One Caveman’s Financial Journey

Since I had Friday off as a sick day to finish recovering from my procedure, we took the opportunity to get some errands run around town. In between trips to Lowe’s for yet more supplies for the basement and a stock-up trip to the grocery store, we stopped by our credit union to take care of some business. Having just been paid and having plenty of snowflake money saved up that we needed to apply to some debt, we decided to take the plunge and pay off the last of our car loan. I knew we were close to the pay-off amount, so it only made sense to go ahead and pull the trigger.

As we stood in line and waited for a cashier to free up, a wave of excitement washed over me. This is a loan we got into because we were desperate for a new vehicle to replace an old, dying car. We didn’t shop around enough and we didn’t work hard enough to secure the best deal, so the frustration of a minor failure has shadowed this loan from the day we opened it.

I stood there with my restless daughter in my arms and my wife ready to write out that final check and I was feeling a rush because this poorly-executed decision was almost behind us. We learned a great deal and we paid our dues and we’ll not make the same mistakes again - and now the slate was almost washed clean. In mere moments, the car would be completely ours and the loan would be gone almost a year ahead of schedule.

Finally, a cashier motioned us forward and we explained to her that we intended to pay off our loan. She nonchalantly typed in our information and read our closing balance to us: $738. With a quick sweep of my wife’s pen, our debt was gone. Nothing more than another zero in a database somewhere and one less payment holding us hostage. For a moment, there was a quick breath of freedom and it smelled nice. And, boy, that smell was addicting because all I can think about now is paying off the next debt as soon as reasonably possible.

In a year of chronicling our financial journey, I have often written of the debt snowball and now we finally have the opportunity to implement it ourselves. The $300/month we had allocated to paying for this car will go toward paying off the short-term loan my parents have floated us to help us finish our basement and toward driving down the 8.375% home equity loan that we took out to secure the mortgage we needed to purchase this house. With the extra income I’ve been making and the snowflake money we’ve been accumulating, it shouldn’t be too long before we’re nearing another pay-off day and another rush of joy.

If you are working toward debt freedom, keep at it because the feeling of reaching the finish line is something everyone deserves to feel. I don’t think I can adequately describe it in words; it’s something you have to experience for yourself. And once you do, it’ll take you over and soon you’ll be addicted to debt elimination. And there’s certainly worse things to be addicted to! Good luck. It is so worth it!

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Featured in the Carnival of Debt Reduction #166.

Yesterday was interesting to say the least.  I obviously don’t remember anything about my procedure or much right after, but my sore throat tells me they were there.  I won’t have a final diagnosis for a week or so.  I have a feeling this won’t be my only procedure considering the similarity between my issues and my father’s.

Today, I’m taking the day off of work to continue my recovery.  I’m not sore, but I’m still fairly tired.  While I take today and this weekend to finish my recovery, enjoy some of these articles that I found this week.

• Put Your Savings on Steroids with Certificates of Deposit
• A Way To Control Spending: The Envelope System
• The Myth of Self Discipline
• The SAHM Salary
• Spending and Saving Questions are Answered by Our Budget
• 11 Sure-Fire Ways to Save on Shipping
• When life hands you leftovers, make ‘garbage soup’
• CD Ladder Explained
• Do Not Wait Until January 1st To Make Your Financial Resolutions
• Living Frugal With Other People’s Money

Have a great weekend!

I’ll spare you the gory details, but last night was a draining experience. From 4-o’clock on, I was prepping for my first colonoscopy. Today, they’ll be going in and taking a look around the place and making sure everything is where it’s supposed to be and nothing where it’s not. Because of my direct family history of Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis, this procedure is something I actually should have done years ago, but my fear prevented me from taking action.

But cleaning out my system made me think about everything that I’ve put in it in my lifetime. All of the abuse I’ve put it through, all the overeating, all the unhealthy food choices – everything came to mind as I was trapped in the bathroom. And then the realization came to me: Now is the perfect opportunity to start over and begin treating my body better.

Opportunities to start over come in many forms. It could be New Year’s Day, a medical procedure, the birth of a new child, losing a job or starting a new one, or just about any other major life change.  Whether you need to change your finances, your diet, or some other important aspect of your life; the key is to take advantage of the opportunity.

Choose Your Changes

I decided in March that I wanted get my weight back down to what it was in high school (around 160lbs). To achieve this, I needed to change my diet and my exercise habits. If you want to get your finances in order, you may need to create a budget, start spending less, and begin paying off debt.

Find Your Opportunity

My catalyzing moment was my 28th birthday. I realized I had wasted a decade of my life by making poor diet and exercise choices. Since heart and diabetes problems run in my family, weight and cholesterol are issues that I need to keep in mind. If you’re changing your financial health, your driving moment could be a pocketbook-busting credit card statement, an unexpected overdraft statement, or something as simple as your next paycheck.

Take the Leap

Deciding on changes and having an opportunity come up means nothing if you don’t actually implement those changes. When I chose to start losing weight, I made changes right away to add exercise and start eating better. In the last few months, my progress stalled out, so I’m taking the leap all over again now that I’ve cleaned out my system. To help your financial situation, you can start by making a budget right away and then tracking your spending against it.

Good Luck!

Starting over can be a painful experience, but it’s important to recognize the need for change when things are headed in the wrong direction. Begin today by deciding what changes you need to make and then figure out how and when you want to start working toward them. Good luck on the changes you want to make and keep me in mind today while I’m undergoing my procedure.

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This article is featured in The Struwwelpeter Edition of the Carnival of Personal Finance.

This mini-rant was spurred on by a comment left at Blueprint for Financial Prosperity…

For the last 20 months, we’ve been inundated with political messages attacking and supporting the candidates for President offered up by one of the two major political parties.  All the news coverage has led us to believe that we’re going out today to decide who will be the next President of the United States.  And, because of that, some people in strongly red or blue states are staying home because they believe their vote won’t matter.  While they may be correct that their single vote won’t change the outcome of the Presidental election for their state, there are many state and local-level issues on these ballots as well.

For instance, in the state of Illinois there is an issue on the ballot asking whether the voters think we should call a Constitution Convention to revisit and revise our state’s constitution for the first time in 38 years.  If an Illinois voter stayed home because he was sure Obama would carry the state, he would have missed the opportunity to vote on this very important issue that has the potential to dramatically affect every individual and company in Illinois. That is just one illustration out of hundreds of potential state and local-level issues that will also be decided today.

I have seen local-level issues in the past decided by a single vote. Out of a district of thousands of potential voters, only 83 voted on the specific issue - and it ended up raising everyone’s taxes!  So if you think your vote doesn’t matter, that you’re just one vote out of millions, suddenly that one vote is more important when it’s out of hundreds or even tens.

So please, go out and vote today if you’re registered.  Your vote certainly does matter.  Don’t let someone else take control over your life just because you couldn’t be bothered to stand and wait in a line for a little while.