My Financial Revolution - ... To Sum Up

Whew! We've reached the end of my financial revolution story! Now you know how I got here, where I am now, and where I'm going. I'll continue the story in leaps and bounds as I share my continuing story in the months (years?) ahead, but right now I want to do a little reflecting on how I've changed and what I've learned.

I have a lot fewer fears now than I did three months ago. I no longer dread getting the mail (for fear of bills) or using my debit card (for fear of 'rejected' messages). Facing $120,000 of debt on a $45,000 salary should scare the crap out of someone, but I was going to have to face it with or without a plan, and facing it with a plan is a lot less frightening.

I find myself hoping and dreaming a lot more than I used to. Or at least a lot more specifically. I've always been goal-oriented when it came to my career, and I've spent a lot of time looking toward what the future would bring, but these dreams have always been fairly vague. Now I have a very specific vision of my future, and even though I know that not everything works out exactly the way you plan, I know that whatever happens I'll have the financial wherewithal to face it with confidence.

That brings me to the most important change: I've learned to have confidence in myself. I always approached finances with an "I Can't" attitude. It's no wonder that I never succeeded financially; you can't succeed if you don't try. Now I know how to be one step ahead instead of two steps behind, and I know that I can do what needs to be done to keep accomplishing that. It may not be easy and I may not do it as well as someone else, but I can definitely do what I need to do for me in my life.

As I move forward from here, I encourage you to keep tabs on me. Asking questions and creating conversation is a great way to motivate me to move forward and keep learning about personal finance, and I hope it does the same for you.

This post is part of my Financial Revolution Series, which is my personal financial story. Each post gives a piece of the story, detailing how I got into debt and how I turned things around.

Next Time on TVG&M: How to Create a Budget That Actually Works

Where Am I Going? – Part II: My Plan of Attack

In my crusade to pay off all of my debt, I’m combining basic strategies I’ve learned from PF blogs, Dave Ramsey, and Suze Orman into a plan that will work for my situation.

I’ve already got a small emergency fund ($400) and I’m contributing $25 a month to it indefinitely. This is a pretty small fund, but I’m very healthy, my car is in good condition, and I rent. Murphy can certainly come knocking on anyone’s door, including mine, but these things make it pretty unlikely I’ll have an emergency that my insurance and a few hundred dollars can’t solve.

My debt snowball is currently at a solid $250 a month, but I’ve been able to get it above $300 most months through alternative income.

First on the endangered debts list is the AES student loan. Of the debts with an interest rate, this one is both the smallest amount and the highest rate. It’s also the company that I despise the most because they’ve been difficult to work with in the past. I’ll be thrilled to rid myself of this one.

Next up is the US Bank credit card. This card is currently at 1.9% interest, but the rate expires in September of 2008, so I want to eliminate it before then.

After that I’ll pay off The Bank of My Friends. This is a small debt that’s technically at 0% interest because I sort of borrowed it from myself. As soon as the credit card debt is gone, I’ll knock this out with my next snowball payment.

At this point my parents’ patience will finally be paid (literally) off. They’ve been incredibly nice about the money they lent me; they aren’t charging interest and they’re letting me stop payments until the credit card is eliminated. This is the debt I’ll feel the most satisfied about paying off.

During the course of paying down the previous three debts, I’ll have been paying the minimums on my car loan and the Chase credit card, which was an eighteen-months-same-as-cash LCD TV purchase. The Chase debt will get eliminated by the time I write my last check to The Bank of Mom & Dad, and the car loan will be gone within a month or two after that.

At this point, which is about a year and a half away, my debt snowball will be at least $600 a month and the only thing left will be my two monstrous student loans. The private loan has a higher variable interest rate, so I’ll attack it first and have it gone in about three or three and a half years (five years from now).

