New beginnings
In December, I turned 39.
39.
I have less than a year now before I turn 40, which is shocking to me. I don't look 39. I don't feel 39. But I guess if you do the math, here we are.
Leading up to my birthday I was thinking about the way life has been going. I can't complain too much.
I have an awesome boyfriend and we moved in together this summer. We'll have our four-year anniversary soon. Smart, kind, hot... We take nerdy vacations where we spend all day walking around looking at museums and battlefields and historic homes. He's my best friend.
I have a great job that I'm really enjoying. I'm a high school librarian and this is a kind of second career for me. After 15 years in special education, I made the switch. It wasn't the smoothest of transitions at first but I think I've found my place finally and I'm having a great time.
I love my family. We don't live near each other but I get to see them a few times a year.
I have two cats. They rock. :) They're not actually brothers but they get along so well that I walk in on them snuggling with each other every day. We got pretty lucky that they love each other so much.
And financially, we're doing fine. Better than fine. I do have some debt (more on that later) but I make enough to cover the bills and have some left over. It's not a constant source of stress like it used to be (more on that later too), which feels like luxury compared with what I hear from some other people.
So I'm very lucky.
There are some things I need to work on, though, if I'm going to be in a better place by the time I'm 40. Off the top of my head, I really would like...
More reading, less social media
More organization, less clutter
More water, less coffee
More gym time, less procrastination
More nutrition, less junk
More mindfulness, less waste
More abundance, less debt
The two biggest areas right now that I need to work on are health/fitness, and debt. Right now I'd rather talk about the money!
In August of 2016, I left a job that I'd only been at for a year. It wasn't a bad school but for a few reasons it just wasn't for me. I did have a new job lined up, but what I failed to plan for was a gap in pay between the old one and the new one. I missed one pay period and as a result, I had nothing. I had to call my dad and borrow $500. Seriously. I had to call the companies I owed money to and explain the situation and ask for extensions. I learned that Geico was understanding since I was a good customer in the past and they pushed my due date back as far as possible, then told me how long I could really go before they cancelled my car insurance. I learned that Wells Fargo will let you skip two car payments over the life of the loan for $25 each. They really just put them on the back end of the term of the loan, but it was much appreciated. I learned that my mortgage company really didn't care. I learned that Capital One's people are nice but basically yeah, they'll ding your credit report.
I made a promise to myself that once I started getting paid, I would find a way to never be in this position again. I remembered from two schools ago, a friend was teaching a curriculum by a guy who preached about how debt is bad, debt is stupid, you need to get out of debt. He had a whole plan, too. I wondered if he was still around. I texted my friend who got back to me and said yes, the man's name was Dave Ramsey, and he's still as active as ever. I am a podcast junkie, so I subscribed to his podcast (he puts out three hours every day), made an account on Everydollar.com, and started inputting my information.
When I think about how much money and stress I've wasted over the years just because I was disorganized, I'm really mortified. I would always make sure I had enough cash to pay the bills that came in, but I wouldn't have a plan for the rest of it, and somehow it would vaporize before the next check came in and then I would freak out if I had a car repair or something. This is going to sound like a commercial for everydollar, but honestly, it changed my life. I paid of $13,000 within about 6 months using that and the debt snowball. I did fall off that wagon last year because we moved and I had to rent out my condo in order to do it, and I had to make repairs to the condo before that. So a new dryer and new flooring and new baseboard heater casings (I INSTALLED THOSE MYSELF!) and then a handyman to do all the things I couldn't do myself... it all added up. But I'm back on the wagon now. Since starting with Dave Ramsey last year, I've paid off my dad (he was the first person I paid, with my first check), plus Kohl's, Loft, Home Depot, my undergrad loan with Mohela, Care Credit (vet bill!) and one Capital One card. I am left with another Capital One, plus my car loan and my grad school loan. Unless something crazy happens I won't have this paid off by the time I'm 40 but it could happen before I'm 41, if I'm careful. And then it's on to building up some savings and then retirement. If you want to learn more about Dave Ramsey you can look at his website. All the steps are laid out there, for free. Or you could read The Total Money Makeover, which is the least boring money book I've ever read.
That's all for this morning... must get ready for work.
Something to be thankful for: our apartment has been so damn cold for the last week, and we were chalking it up to being so damn cold outside. Like, single digits for several days in a row. I finally texted the landlord to tell him it was 57 degrees in here and he suggested changing the filter in the air handler. $14 later, we have heat, glorious heat. It's also 20 degrees now outside, which sounds frigid but compared with the 3 degrees it was at this time yesterday, it's a blessing. This coming week will finally be warmer.
