Let me introduce myself. My name is Sandy and I’m a 30 year old female. I live and work in New York and I’m in some serious debt. So 2009 rolled around and I decided that it’s time to take a real look at what I’m doing to get out of debt. I work a full time job and get home after 7pm most weekdays so getting a second job has been hard. What I’ve decided to do instead is focus on how I’m spending the money I’m making and how I can reduce what I spend without wanting to jump off the nearest bridge.
As of January 1, 2009 I owe various creditors something like $105,665.31. I don’t own a house so I can’t even make the excuse that it’s a mortgage. It’s some serious unsecured debt. So let me list out my debt to begin with. You have to know where you’re starting to know where to go right?
Student Loan #1 -$2,741.65 @4.5%
Credit Card #1 -$742.52 @13.99%
Credit Card #2 -$6,513.00 @0%
HELOC -$48,036.63 @3.875%
Student Loan #2 -$39,663.11 @3.3-7.5% (it’s a bunch of Grad School and Undergrad loans together)
Personal Loan -$1,751.80 @8.2%
Car Note -$6,216.60 @4.5%
I said that I don’t own a house but you’ll see that I have a HELOC (home equity line of credit). Long story short my parents were nice enough to fund a business for me that went bust in the great Recession in which we are currently living. I took the responsibility for the loan and I’m paying it back. Hey, I have to be responsible right?
I take home about $1,100 in pay every two weeks. I actually make a decent salary but living in NY with no house, no kids or serious deductions means I an paying taxes out of my ass. But, that’s something we all have to live with right? So here we go! Let’s see how much I can get rid of in 365 days and how I can help you guys as well.
Oh and I curse so if you’re easily offended this may not be the blog for you to follow. It’s the New Yawka in me.
try to get your income up, so it will be less of a burden
I am working on getting another income stream. It would really help. Thanks!
So, the frugal blogosphere got a list of questions from Fru Blogger asking us to share our hard learned money lessons. I’ve got some lessons for you! Below are his list of questions and my answers. I hope we learned something. 1) What’s your “frugal
Hi I am high school senior in Singapore American School.
To me, who is taking a personal finance course and has interest in it, this blog and your posts are source of people’s financial knowledge and real life stuffs. I was fascinated by the debt tracker column where u kept track of your debt since Jan 2009. I hope I get some money lessons from here.