Depending on what my job/salary situation is at that time, I’ll probably back off on the debt repayment slightly so that I can split my focus a little. I’ll use half of the snowball, which will be upwards of $1000 at this point, to pay down the federal student loan. I’ll use the other half to save a larger emergency fund, contribute to my 401(k), save for a car, and save for a down payment on a home (in that order). There’s a long road ahead before I get to that point, however, so for right now I’m taking it one step at a time.

I’m planning on being debt free except for the federal student loan in five years, and debt free except for the mortgage in twelve years. I can practically feel the weight lifting off me already, and I know it will feel even better when I actually (finally!) get there.

This post is part of my Financial Revolution Series, which is my personal financial story. Each post gives a piece of the story, detailing how I got into debt and how I turned things around.

Next Time on TVG&M: …To Sum Up

Where Am I Going? – Part I: Goals

Here are the goals I have set up for myself:

Immediate term (Present – 2008)

• Pay off AES student loan by January 2008
• Increase Emergency Fund to $1000 by March 2008
• Pay off credit cards by March 2008
• Pay off The Bank of Friends by May 2008
• Increase net worth to -$93,000 by December 2008

Short term (2009 – 2010)

• Pay off The Bank of Mom & Dad by April 2009
• Pay off car loan by October 2009
• Increase net worth to -$60,000 by December of 2010

Mid term (2011 – 2013)

• Have no high-interest, unsecured debt by December of 2012
• Includes everything except federal student loan and mortgage
• Start contributing 15% to retirement investments by January 2013
• Increase net worth to -$30,000 by December 2013

Long term (2014 – 2022)

• Increase net worth to $0 by December of 2015
• Save $30,000 for house down payment by December 2016
• Pay off federal student loan by December 2019

I’ve always been a very goal-oriented person. That trait is how I got to law school, which is how I got so far into debt, and I plan on using the same trait to pull myself back out. The goals I’ve set up are both attainable and measurable, and they have the added bonus of being things that I want very badly. The charts in the sidebar are a huge motivator for me, and I’m looking forward to watching them go to the right, pixel by pixel.

Next time on TVG&M: My Plan of Attack

Where Am I Now? – Part III: The Odd Effects of Living on a Budget and Paying Down Debt

I knew that after such a serious change in attitude and behavior, my life would be significantly different. I've been living frugally and paying down debt for about three months now, and many of the changes I expected to occur have occurred.

• I definitely feel less stressed out when I think about money
• I no longer pay late fees or a bank fees
• My total debt has decreased
  

In addition to these, there have been a few oddities, things that seem almost counter intuitive but have happened just the same.

Money
The biggest effect has been that I have more money to buy what I need/want, and I feel no guilt when I buy frivolous things. When I started all of this, I fully expected the opposite effect: that without the use of my credit cards, I'd never be able to buy stuff I wanted, and if I did, I'd feel guilty about spending the money on stuff instead of paying down debt.

In actuality, the budget has been immensely helpful in letting me see the big picture of where all of my money is going. It has enabled me to make accurate decisions about spending, with all the facts in mind, so there's no worry or guilt. I’ve stopped randomly spending money on a bunch of stuff I didn't need or even want very much, I have a lot more money for things that I do want and need.

One specific example of this was a haircut. I’m not fashion or beauty conscious in any sense of the words. I’m a jeans and t-shirt girl (if the t-shirt has a comic book character or symbol on it, all the better), I rarely wear make-up, I don’t use product in my hair, etc. I do, however, need a haircut once in a while, but since I’m not into that kind of stuff, I don’t think about it very often, and pre-financial revolution I spent so much money on crap that I never felt like I had enough money for one. Talk about priorities out of whack. When I had my financial revolution, I hadn’t had a haircut in about eight months, and I needed one pretty badly. I put it in the budget, and voila, I got a haircut. It felt very strange to go to the salon knowing that I not only had enough money, but that the money was best spent there and not anywhere else.

