UNEMPLOYED AND I JUST HAD SURGERY! I again call right away and cry and bitch and ask to talk to a supervisor. His name is Patrick and he totally gets it. My undergrad loans have gone back into repayment while my grad loans were still in grace period. I had talked to a guy at Direct Service who had put my payments on hold through some magic, but Patrick was like I can't do that because you've run out your forbearance (way way back in the day). He told me how to apply for a new hardship forbearance to get a break for a couple months and also told me what paperwork to submit to get my $270 reimbursed. You can ask to have any payment reimbursed as long as it doesn't put your loan into delinquency (try getting that deal on your mortgage), but I had to process the forbearance first.

I let like....4 weeks go by

Third Call:

Hi, Patrick told me all the things I need to do but I forgot them...can you tell me again? This guy was John I think, and he told me all the things again.

I faxed the paperwork over, uploaded the things I needed, emailed the people I needed to email, and I get an email response in 3 days that my forbearance has been granted. So now I don't have to worry about random payments happening until I'm ready to be back in repayment (i.e. - I have a job). We fumbled through a bit of how to get the documents uploaded for the $270 reimbursement and did a little work around. I wasn't sure this was going to work.

Fourth Call:

Hi, Sallie Mae, I GOT A JOB!! I had this guy walk me through all of my repayment options, and when I need to have the application in for Income-Based Repayment (May 29th) so that I can put all my loans into proper repayment when my grad loans come out of grace period. We went over the Federal Forgiveness plan and also what my payments will look like for the next year.

So today I'm looking through my bank transaction on mint.com and I see a little deposit from the Treasury of $270 just yesterday! I think that was a one week turnaround from getting my paperwork submitted (I was promised 4-6 weeks processing time).

That's my prize for making the calls and getting the right paperwork submitted. I have better cash flow this month (which is good, the job doesn't start for a couple weeks), my loans are all squared away without any repayment for the moment, and I know what my payments will look like once I start paying in June.

Thanks, Sallie Mae! (I still prefer AbbieMae, however)

I'm Back!

GUYS. Guys guys guys. HEY YOU GUYS! I got a job!! A real one. My first real career track job. It's a great fit for me, I get to work with a good friend, and it will really help develop my expertise in my field. I really couldn't be happier.

 But the best part? I get to climb back up on the wagon of financial planning. I've missed this blog. I've missed the ability to plan my savings goals, debt reduction goals, and my life in general.

 I won't know all the details of my health insurance and retirement fund through work until I start in a couple weeks, but there are other things I can start wrapping my mind around. Like my month to month expenses that shouldn't change too much. I'll use this list in order to frame how much I can expect to put in my 403(b), IRA, emergency cash savings, and medium term savings. It will also be the amount that I'll use to set my emergency fund savings goal.

 So here they are:

• Rent 
• Car Insurance 
• Gas 
• Student Loan payments 
• Renters Insurance 
• Gas 
• Electricity 
• Cable/Internet 
• Charitable Giving 

And there are other things I need to get a better understanding of my spending in a month to month way:

• Groceries 
• Eating out
• Clothes and like make-up and stuff that I buy at CVS every other day.

I'd also like these targeted savings funds:

• Travel 
• Car maintenance 
• Teeth (though this could be wrapped into the emergency fund) 
• Gifts for family/friends 

I have a bit of catching up to do -- a haircut, some car work, fleshing out of a professional wardrobe, maybe a couch and a trip to a friend's wedding -- but after the summer is done I think I'll be in a really good place to get some solid financial clean-up done. Can't wait!

Craptastic

That's about the right word to describe my spending situation. I just suck at this right now. I'm trying not to get discouraged, but I feel like I'm in a spending tailspin and I can't get it under control.

There are just all these things that I really think I *need*. And while "need" is usually just another way to say "want," I just keep finding myself needing to buy stuff to handle all my stuff. I spent $200 today on shelving and organization supplies. But I've had cardboard boxes at the foot of my bed for 4 months with nowhere to put anything and people are coming to visit and it's driving me crazy! I have a small room and the clutter is making me feel helpless. And all these solutions are expensive! At least for me.

I also bought a bike last week. With all the accessories (helmet, lights, lock, rear rack), this has set me back about $600 so far, and I still need to get bigger bags to put on the rack to actually carry the stuff I need to bring with me. I know I could have spent less. I feel guilty for not looking for a used bike (I mean, this isn't a "new" bike...it's an old frame with new parts built by Bikes Not Bombs). But I also know that if I'm going to commute 6 miles to work every day, I need something dependable and comfortable that I actually like riding. Which I got.

