Wake Up Call

                                             

As I said in my previous post, I thought I had been doing fine with my personal finances. I graduated in 2009 with $30,000 in student loans, and paid them off in a little less than 2 years. While I am glad to be done with them, I get so angry with myself when I realized that I had could have completely paid them off in 1 year.

I was being completely wreckless with my money. Anything I wanted I bought, charged it to my credit card, and didn't think about it again. I ordered clothes online without trying them, and when some didn't fit, I didn't bother to take them back. I ate out every night at very expensive places. I took cabs to and from work every day, etc. I could go on for pages. 

Last summer, after I paid off my student loans and credit card bills, my boyfriend took a job in the field of his dreams. It was really risky in that it involved halving his pay. It wasn't until 2 months ago that we assessed our net worth and realized that it had barely gone up in the last 6 months that I decided to take action. We started tracking our expenses and net worth fluctuations from month to month. Right now we only have 1.5 months of data but our second month is already looking better.

We still have a long ways to go though. When I thinking about the future and the things I want and how much they cost, I get dizzy and nervous. I really hope that by keeping this blog I will learn more about myself and make a plan of attack for making my future more attainable.