Mail
Another odd effect is the amount of mail I get from credit card companies. I consolidated and/or paid off my credit cards, so the number of monthly bills went from 5 to 2, but I actually get more mail from my credit card companies now. Sometimes three or four offers a day. They miss me! They want me back! They'll give me all sorts of *special limited time only* offers if I'll start spending their money again. Consequently, my shredder has been making itself very useful lately.

Health
Before my financial revolution, for some reason I equated cheap food with unhealthy food, but that's not always the case. In season produce is some of the cheapest food around, and grocery shopping in general is WAY cheaper than eating out all the time, especially if you shop the sales and don't let food go to waste in your fridge. I’ve lost a few pounds in the past few months, and I feel a lot better about myself for it.

My Mother
My mom is a math-brained person. She’s worked in the tax and/or payroll field for over twenty years, and if I had a nickel for every time I’ve whined for help from her on financial matters, I’d be a millionaire. Lately, however, she’s been asking me for advice. I helped her set up a budget and she and my dad have done very well sticking to it. We’ve also had conversations about frugality, retirement savings, investing, credit card vs debit card vs cash usage, etc. Over the years she’s often complained that my sisters and I are all art-brained people like my dad and that she feels left out sometimes, so it’s been really neat to share this stuff with her, and I think it’s brought us closer.

These few odd things are only some of the positive effects I’ve noticed as a result of my financial revolution. This whole journey has been an eye-opener for me, and I’ve been so blessed through it that I often wonder why I spent so many years thinking that finances were too difficult to understand.

This post is part of my Financial Revolution Series, which is my personal financial story. Each post gives a piece of the story, detailing how I got into debt and how I turned things around.

Next Time on TVG&M: Goals

Where Am I Now? – Part II: Nuts and Bolts

At this point, I’m doing pretty well. I’ve gotten a grip on my debt, organized a budget, and pared it down to the essentials plus a few goodies. But how do I keep track of all of this stuff? What tools do I use to save and spend?

Glad you asked. Basically I use five tools: Microsoft Excel, a checking account, a savings account, cash, and a debit card.

Microsoft Excel
The most important tool I use is a system of three Excel workbooks. The first workbook is my budget, which keeps track of my monthly income and expenses, as well as my total debt and my weekly meal plan. The second workbook keeps track of irregular spending like car maintenance, magazine subscriptions, gifts, etc. The third and final workbook is a price book, which helps me lower my grocery bill by keeping track of prices.

Checking Account
I use the same checking account I’ve had for years, and the bank has been pretty good to me overall. They don’t charge a monthly fee, and their online bill pay is easy to use. They do charge $35 overdraft fees, which I used to get dinged by a lot, but that hasn’t happened since my initial financial revolution, so it doesn’t bother me anymore. It’s not an interest bearing account so I’ll probably switch to ING’s Orange Checking in the future, but my right now credit is not good, so I’m sticking with my brick and mortar national bank.

Savings Account
I recently opened a savings account with ING Direct, which is what I use to store my emergency fund and my irregular spending accounts. All of the money is in the same account, but I use my handy Excel spreadsheet system to track how much of it is for each purpose. Right now I’m working on beefing up my emergency fund, so all of the interest goes there.

Cash
I use cash for regular daily/weekly spending. This includes groceries, gas, and personal items such as soap and shampoo. I get paid every two weeks, so each pay period I get the budgeted amount for each category in cash from the ATM. My wallet has several compartments, so each category has its own compartment. This forces me to watch my spending, because when the money is gone I have to wait until the next pay period to get more.

Debit Card
I use a debit card for irregular spending. This is the money that I’ve saved and tracked in the second Excel workbook. Whenever I spend money out of those categories, I use my debit card. At the end of the month I transfer the amount I saved for all of the categories that month from my checking to my savings, minus any money I spent out of those categories. The only time I alter this is if I buy something expensive (like a plane ticket) that costs more than the amount I saved for everything that month, in which case I would need to transfer from savings to checking to cover the difference.