I'm being so defensive. I know it's because I could have done this differently. Or saved, instead of borrowed from my loans. I don't know what to say. Grad school has really messed up my habits, it seems. At least now I can honestly say I'm through with any big purchases. Not including whatever medical costs I incur this year (which will definitely be around 500 bucks.)

Here's what I'll do: try to concentrate on the positive. I have my emergency fund still. I'm still contributing to my retirement fund. And I'm back up to a full 40 hours a week. I can fix this, I can get back on track.

how do avoid a paper you don't want to write.

Wow. So much money news in the past...what has it been? Four months? Yeah.

Well, I started school, and that has changed a few things about my life in general and my financial life in particular.

So, loans. I'm paying for school with some more federal direct loans. This is making me a little nervous, since they've already given me 68% of my undergrad debt in new loans. Don't freak out! Ok, freak out a little. I didn't use all of it for school, the rest is just sitting in a bank account untouched until I figure out what I'm doing for summer, then if I don't need it to support me during an internship or anything, I'm giving it back to them. But by the end of grad school I will have increased my total debt to about 260% of it's pre-grad school amount. eep. I don't like it, but I don't think I have a lot of other options. Hopefully the outcome is a public sector job with great benefits and a good career track after I graduate, and only paying on the loans for 10 years before they get forgiven. That will still have me paying 200% of the undergrad amount. But the decision is made, and that's that.

Now, as a result of school I've also had to reduce my hours at work. I'm now at 36/week, which thankfully doesn't affect my benefit contributions, but it does affect my paycheck. So far I haven't really felt those effects since I've had more than enough occasional work with UMass to make up for it, so I'm grateful for that. I have had to go through some vacation time to be able to participate in my current internship, which is frustrating.

I've kept up with my monthly retirement contributions. This does strike me as a little silly since I'm borrowing money from my future to pay for school now, but putting money away for the farther future, but I think this is still the smart way to go. I would be borrowing the money in either case, and it's not like I would be paying my tuition with that $50 a month. It will be a net gain down the road.

I've also kept up with my regular savings. It's not a very large amount because I split it with the retirement fund, but it's there in case I need it. And it had enough to cover the income tax I owed this year, which came in at $250 total. Thank goodness I'm back in school, because I would have had to pay more like $900 if I didn't get the tuition deduction.

I also moved into a new apartment at the beginning of February, which took it's own little financial toll. Mostly I came out even because I didn't have to put a last month or security on my new place and I got the last month back from the old place. While I should have used that for savings, I used it to buy all new furniture. And I like my new furniture, so whatever. The apartment is a little cheaper, further away from work, but closer to school.

Now it's time to try to figure out what is gonna happen with my summer. I have a couple applications for internships in, and I'm hoping one of them works out. If not I'll stay in Cambridge and probably start looking for a library job. Or at least something that pays me a little more so I can worry and/or work a little less and save a little more.

As far as the spending side of my equation goes....well, it's still not great. I've been buying new clothes and shoes with the excuse of thinking I might need them for conferences and/or new job opportunities. That's a little bit true and a little bit of a rationalization. I'm doing a bit better on food most weeks, I think, but this one was a bad one. Splitting my time between Cambridge and JP makes keeping up with bagged lunches a little difficult, but I also could just try harder.

So....that's the update. Just sort of trucking along. But next I need to get renter's insurance....

aaannd it's down the drain again.

Wow, what a cute little net worth graph I've got going down there. Too bad it's soon to be utterly destroyed.

You may remember from my other blog that my foot has been giving me a lot of trouble over the last year (plus some). So I'm making an effort to get it treated and diagnosed. That involved an MRI that didn't really tell my Doctor anything useful, but did cost me $775. That's after my insurance paid...from what I can tell on my explanation of benefits, about ten bucks. Is that possible? I don't know, I find my bills very confusing all the time, and I consider myself a pretty informed person. I guess that's why there's a whole damn degree program called Medical Billing.

So, good thing I have the money saved to be able to pay for it, but shitty that I have to dig into my emergency fund.

What would have been better would a targeted savings account. I already have one for Taxes (even though it's currently empty), but I'm going to start one for Deductibles. That'll be $500 for my medical coverage. Right now that's the only deductible I have, but I'll add to it if I ever need to get car insurance or dental or anything.

