I am currently residing in Orange County and am not rich.
I started this blog purely as a way to encourage myself to start saving for a home downpayment in 2004-2005. Despite having a low income, I met my initial goal of budgeting enough to save for my own piece of real estate, and in March, 2006, became a homeowner. However, I bought at the height of the real estate bubble and my condominium has fallen drastically in value. I recently refinanced to a lower mortgage interest rate, which has helped slightly with the mortgage payment and associated costs.
Disheartened that my life savings went nowhere, I started doing things that I never did before while I was budgeting; using credit cards for unnecessary things, expensive outings, and vacations. I am also the main supporter of my partner until he is finished with school. I have accumulated debt and then, paid it off multiple times in the last few years. In 2012, a few more events transpired and I have once again accumulated $16,000 in debt. It is time to stop this cycle.
Although my salary has increased by approximately $30,000 since 2004, I had ill budgeted during the last few years and managed save less than when I was making a lot less money.
I plan to start anew, saving as much as $50,000 in the next five years and paying down debt in the process.
I am starting over again in December 2012 and hopefully, there are better savings days ahead and this cycle of building and breaking down debt ends.
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Just found your blog today.
ReplyDeleteGood for you setting some goals, and holding yourself accountable.
At this point looking forward and focussing on what you can control may be the best solution. You can't change the past, although we're all guilty of beating ourselves up over what we should have done differently. Personally we got our financial act together about 5 years ago and have made HUGE improvements in boosting our retirement accounts and paying off the mortgage at light speed. Some days though, I only think about how many years sooner we should have started this. We could have been retiring in our late 40s rather than at 57/60 in the current plan. Yes, it's still earlier than most people and we should focus on the positive, but man it's annoying to thing about all the time we lost to wasteful spending without a proper plan or goal.
Thank you, Anon. I also have the same thought about having started this earlier than now. I agree with what you said about focusing on the positive and starting afresh. What's the alternative, right?
DeleteGood luck on your journey. You are off to a good start and don't have a huge amount of CC!!!
ReplyDeleteHi,
ReplyDeleteI found your blog while researching costs/expenses for life in the OC - I may be moving there in the Fall - and want to thank you for the information. How is Republic Wireless working for you? I hope you find a new job soon! Keep your head up!