And that’s it. Those five things keep me in tip top financial shape month after month. They’re so easy to use, sometimes I wonder why I didn’t start doing all of this sooner!

This post is part of my Financial Revolution Series, which is my personal financial story. Each post gives a piece of the story, detailing how I got into debt and how I turned things around.

Next time on TVG&M: The Odd Effects of Living on a Budget and Paying Down Debt

Where Am I Now? – Part I: Increasing My Income

Now that I’d decreased my outflow, I’ve started looking at ways to increase my income.

When I moved from WA to CA in July, I took only what fit in my car, so there was a lot of stuff left at my parents’ place. They’d been planning to have a garage sale anyway, and my part of the proceeds was about $500.

I also found a few things I’d brought with me that I didn’t really need or want, so I listed that stuff on eBay, Amazon, and Half. I sold a few DVDs, the seventh Harry Potter, my old camera, and a few other odds and ends, all of which has net me about $200 so far.

I’ve also got a bunch of books and CDs still at my parents’ place, which I plan on bringing back in my checked luggage at Thanksgiving so that I can sell them.

My next objective was to find a second job. I needed something where the hours wouldn’t affect my current 8-5 job, and since I’m not desperate, I also needed something that I wouldn’t completely hate, which ruled out many high turnover positions like fast food.

What I came up with was newspaper delivery. The hours are about 3-6 am, six days a week, which would give me plenty of time to get home and get ready before I had to be at my regular job at 8. It’s also done mostly alone, which is a big plus for an introvert like me, especially at the crack of dawn. I’d have to adjust my sleeping schedule to do it, as well as give up watching as much TV (or at least save it for the weekend - although with the writer's strike, there may not be much to watch anyway), but it pays $16-18 an hour so I’m sure I could do it temporarily to get a good chunk of my debt eliminated.

I’ve done some research and found a couple companies that handle delivery in my area, but since I’ll be flying home for both Thanksgiving and Christmas, and I don’t want to deal with finding someone to take my route on those days, I’ll apply for a route when I get back after Christmas. I plan on sticking it out for at least six months (more if I like it and I’m not too tired), which will net me around $7000 dollars.

Total increased income so far: $700

Increased income goal for the next year: $8000

I’ll be sure to keep you updated as I work toward that goal.

This post is part of my Financial Revolution Series, which is my personal financial story. Each post gives a piece of the story, detailing how I got into debt and how I turned things around.

Next Time on TVG&M: Nuts and Bolts

How Did I Get Here? – Part VI: The Pruning Gets Easier

While working on conquering the student loan beast, I took a look at a few other things I could do to pare down my monthly payments and make my snowball bigger.

The first thing I looked at was my credit cards. I did a balance transfer to a 0% card a couple of years ago, and although I mostly paid it down during that year, I wasn’t on a plan like I am now, so I ran up my other cards in the mean time. Needless to say, this wasn’t helpful. Still, I knew I could do that again and use my newfound financial ambition to get rid of the debt before the 0% went away.

All of that was floating around in my head when I was at the bank one day shortly after my initial financial revolution. The guy behind the counter was looking at my account and said I was pre-approved for a 0% card. I was VERY hesitant to sign up because I didn’t want to act on impulse, but I figured that 0% was 0% and it would be nice to have the card at my current bank because making payments through their online funds transfer would be really easy.

It turned out that I wasn’t really pre-approved (why the guy said that, I have no idea), and after they signed me up for the card my rate turned out to be 1.9%. With a 3% balance transfer, this wasn’t as good of a deal as I’d hoped, and I wish I had done some more research before acting, but overall it’s still a much better situation than I was in with balances on four different cards at upwards of 20% on most of them. Over the period of time before I pay these off, this saved me about an average of $13 a month.

The next thing I looked at were some of my smaller monthly bills. I took Netflix down from three-at-a-time unlimited to one-at-a-time unlimited, which saved me $8 a month. I took texting off my cell phone and removed the insurance, saving me $5 a month. I lowered my grocery allotment from $240 to $200, and have since gotten it all the way down to $140, saving me $100 a month.