39.
I have less than a year now before I turn 40, which is shocking to me. I don't look 39. I don't feel 39. But I guess if you do the math, here we are.
Leading up to my birthday I was thinking about the way life has been going. I can't complain too much.
I have an awesome boyfriend and we moved in together this summer. We'll have our four-year anniversary soon. Smart, kind, hot... We take nerdy vacations where we spend all day walking around looking at museums and battlefields and historic homes. He's my best friend.
I have a great job that I'm really enjoying. I'm a high school librarian and this is a kind of second career for me. After 15 years in special education, I made the switch. It wasn't the smoothest of transitions at first but I think I've found my place finally and I'm having a great time.
I love my family. We don't live near each other but I get to see them a few times a year.
I have two cats. They rock. :) They're not actually brothers but they get along so well that I walk in on them snuggling with each other every day. We got pretty lucky that they love each other so much.
And financially, we're doing fine. Better than fine. I do have some debt (more on that later) but I make enough to cover the bills and have some left over. It's not a constant source of stress like it used to be (more on that later too), which feels like luxury compared with what I hear from some other people.
So I'm very lucky.
There are some things I need to work on, though, if I'm going to be in a better place by the time I'm 40. Off the top of my head, I really would like...
More reading, less social media
More organization, less clutter
More water, less coffee
More gym time, less procrastination
More nutrition, less junk
More mindfulness, less waste
More abundance, less debt
The two biggest areas right now that I need to work on are health/fitness, and debt. Right now I'd rather talk about the money!
In August of 2016, I left a job that I'd only been at for a year. It wasn't a bad school but for a few reasons it just wasn't for me. I did have a new job lined up, but what I failed to plan for was a gap in pay between the old one and the new one. I missed one pay period and as a result, I had nothing. I had to call my dad and borrow $500. Seriously. I had to call the companies I owed money to and explain the situation and ask for extensions. I learned that Geico was understanding since I was a good customer in the past and they pushed my due date back as far as possible, then told me how long I could really go before they cancelled my car insurance. I learned that Wells Fargo will let you skip two car payments over the life of the loan for $25 each. They really just put them on the back end of the term of the loan, but it was much appreciated. I learned that my mortgage company really didn't care. I learned that Capital One's people are nice but basically yeah, they'll ding your credit report.
I made a promise to myself that once I started getting paid, I would find a way to never be in this position again. I remembered from two schools ago, a friend was teaching a curriculum by a guy who preached about how debt is bad, debt is stupid, you need to get out of debt. He had a whole plan, too. I wondered if he was still around. I texted my friend who got back to me and said yes, the man's name was Dave Ramsey, and he's still as active as ever. I am a podcast junkie, so I subscribed to his podcast (he puts out three hours every day), made an account on Everydollar.com, and started inputting my information.
When I think about how much money and stress I've wasted over the years just because I was disorganized, I'm really mortified. I would always make sure I had enough cash to pay the bills that came in, but I wouldn't have a plan for the rest of it, and somehow it would vaporize before the next check came in and then I would freak out if I had a car repair or something. This is going to sound like a commercial for everydollar, but honestly, it changed my life. I paid of $13,000 within about 6 months using that and the debt snowball. I did fall off that wagon last year because we moved and I had to rent out my condo in order to do it, and I had to make repairs to the condo before that. So a new dryer and new flooring and new baseboard heater casings (I INSTALLED THOSE MYSELF!) and then a handyman to do all the things I couldn't do myself... it all added up. But I'm back on the wagon now. Since starting with Dave Ramsey last year, I've paid off my dad (he was the first person I paid, with my first check), plus Kohl's, Loft, Home Depot, my undergrad loan with Mohela, Care Credit (vet bill!) and one Capital One card. I am left with another Capital One, plus my car loan and my grad school loan. Unless something crazy happens I won't have this paid off by the time I'm 40 but it could happen before I'm 41, if I'm careful. And then it's on to building up some savings and then retirement. If you want to learn more about Dave Ramsey you can look at his website. All the steps are laid out there, for free. Or you could read The Total Money Makeover, which is the least boring money book I've ever read.
That's all for this morning... must get ready for work.
Something to be thankful for: our apartment has been so damn cold for the last week, and we were chalking it up to being so damn cold outside. Like, single digits for several days in a row. I finally texted the landlord to tell him it was 57 degrees in here and he suggested changing the filter in the air handler. $14 later, we have heat, glorious heat. It's also 20 degrees now outside, which sounds frigid but compared with the 3 degrees it was at this time yesterday, it's a blessing. This coming week will finally be warmer.
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