Back to the drawing board!

I'm back!

And I've got Net Worth!!!

So, on Mint.com they added some new tracking tools. One of these was a net worth graph over time. They also added a way to exclude certain accounts from it, so after taking out my student loan (a depressing 25,000 dip in my worth), I get a telling graph of my progress over the last year. That's definitely trending up, folks. The red dips are my credit card balances for each month, but I'm paying it off every billing cycle, so it's not terrible.

thanks to Jim for putting this seed of an idea in my head a few months back. but, fyi, this is way easier than an excel spreadsheet.

what's the worst they could say?

The answer to that question is always "No." Sometimes hearing "no" is fucking soul crushing, but sometimes somebody is just telling you that there's no cheese in your burrito or something else not so bad.

Similarly, risking a "no" from your bank teller is not the biggest deal on the planet, so just do it. What the hell am I talking about? Fees, my friend, fees.

I used to never ask for extensions on research papers. I thought, "hey, it's my fault I didn't finish this on time, I deserve to be punished." Maybe that's true (probably). But other people didn't feel this compunction at all; why would I want to be the only one being punished? So I got over it and started asking and stopped getting docked for lateness. Lesson learned.

Now I apply this lesson to my banking transactions. When we went to Canada for vacation, I shifted all my vacation funds into my secondary checking account. That way I knew what I had set aside to spend and I could track my transactions separately. After we got back I transferred back the funds. Except the hotel charge hadn't cleared completely and the exchange rate changed before it did. Which left me one dollar short and incurred a $30 fee from my bank. I just went in and asked them to waive it, and they did. No problems.

Now I imagine if I tried to do this twice a year they might not be so nice, but I've established a good history with my bank, I haven't overdrawn once (before this) in almost three years, I deserve a little clemency. And so do you :)

It's National Save for Retirement Week!!!

Yay!!! To commemorate, I'm making my very first contribution to my retirement account this week! I opened my account last week with T. Rowe Price, using their Automatic Asset Builder program, which allows me to fund an account with no minimum investment as long as I have an automatic contribution every month of at least $50.

Some ways you could celebrate this week:

- check out that automatic asset builder link
- read through some of get rich slowly's retirement articles (bonus ones this week!)
- check out the changes that have happened to the American retirement system in this time article (highly recommended!) and a pointed response here.

It's never too early to start thinking about your retirement, and in fact, the earlier the better! And it's easier than you think!

some big spending in my future

Heeyyyyy everybody! Long time, no see, I know.

I'm gearing up for a trip to Montreal this weekend (yaaaay!), and trying to prepare myself. I've set aside the money I want to spend, and I'm fairly sure that I'll stay within it, but I have a little back up if I don't. I've just about replenished my small emergency account after I plundered it several weeks ago. I bought a new pair of shoes to handle the walking, and I'm stopping by the Gap Outlet to get a jump start on my winter wardrobe buying (it's pretty cold in Canada already). Even with all this, I feel like I'm in a good place going into the holidays. I just hope I can keep it that way, because I'll be taking some time off work.

In longer term news, this was supposed to be the week I started funding my retirement account. I think I'm in the position that I wanted to be, but I'm scared. It's a big commitment. Well, realistically it's not a big commitment. It's $50 a month. I'm already saving $100 a month, and I'm just planning on putting half in a rothIRA and keeping half in savings, so it's a small step. I think I may have just talked myself into just doing it.

So, I guess the take-away here (that's for you, Ann) is listen to Nike. It's not so scary if you just do it.

ACK!

I spent $50 at Dunkin Donuts in September!!! AAAAAHHH!

Man, I totally suck at controlling my spending these days. This is what happens when I don't go to the grocery store and I spend 4 bucks on breakfast every morning and ten bucks at lunch every day. Insanity.

Still trying to find a budget style that works for me, I feel a little at a loss, though. Cash? two checking accounts? daily allowance? weekly?

I haven't actually tried the envelope thing, maybe I should give it a go...

Holy Crap!

So, I forgot to call and get my name removed from the database for unsolicited credit offers the last time I got one, and I just got another one. Standard pre-approved, your credit is not perfect but this could be the card for you, blah blah blah. Most of the time I would have just thrown this away, but I was curious about the terms and conditions, what with all the credit consumer bill of rights hooplah that the credit companies are flipping out about. So I opened up the little booklet they sent about the card, this card marketed to a person with a current credit score of "fair" and a spotty history of on-time payments. I wish I were talking to you in person so I could make you guess what the APR was on this card. I think you couldn't guess. It's just so despicable, you wouldn't dare guess it.

