To continue with my dream board goals, my goal is to become credit card debt free. While I still may have a lot of student loans to pay off, I am determined to get all of the credit card debt gone before the end of the year so I am able to pay larger amounts on my student loans!
During my college years I was working multiple jobs which needed to be very flexible with my schedule for my classes, so I would sometimes work seven days a week. Since I was pretty much making minimum wage at these jobs, it only went so far. I was paying for rent, utilities, car insurance, car payments, food, etc. This amount of money only goes so far... I was desperate so I unfortunately opened up a few credit cards to help pay for books and other supplies, but had gotten in really far over my head.
After many years of racking up the credit card debt, I was completely sick to my stomach and felt like I was falling into a dark hole I would never get out of. I never had someone preaching to me about the importance of credit cards, and how difficult they would be to pay them all off. I would only pay the minimum balance, and when you look at your statement, and you see the part where it says if you pay just the minimum balance it will take you X amount of years to pay them off, yea I never realized how bad it actually was. And to think how much money I was wasting I felt hopeless.
Finally, I was able to land my first big girls job, which allowed me to have a bit more flexibility with my money and really start focusing on getting my finances in order so I will one day be able to afford a brand new car (which I have bought already), be able to buy a brand new house (which I plan on doing rather soon) and live life comfortably without restrictions.
I set a very strict budget for myself. Although, it may have meant sacrificing certain things like new clothes, new shoes, a new purse, and going out to eat all the time; I knew that I was getting myself back on the right track. Since mid-June of 2014, I have since paid off 4 credit cards. I only have three more to go and I could not be more ecstatic. Yes, you may think this is a lot, and yes it really is, but I know I have made mistakes in my past that I am cleaning up to ensure I am able to live a happier, stress free life where I don't have to constantly worry about being burdened with financial freak outs!!
I will have another post coming up within the week going over ways I have set my budget and how it helped me pay off four credit cards in just two and a half months. Make sure you stop back! :)
Quote to live by: Obstacles don't have to stop you. If you run into a wall, don't turn around and give up. Figure out how to climb it, go through it, or work around it.
-Michael Jordan
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