One last thing I did was to shop around for car insurance. Since I’d recently moved and my current policy would be expiring soon, I needed to update my insurance anyway. I got quotes from a few different companies, but my current company was still the lowest, and because an accident I got into a few years ago was no longer on my record, my payments went from $160 to $100 a month.

Total Savings: $186 a month, and it wasn’t even that painful.

This post is part of my Financial Revolution Series, which is my personal financial story. Each post gives a piece of the story, detailing how I got into debt and how I turned things around.

Next Time on TVG&M: Increasing My Income

How Did I Get Here? – Part V: Student Loan Consolidation Is a Pain in the—yeah, that

After creating a budget and eliminating a few things from it, I ended up with a small debt snowball. Obviously the bigger I could make the snowball, the faster I could get out of debt, so I went through each item on my budget to see if I could save any more money.

The biggest monster was my student loans – the bane of my existence for the past couple of years. I had had about twelve different loans from five different companies, and it was almost impossible to keep track of them all. Some of them had nearly identical minimum payments, some of the companies had almost identical names (ACS and AES), and some of the loans would come from the same company, but at different times of the month, on separate bills, and with varying account numbers.

Before my financial revolution, the student loans were my worst nightmare. My mom and I spent hours trying to sort everything out, and I cried over the stacks and stacks of paperwork on her kitchen table more than once. We consolidated a couple years ago, but not everything got included, and I accrued more loans later, so things were still a mess.

After my financial revolution, I felt more of an attack mentality, and I was determined to not only save money, but to understand my loans and simplify things once and for all.

The combined total of the minimum payments was roughly $950 – almost twice my rent—and the amount was going to go up as more grace periods ended in the near future. Although I wanted to save money in the short term by lowering my monthly payment, the last thing I wanted to do was pay more money in the long run, so forbearance and deferment weren’t options. Instead, I looked into consolidation.

The federal loans were fairly easy. Everything was done over the computer, and I ended up with a 5.65% interest rate on a 25 year loan. The interest rate was about the same as the averages of the rates on my previously unconsolidated loans, but the longer term made the monthly payment lower. If I make only the minimum payments, I’ll pay more interest in the long run, but I’ll most likely make extra payments in the future to lessen the effects.

The private loans were more of a challenge. I researched rate quotes from a couple companies, and armed with that information, I called Sallie Mae.

I got a bit of a run around from the first person I talked to. He wouldn’t give me an interest rate quote and said that I’d have to go through the entire application process to find out what my rate would be.

I asked for a supervisor, who gave me the same story until I mentioned the quote I’d gotten from another company. Suddenly, she was all about the numbers. She gave me the exact rates for each credit level of the borrower and co-borrower, the best of which was 8.75%. I knew my parents’ (the co-signers) credit was good, and I figured we would qualify for that lowest rate.

When the paperwork was all said and done, the rate was 8.25% – half a percent lower than what she’d quoted. Fabulous!

The rate on the private loans is variable, but only based on the index – Sallie Mae’s margin is fixed. Also, if the rate adjusts, they prorate the amount so your payment only adjusts once a year, which makes it a lot easier to budget. It’s not ideal, but it’s light years better than before, and I plan to be rid of it in six years or less.

The whole process is slower than a ten year itch, so dispersal seemed to take forever, but the last piece of the puzzle fell into place on Wednesday when ACS received and processed Sallie Mae’s payment.

Both ACS and AES had accrued interest during the application process and dispersal period, so there was still a bit left on each loan. ACS had about $16 left so I sent the payment on Wednesday and I’m DONE with that one. AES was $1,008.80, so that’s at the top of the debt snowball now and should be done by January – I’ve already paid it down to $817.89.

The whole thing was a HUGE headache, but lowering my monthly payment by almost $300 and reducing my budget by ten lines was definitely worth it.