59.9%!!!

HOLY CRAP. I can't even believe my eyes. I'm flabbergasted that this is legal. Even pay-day loan/check cashing scam-a-thons aren't that high. It's seriously fucking mind-boggling. Criminals. A bunch of criminals that all of us are forced to do business with because the damn FICO thugs have taken over our financial lives in the last two decades. How is this not loan-sharking? How is this not organized crime?

Oh...right, campaign contributions. It is organized crime.

Edit: In case any of you shared Jim's question, this is from the attorney general of Missouri's website: "Many consumers are suprised to find there is no limit on credit card interest rates (APR) under federal law. Those limits are set by state law, and card issuers are governed by the laws of the state they're based in."

figuring out how much I make

I spent a little time today poring over my check stubs for the past couple months. What I'm trying to do is to figure out down to the penny how much money I can expect to be bringing home every week. This used to be fairly simple, but living in the world of adults has complicated things a bit. I have health insurance, union dues, and my public transit pass deducted from my pre-tax dollars now on top of my income tax, medicare, and social securty. Some of these things change week to week, and 5 week months throw a bit of a wrench in my estimates, too.

wow...for some reason I have a weird craving for Tang right now.

Anyway, I think the object of this is to figure out just how much the difference between 38 hours and 40 hours a week is in dollars. Sometimes on a Friday during a week that I've come up short by a little bit of time, I find it difficult to persuade myself to stay the 45 minutes or an hour to get to 40. And this is dumb. I'd also like to understand exactly how much I have to budget with each week; up until now I've only been estimating.

In other news, I've come apart financially a little this month. Some unexpected spending coupled with some inattentiveness has created a frustrating cash flow problem that I really need to get on top of. Constant vigilance has always eluded me, but I will try harder. September and October, while they will be lucrative months, will also be expensive months. I've planned for some of this, and the other parts I'll just have to be extra frugal to cover.

the best laid plans.

So, some general or somebody during the Civil War (or some other war), said something like, "it's important to plan every battle. a battle plan is useless in battle." Whatever, you get the gist of it.

Part of what I did at the beginning of this month was set up a 6 month plan for my financial goals. Um, oops. I mucked it up almost right at the beginning. I couldn't resist getting my new camera. I've been dreaming about buying one since January, and as soon as I knew I would have the money saved this Fall, I couldn't wait to actually have the money. It was dumb, but I don't regret it. I've had to shift things around to compensate, but it's a temporary compensation. I borrowed a little bit of money from my emergency savings (and no, I don't think this is really an emergency, but I had to pay my cell phone bill somehow) and I'll be replacing it next week. The important thing is, I had planned on this purchase, I knew how much it was going to cost, and I knew where the money was coming from. So not exactly an impulse buy, but still way too impulsive. I should have waited until the money was really in the bank. I'm counting all sorts of chickens before they hatch, which many a tale has taught us is a very bad idea.

Another part of my plan will probably end up changing, as well. I'll probably be taking some unpaid leave in November, which I predict will push back my ability to contribute to an IRA until after the first of the year. Possibly it won't be that late, but I definitely don't want to start contributing before I'm stable enough to really keep up with it. And January is always a good time to start new projects, right? And it will have been about one year since my financial awakening, so it'll have a little symbolic weight behind it then, as well.

Oh! I almost forgot! We're finally having our long awaited financial seminar at work tomorrow! I'll be taking notes and blogging all about it afterward, so look forward to that!

In Absentia

Hey folks!

sorry I've been neglecting my blog lately. I think I'm a little ashamed of some of my behavior over the last few weeks, but that will be a topic for another post.

the topic for this post is my new blog. Yep, new blog. It's less businessy, more personal, and more photographic.

So, take a peek over there: intentsandpurposes.wordpress.com

see you on this blog very soon, though, promise.

This post has a lot of colons, sorry. New! Links!

Also, this post is very long, and I'm sorry about that. You don't necessarily have to read the whole thing, I'm sure there's stuff in the middle you can totally skip (but I'd like it better if you didn't).

