Frustration leads to… more frustration.

It has been over a month since I have updated my page here. The reason is pretty simple. Since I have embarked on my journey to personal financial freedom, I have hit a lot of bumps along the way. I have had some health issues, a pet emergency, and some things stolen from my car (huge bummer). So my level of frustration has taken me out of the zone of writing about what I have been going through.

Today I hit a milestone, however. I logged in to freecreditscore.com to see how my stats were doing, and, to my ultimate surprise, my credit score has jumped up some points all the way to 591! That means in the past 3 months, my credit score has moved 20 points upward! It’s still not great, but man, am I getting there!

Regardless, all I have been doing is exactly what I set out to do. I have been constantly paying my bills, updating my budget, and taking care of things that were in the negative (since I was unemployed for a year). It feels great to be paying these balances down (though I still have a long way to go) instead of going the bankruptcy route. That was never in my mind (even though it was suggested that I do so). I finally feel that all of this hard work is paying off.

I have since updated my balances over at my debt page, so you can see how much more I have left to go. I have taken care of quite a bit these past few months, but I still have miles (upon miles) to go. Happy Friday!

Payment Report – October 28

Another paycheck, another dollar. But with this paycheck, I actually get some debt-punching completed. Here is how I handled it this week:

Credit Score Update

So it’s been about a month since I have really begun this quest to rid myself of debt. 

Collections Bill from the Past…

Just when I finally get into a groove of getting my financial life in order, I hit yet another snag. What is it this time? 

Payment Report – October 17

Today is a glorious payday and I have bills to pay. Here is how I spent my paycheck this week.

Things I’ve Learned Thus Far…

Since I began my journey to cleanse myself of debt, there are a lot of things I have learned. As most people probably know, this is a challenging journey. It definitely hasn’t been easy. Some pay periods have gone by without a hitch, while others were tough to survive. What do I mean by that?

Help Me Find Something to Read!

I have spend weeks searching for blogs about anything money related – budgeting, finance, investing, retirements, etc. – and have had the worst luck finding blogs to read that don’t involve selling a product, class, or something along those lines. So, can some of you point me in the right direction? 

Putting an End to the Cycle of Debt

The one good thing about all of this awful debt is that I longer have credit cards. This is a good thing, I suppose, but while I should be shocked to think that credit card companies would let people dig themselves into a grave, I understand their whoring nature. They want money and profits. So why shouldn’t they get it?

Paying the Minimum Balance is for Suckers…

You will never get anywhere if you simply pay the amount due each month. It will even show you how long it will take to payoff and what the total amount you will pay if you only pay the minimum amount due each month on every bill.

How To Save When You’re Drowning in Debt

This has been the worst part of my journey thus far. I am 30 years-old and have no savings whatsoever. I have some retirement started (about $7000 worth) but no savings in case something unforeseen happens in my life or I need to buy something. I have never been in the position to put money aside, because I was always scrambling to pay bills my whole life.