My Financial Story
Get Rich Slowly is having a contest to win a Nintendo Wii. To enter you must explain your biggest financial achievement or success story, and then send him a message about it. My frugal self won’t allow me to purchase a Wii, so I rely on various contests to try and win one. No luck so far though :/
I’m still living my financial achievements, but I can talk about my path so far, as I feel it’s definitely been a growing success in my eyes.
My lowest point was not long after I had gotten married in 1998 and moved down to the Norfolk Naval base with my husband. Several years of living paycheck to paycheck, not paying bills when they were due, him spending money on video game after video game, we were thousands of dollars in debt.
I left Norfolk, left my husband, and moved home after my father had a stroke in November of 2000. He fully recovered, but in August 2002 had to quit his job or lose his leg due to the circulation problem that caused ulcers. I had just lost a job working at a Rock and Gem shop and we were both broke and now unemployed.
Talk about a wake-up call.
I got a job later that month working at a Vet for $8 an hour, but was still not getting anywhere with my finances. My fathers social security wouldn’t kick in for another 6 months, so we lived off of $8/hour until then.
Around this time, I was driving a 1978 Ford Bronco, and spending tons of money on gas and replacement parts as I’d routinely break down from the thing being so damn old. I had attempted to get a loan for a used car, but my credit score was somewhere around 525 and not going anywhere but down anytime soon. I was turned down for every car imaginable, which put my financial mindset into overdrive, because I -needed- a car to get to work.
I decided to switch jobs again, working for Terminix at a CSR for $10/hour, and applied for my very first credit card with Capital One. Granted I was only given a $200 limit, but it was a start. A few months later I got another credit card with at $2k limit with USAA through my military insurance.
A year of small purchases and a view of my credit report, finally granted me my first car loan in January of 2006, which I bought my used 2004 ford mustang with for about $14k. This started to build up my credit even more (though I don’t know what my credit score is atm, I imagine 700+, but I will find out again in March when I qualify for my free credit report again through annualcreditreport.com.)
2006 also presented a brand new job doing something that I love (web design) making more money than I’ve ever made in my life, well over 33k/year. I’ve started my 401k, a Roth IRA, I put $400/month away into savings, and will eventually put my car payments into my Roth IRA once it is paid off (hopefully by 2009). I also have an emergency fund, though I haven’t quite reached my preferred $5,000 amount in it yet.
So far in 2007 I have started keeping track of my fathers finances. Since he has no retirement and no pension, I’m sure worries about what will end up happening to him since he has absolutely no financial worth and never will. I’ve stopped him from going in the negative with his bank account every month, and for his birthday this past September, I had saved up enough to pay off one of his debts. For fathers day next year, I intend to have enough saved up by putting a little away each month to pay off his entire hospitalization bill (with the help of my sweetheart).
Soon I will have all of his debts paid off, so he can at least relax with the money that his disability gets him, and I can relax and not worry about paying off any debts for a while.
This year is also the first year I created a separate savings account in my ING account to put a little in each month for a “Christmas Fund”. Which also makes this year this first year I’ve never had to scramble around for cash for the holidays, and to make sure I have enough to give my dad money to buy his gifts with.
Honestly my biggest financial goal will be when my father owes no money, and I can support us both fully. He’s worked hard all of his life doing concrete for 40 years, and I respect him more than anyone in the world. He deserves to live the rest of his days content, and that’s what I fully intend to give him.
I suppose his lack of financial planning can be attributed to my obsessiveness with mine over the last few years. I’m 27 years old and I’m already figuring out my financial plan for my retirement. You can just never start too early, because you just don’t know when it will be too late.
Entry viewed 1,039 views times. Posted in Finance
3 Responses to “My Financial Story”
October 16th, 2007 at 6:56 pm
VERY inspirational story indeed. You’ve got to start somewhere and it is NEVER too early to start. My mom is in a similar situation, but she works, just not for very much and I’m trying to find a way to best help her with her finances too. Hopefully to be able to sustain her in the future as well! Good post!
October 17th, 2007 at 1:44 am
What an inspiring story, you deserve kudos for your love and support of your father. Not all children would act like you. I admire and respect what you are doing.
I have been quite moved by your story, I hope that Wii makes its way to you!
Karen
October 17th, 2007 at 7:00 am
Thanks for the thoughts Karen
It means a lot!