What has motivated you to.....
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| Sat, 12-04-2004 - 8:12am |
...begin or continue your debt repayment process?
I have noticed over the last 2 years of reading this board a lot of different reasons for folks to get started. The ones that stick out in my mind are pregnancy, the bill collectors calling, an unpleasant surprise leading to the realization things were financially bad, etc..... I've also noticed satisfaction and a feeling of accomplishment when a debt is paid off by someone who has been working at it. It inspires them to keep going and to work on the next debt to pay off.
What has motivated you to get your financial "house in order?" Was it one event? Was it realizing you had a specific goal that debt was hindering you from achieving?
-or-
What is it that keeps you working at debt elimination? What have you done to keep it a habit? Have you had some progress that you are benefitting from now that keeps you motivated?
Please share what is making you make changes to better your debt situation!
Littlesbigs

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Watching my father, who earns a six-figure salary file a Chapter 13 last year got me to start thinking that I should probably get rid of my CC debt, before it got out of control, like his did.
My mother got very ill earlier this year. My father could not afford to take care of her. She required full time nurse/caregiver. (This wasn't the reason my father filed The Chap 13) I looked at my own finances to see if I could spare something, and realized that I couldn't. I sat down and added up all of my bills per month, which was roughly 3400$ a month between rent, utilities, phone bills, car insurance, medical bills, student loan payments, and alas, the big bad CC bills. I only made about 3500$ a month, some months a little less than that. I had no room for spending money, so I'd use my CC's. Sometimes I'd go wild with my debit card or use it for food or gas, and not realize I didn't have $$ left for bills.
I was in a car accident in June (not my fault) and I needed a rental car. The other ins. company could only pay for it if I could leagally rent a car. I was only 22, and I needed to be 25. I found a company that would rent to me, for a crazy price. I would have needed 1700$ to rent a car for 3 weeks. I didn't have an emergancy fund and I had no room on my CC's and only 600$ in my checking account...thus I didn't have a car for three weeks.
All this made my realize I needed to change the way I handled my money. I put my self on a budget. At first a very strict one. I've since relaxed a little. I manged to get current on everything. I work a weekend job as well as a full time job, so I kept my tip money from the weekend for spending money for food and gas. I consolidated my student loans and now I pay less than half that what I was paying and cut the intrest dramatically. I filed a lawsuit against the creep who was responsible for my medical bills...and won...and I started snowflaking my CC debt. It went from 6000$ back in June to just under 4000$....in less than 6 months.....
I'm glad I found this board and took control of things now...rather than later...
Hopefully I'll never fall into the nasty CC cycle again....
For us, it was the thought that we could lose our marriage over the stress and turmoil of being in debt and not seeing our way out of it.
Kassandra
"It is said that life has its peaks and valleys. The challenge is to accept them equally and experience them
Our motivations include our Christian beliefs, and feeling that debt-free is a much better way for us to live even outside of those beliefs. Also, in part our motivation is wanting to teach our children to live debt-free and that includes by modeling such a lifestyle. We do have a dream of being able to afford a 20% down payment on a house in 9 years. The mortage will be covered by DH's military retirement, but we'll both still be working for at least another 30years. Being able to provide for ourselves in "senior" retirement, and not be a burden on our children...
What is keeping me going is picturing not having a huge filebox of bills and categories but a slim and pretty folder for current bills that we are able to sit and pay easily on a regular basis.
My moment of realization is a little bit different, but
I still think fits this post.
Although only having house debt of about 18% of my take home pay,
I managed to lose the 3rd best looking chic on planet earth
because her twin sister was able to convince her I was no good
if I didn't make 160k/yr.
This was my wake up call to let me know that doing good isn't
enough, doing very well isn't enough, that doing anything other
than absolutely stellar financial performance only results in
heartbreak.
That was the point I decided to go anywhere, or do anything
to make money (I don't mean dishonest mind you, I mean the danger
factor, or the unpleasant factor)
I've been chugging along in getting out of debt, initially incurred do to irresponsible college living, then marrying a spendthrift and then an eternal divorce adn life as a single parent. I was digging out spoonful by spoonful of dirt, but debt repayment has been accelerated since I got remarried as DH had no debt except for student loans and an auto loan.
We've since paid off his car and hope to have mine paid off by spring. We'll attack the old CC debt on 0% and then do the student loans.
What is motivating us to get cracking is that we want to TTC by the end of the year and want to be in a financial position where I can be a SAHM, which means no consumer/student debt. We have good financial habits as DH has pretty much always had good ones and I've mended my ways throughout the last 15 years.
And after the house gets paid off (less 14.5 more years, hopefully sooner) we can do some SERIOUS traveling!
What a FANTASTIC question!
My motivation is my daughter. I do not want her to grow up in a household where there is no money for fun because it's all going to credit cards, where we let the phone ring rather than pick it up and hear from a debt collector, and where buying things we can't pay for is considered acceptable. That's how her dad and I lived before she was born, and we want better than that for her. Thus, we must become debt-free.
Finding Dave Ramsey's rado show and books has also helped me. I now believe that we can become debt-free by sacrificing in the short-term. He and his show keep me motivated when I want to quit.
Elizabeth
Mommy to Josette (10-04-03)
Only 23 days until we're debt-free
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