I've spent the better part of two hours trying distill my short term financial goals into some sort of organized plan. It's harder than I thought it was going to be. I can't help but feel I'm missing some integral tools. My kingdom for a desk calendar! Either that, or I really need to learn how to use Excel. (As a side note, does anybody know of a free tool/software that makes financial planning easier? I know a lot of things that help you monitor finances, but projections is something I haven't seen)

At any rate, I've been cross referencing a googledoc spreadsheet and my day-planner to formulate a 6 month plan. The way I see it, there are two parts to my financial management. One side is the consistent income and monthly expenses. I've revisited my budget and I know how much spending money I have weekly, after bills and savings. The other side is the intermittent income and savings accounts. Estimating my occasional income is difficult, especially once I try to guess past 4 months from now. But I did my best, and I've established some target dates for savings.

There are a handful of things that I'm planning around this Fall:

1) By Sept. 1st I will need to pay $300 to hold my place at grad. school.
2) I need to establish an account for 2009 taxes (I owed $240 this year).
3) Trip to Montreal in October, trip to Florida at Christmas
4) I want to buy a digital camera.
5) I want to open a Roth IRA as soon as I feel comfortable doing so.

When I opened up my ING Direct account, I really opened 4. They make it very simple to have multiple linked accounts with nicknames. I now have "General," "Taxes," "Travel," and "Camera." I have $25 automatically debited weekly to the "general" account.

I've prioritized my goals thus: school payment, $600 in travel, camera, taxes. According to my really crappy spreadsheet projections, this is how the next few months will go:

August - I will continue to automatically debit into my general savings account, but I will dip into it to pay for school.

September - I'll be paid enough for my incidental work to fully fund my travel expense account for the rest of the year ($600). This will pay for the Montreal trip in October and my plane ticket for Florida. I'll also be able to fully fund the camera account and buy it! I suppose then I will put a new goal in its place.

October - While the general savings account will keep growing little by little, the travel account will be empty again. I'll open my IRA and start funding it at $50 a month. I'll also be able to put $250 into the taxes account.

November - I'll put $250 more into the taxes account, maxing it out at $500. I'll promptly forget it's there until April next year. By the end of the month I'll have just shy of $300 in the general account, which will probably help me get started on the travel expenses of going to Florida, and holiday expenses in general.

December - Keep on trucking along, probably deplete some of my general saving, but stay on track with IRA contributions. Start building travel funds back up.

January - Concentrate on funding travel account, looking forward to a possible European vacation late in the Summer of 2010.

So there it is, my 6 month savings plan, barring anything emergency related (which is likely, because my tooth is aching today). And even if there is some emergency (tooth related or not), my emergency account is waiting there to handle it.

The bigger question in all of this is, how do I keep the other half of this equation on track? I've been using my occasional income to cover my ass way too much lately, and this plan doesn't give me any wiggle room on that. I'm thinking of trying a cash system for a few weeks and seeing how it works out. I know in the past I've said I suck at cash, and I think I do. But possibly it might work out a little better than trying to shuttle money between two checking accounts. Then again, I could just start not bringing my other card with me everywhere, not to mention the Discover. I'm just setting myself up for overspending. One thing I know I cannot do anymore is get reimbursed by friends for anything (like a zipcar, or dinner, or movie tickets). I just can't deal with it properly. I put it on my credit card and then spend the cash, too. Not good. I have to be disciplined and really stick to it. Sigh.

Any reactions?

Wow, check out this cool graph!

This interactive graph is really cool. It's data compiled about how people spent every minute of their days in 2008. I like just clicking between the different groups and watch the shapes change. I'm really surprised by the relative times of tv and movie watching compared to computer/internet time. I think most people (especially young ones) are doing both at once (I am), so I'm curious how they took that into account. Also there's not a specific set for 'listening to music.' I wonder how that would look.

Oh well, not specifically financial, but interesting nonetheless.

just looking over things

I know I said I was going to put together a post on some short term future plans, but this isn't it. I'll try to get that together tomorrow and post it. For now, I've just been looking over my spending habits on mint.com. Even though I've generally gotten better at paying myself first via my two savings accounts, I have a lot of work to do.

The first thing I'm going to do is reevaluate my monthly budget numbers. I've had a couple adjustments in my expenses and I'd like to start from scratch on my weekly projections. I'm thinking of this like course correction. I'm on a boat! Of financial security!!!

Now onto the number crunching! Catch you on the flip side with a report....

Can I afford dental insurance?

Or can I afford not to have it? I just can't figure that question out. When I went to the dentist to get my two fillings a few months ago, he indicated I would probably need a root canal sooner rather than later.

