I’ve Paid For This Twice Already…

Archive for December 5th, 2007

I am not used to having any money that isn’t about to be spent. At all. Any.

I keep looking at the credit card balance and then my emergency savings account balance and thinking… hey, I could grab all that money from the savings account and smack down the debt with it and be almost completely done. Maybe we could scrape up some more money from somewhere and manage to have the entire thing paid off before the end of December. Start 2008 with no credit card debt! How awesome would that be?

But that is crazy talk. It is tempting, oh so tempting, but it is not in any way a good idea.

I know this. I believe it wholeheartedly. And yet I keep thinking about it.

And if it feels this tempting now, when the balance of the emergency savings fund is smaller than the balance on the credit card, how much more tempting will it be once the balance in savings exceeds the remaining credit card balance. I think very.

I know it is insanity. I know it is a bad idea. I know in my heart it is a very bad idea, for if a real emergency happens I will need that emergency fund.

But it is tempting. But foolish. And I am done being foolish with money.

I think.

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!

Today marks the launch of a brand new carnival - the Carnival of Financial Goals. Patrick at Cash Money Life started this carnival off with a iPod giveaway, which of course garnered many many posts about financial goals that ultimately became entries. I am very excited about this new carnival, and not just for the iPod, because I am in a goal-setting frame of mind lately and continually analyzing and reanalyzing our financial goals and seeing the different options we have. And that will lead to many goal-related posts in the future, I bet. My post No More Credit Card Debt was included, and I particulary enjoyed the alternative income goals (because I think a lot about the topic!) :

• Brip Blap: Earn $1000 Alternative Income per Month I hope he can do it! That would be very inspiring to me. And he has a great blog!
• Credit Withdrawal: Earn Alternative Income to Replace his Mortgage Payment What a great idea! My mortgage is going up, it is a moving target heh.

Of course, another week wouldn’t be complete without the other carnivals (and festival) I like to frequent. The Festival of Frugality made its way to Lazy Man and Money (who also authors the best sports blog ever, Lazy Man and Sports) and my post Update on Using That Turkey was included. I also enjoyed reading about someone in a similar cable/internet situation as we currently are:

• Mrs Micah: Its Cheaper For Me To Have Cable TV. It is cheaper for me too because of the package deal we have. But in a few months when the promotional package deal ends we’ll have to re-evaluate and see where our budget is at.

The Carnival of Money Stories is at first time carnival host, Loonies and Sense, and my post And Now The Spouse Gets Tested was included. This story really opened my eyes:

• Dividend Guy: The Metamorphosis From Mutual Fund Investor to Dividend Investor. I didn’t even exactly understand the difference before and now I have a whole lot to think about… later.

And finally, the Carnival of Family Life is at Imaginif and my post Raising Financially Responsible Children was included, as well as this post from my other blog, Hug Twice: No One Told Me This Stuff In Parenting School. I’ll have a review of all my other favorite posts from this carnival this weekend over at Hug Twice.

Thanks for including my posts in these awesome carnivals and if you haven’t checked them out, now s a great time to do so!

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!

When I was a teenager, I judged how well I was doing financially by the amount of change in the ashtray of my car. I don’t smoke, and I didn’t let people smoke in my car, so I used the unneeded ashtray to hold spare change. When times were good, there was an abundance of change rattling around in there. When times were lean, I raided the change to pay for everyday expenses and there was not a spare penny to be found.

As I got older, the vessels changed, but the mindset was the same. Instead of my car’s ashtray being the barometer of my financial well-being, it became my checking account. When I had a lot of money in my checking account, I felt like we were in good shape. When my account was stretched to the limit and I was anxiously monitoring every cent, things didn’t feel so good.

Now, since we started this focused debt paydown journey, assessing my financial health has become much more complex than just a single piece of our financial puzzle. In the past, I really only had one piece to monitor. But now my financial picture is much more complicated, and I am glad. Because it means my financial outlook is maturing. To be honest, I don’t really keep track day to day what my checking account balance is. I have a budget and a spending plan, I know how much has gone in and how much I have planned to come out, and as long as I stay within those parameters I let the actual money flow take care of itself. I do check every day for signs of suspicious activity, but otherwise the actual balance doesn’t exactly matter.

What I do use as my own financial barometer now is my savings accounts, our contributions to our retirement account, and our debt totals. As the savings accounts slowly rise, the retirement account is consistently contributed to, and our debt total decreases, I feel more financially healthy. And this is a much more stable and true feeling of financial health, not based on day to day variations of inflow and outflow. My mindset and outlook on my finances has matured, and it only took until my mid-thirties to accomplish that. I guess now is as good a time as ever to become a grown-up. And eventually I will be in a healthy financial place, hopefully for good.

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!