This post is part of my Financial Revolution Series, which is my personal financial story. Each post gives a piece of the story, detailing how I got into debt and how I turned things around.

Next time on TVG&M: The Pruning Gets Easier

How Did I Get Here? – Part IV: Making Choices and Cutting the Crap

The most important part of making a budget was to look at my cash flow, see the big picture, and then choose the things that were most important to me.

Once I’d created the initial spreadsheet with all of my incoming and outgoing money, I took a look at what I needed and what I wanted, and then I snipped away at the list, until I felt comfortable with balance between the amount I could allocate to debt repayment and the amount I spent on wants. Basically I cut out all the crap that didn’t make me that happy anyway, and kept the things that were really important to me.

I did keep a few things that some people might consider frivolous and unnecessary, but I got rid of a lot too, and those few unnecessary things I kept are what will keep me sane in the next few years.

Some things I gave up:

• Acrylic nails
• Pedicures
• Eating out
• DVD on TV sets (mostly – I’ll probably still buy one once in a while)
• Extended cable
• Comic books
• Subscription to Everyday with Rachael Ray
• Subscription to Cosmopolitan
  

Some things I kept:

• TiVo
• Basic cable
• Netflix
• Subscription to Entertainment Weekly
• Subscription to TV Guide
• Plane tickets to visit my family
  

I keep myself in check by only buying what I planned to buy in my spreadsheet. Even if my needs/wants change in the middle of the month (and they often do), I put the expense into my spreadsheet before a penny goes anywhere.

I also use specific enough categories so that there’s no mistaking what the money is for, i.e. I don’t use a miscellaneous category because I feel like that hides what the money really bought. A latte is a latte, and those little “miscellaneous” things add up.

Using this system gives me peace of mind about what I spend my money. I never have to feel guilty about spending it, and I enjoy my purchases more because I know that money doesn’t need to be spent anywhere else.

This post is part of my Financial Revolution Series, which is my personal financial story. Each post gives a piece of the story, detailing how I got into debt and how I turned things around.

Next Time on TVG&M: TV Girl's Mexican Rice Dish

How Did I Get Here? – Part III: Budgeting Is Not a Four Letter Word

The next step in my financial revolution was to set up an Excel spreadsheet system to track all of my money.

For me, budgeting has always been a four letter word. My mom has tried to teach me to budget on numerous occasions, but I never stuck with it for more than a month or two. After reading countless pieces of advice on how to create a budget, I discovered why: Budgeting is not about bills.

She’d always tell me to add up my monthly bills, subtract that from my monthly income, and the rest was basically one giant miscellaneous category.

There were so many problems with this approach. First of all, miscellaneous isn’t a real, tangible thing. The miscellaneous money wasn’t allocated to anything specific. How was I supposed to know how much to spend on TV on DVD sets and how much to spend on food?

Second, there are many other things in life besides bills, and not all of them are monthly. This system didn’t take irregular expenses like car registration and gifts into account.

Luckily my mother is no longer my only source of financial advice. (I’ve actually been giving her a lot of advice lately.) There’s a whole internet out there with tons of different tips and tricks for creating a budget that actually represents my real life. The one that made the most sense to me was The Zero Based Budget, so that’s what I use.

Every month I start a new tab in my spreadsheet. On the top I list my income, and below that I list my expenses (with no miscellaneous category in sight). With the magic of a few formulas, Excel tells me that I’ve spent all my money when the total at the bottom is zero.

This post is part of my Financial Revolution Series, which is my personal financial story. Each post gives a piece of the story, detailing how I got into debt and how I turned things around.

Next time on TVG&M: Making Choices and Cutting the Crap

How Did I Get Here? – Part II: The Back Story

So, now that you know what my damage is, I bet you’re wondering where all that money went. Believe me, so was I. I certainly didn’t feel like I’d spend over $100,000 more than I’d made in my lifetime, but as I looked at each entry on the list, I knew it was true.