The plan I'm looking at is through a giant reputable dental insurance company, and the premiums are about $40 a month. All preventative work is covered in full (two cleanings a year! I haven't done that since before college), and restorative (like my root canal) will be covered at 50%. I'm starting to think this is a pretty good idea. There are also various other plans available, but most of them look like "discount" plans that are a bit shady. With those sorts of things you pay them a premium every month, and you get a discount at participating providers. I'm wary of anything like that, because it's easy to imagine some basic restorative work costing more in the end.

I've been trying to control my expenses, but putting another $41 in my bills every month is going to hurt a little bit. Mostly it will hurt my savings. I was going to try to get $50 a month going to a retirement fund (I know you know, I just blogged about it). But not having to kill my entire emergency fund on a root canal I know is looming would be a good benefit. A great one, in fact. I'll need to make it 6 months without needing it for this to work to my advantage, though.

So, I guess I'd like some advice.

$492 per year to get free preventative dental care, and a 50% discount on my root canal (which alone could save me like $400 or something), or start my retirement fund. I know it seems like a clear choice, but is it really? It doesn't feel like a clear choice.

Summary

I thought that since I'm just about ready to make a big investment in my future, I'd like to devote a post to just summarizing how I got here from there. And then in the next post I'd like to layout plan for the short term future.

So, December 2008 I randomly (and I mean RANDOMLY, I have no idea what caused me to do this) bought a copy of Suze Orman's Money Book for the Young, Fabulous, and Broke. I guess I saw it there on the shelf and something told me it was the right time to think about money. After a quick read through, I realized that there wasn't any time to lose, and got gettin' on this blog. This is probably the biggest change I've made. I discovered my sense of urgency about the business of my life.

So where have I made the most progress since I've begun?

1) I don't overspend on food the way I did before.

I've made a habit out of going to the grocery and stocking up on breakfast and lunch supplies. I eat lunch out about once every few weeks now, compared to almost every day before. I eat breakfast out once every few months now, compared to every single day before. I also have my own coffee at home now. And I enjoy it a lot more. I sit on my porch with my cereal and coffee in the mornings after I water my plants. I like this ritual. It helps me start the day. I've also begun cooking dinner at home more (chipotle lima bean soup is simmering away as I type). I still eat out, but far more because I'm going out with friends, not because I just don't have anything at home. These changes have made a tremendous difference in my available cash. Before I was probably spending close to $75 a week on breakfast and lunch alone! I think it's more like $15 now.

2) I committed to my emergency savings.

Before I read Suze's book, I didn't even know this was a thing. Isn't that crazy? I had never even come across the concept of cash on hand. I think about that and it's such a palm-to-forehead moment (what a sad state of affairs when I was taught the supply/demand curve to perfection, but had no idea how to keep myself solvent). I have an advantage when it comes to my savings: I have two casual part time jobs that pay me large sums every few months in addition to my full time job. This means it truly is extra money that I haven't budgeted. It goes straight into my savings now.

3) I've started planning how to have enough money when bills come due without making myself broke.

Before (I think I need a name for this time..like BGU...before growing up), I would slap my whole last paycheck of the month down for rent. I came up short once or twice. Then I'd eat popcorn and rice for a week. If there was $250 in my account and I didn't have a bill that week, I'd buy new shoes. Or jeans. Silliness. Now I set aside a weekly amount for bills and let myself spend the rest. If the new shoes I want are $125 (and they are), I have to save up out of my spending cash. I don't get to just throw away half a paycheck on them without any effort.

4) I started paying myself.

In addition to my extra income, I decided to put away a standard amount every week from my regular paycheck. This helped me get my emergency fund back on track after my dental work. And now it's helping me get a new savings account going, which in turn will set my retirement savings in motion. I have this automatically debited on pay-day, so it's out of sight, out of mind.

5) Mostly, I got educated.

I know the steps to take to gain my financial freedom. I never thought I would be so interested in personal finance, but even if it hadn't become a bit of a passion, I needed to know this stuff. Everybody needs to know this stuff.

And I want to give you all some quick thanks for supporting me the whole way, giving me helpful links/tips, and making me feel like a success, even when I crap out and have some failures.

well, I did it.

whether you like it or not, I dumped some google ads down on the side-bar there. I'm doubtful I'll really make any money from it, but I figured I might as well try. I might tinker with the layout a little, though...it looks funny now...