About $10k of the student loans are from undergrad, $40k are from the one semester I spent in law school, about $48k is from my subsequent technical degree for the field I’m currently in, and the remaining $1k-ish is capitalized interest.

The loan from my parents is from the period after I dropped out of law school when I was only sporadically employed for about seven months. They gave me money to pay rent, buy groceries, etc. for much of that time.

The loan from my friends is actually money that belongs to a committee we’re on. I’m responsible for keeping up our web space, so I received a check to pay for it after we had a fundraiser. The money is supposed to be sitting in the bank, waiting till we need to renew our subscription, but I (stupidly) used it to pay down a credit card a couple years ago and I haven’t put it back yet.

I bought a brand new car with no money down about four years ago.

The credit cards are a result of many things, but there were three main causes.

• A pyramid scheme that ate $1,000 during my period of sporadic employment after law school
• My period of sporadic employment after law school
• Spending too much on eating out, DVDs, acrylic nails, etc.

I used credit cards exclusively and always planned to pay it off at the end of the month, but because of the scheme, the unemployment, and the over spending, the bills were perpetually too high to pay off, and they gradually got higher and higher. To make matters worse, I never really noticed that they were steadily rising.

I hope this post doesn’t make me sound too stupid. I’ve done some really boneheaded things when it comes to finances, but I’m on a new course now.

This post is part of my Financial Revolution Series, which is my personal financial story. Each post gives a piece of the story, detailing how I got into debt and how I turned things around.

Next time on TVG&M: Budgeting Is Not a Four Letter Word

How Did I Get Here? – Part I: My Financial Revolution

I started what I call my “financial revolution” this past August when I read an article on MSN Money (I couldn't find the same one I read then, but this one is similar) about how most Americans don’t know the cold hard numbers for how much debt they are really in. I certainly didn’t know, so I did some crunching and discovered the number was $118,364.75.

All I could think was: Holy crap. That’s not good.

To add insult to injury, I later discovered that I hadn’t included one of my student loans, and the actual number was $120,067.02.

Here’s how it broke down:

Debt	Amount	Interest Rate
Private Student Loans	$57,813.90	9.25 – 14.75%
Federal Student Loans	$41,284.97	5.125 – 6.62%
The Bank of Mom & Dad	$7,610.24	0%
The Bank of My Friends	$526.27	0%
Car Loan	$6,366.75	5.99%
Credit Cards	$6,464.89	0 – 28.15%
Total	$120,067.02

Looking at that number, I felt a lot like Marty in Back to the Future III. I was staring down Mad Dog Tannon, trying to figure some way of the situation that wouldn’t get anyone killed.

Luckily, the article I’d read also had some helpful tips for reducing debt and taking control of your finances, as well as stories about people who had been successful. The Women in Red were especially inspiring to me.

From there, I found links to more articles, with more tips, and my PF obsession was born. I read everything I could find on paying down debt, saving money, being frugal, and living within your means. The more I read, the more I learned, and the more I wanted to know. I felt like the light bulb had just gone on in my head, and money suddenly made sense to me.

Stay tuned. In my next few posts, I’ll continue the story of how I got into debt, and how I plan to get out of it.

This post is the first part of my Financial Revolution Series, which is my personal financial story. Each post gives a piece of the story, detailing how I got into debt and how I turned things around. Read the whole story:
How Did I Get Here? - Part II: The Back Story
How Did I Get Here? - Part III: Budgeting Is Not a Four Letter Word
How Did I Get Here? - Part IV: Making Choices and Cutting the Crap
How Did I Get Here? - Part V: Student Loan Consolidation Is a Pain in the - yeah, that
How Did I Get Here? - Part VI: The Pruning Gets Easier
Where Am I Now? - Part I: Increasing My Income
Where Am I Now? - Part II: Nuts and Bolts

Next time on TV Girl & Money: The Back Story