How I got interested in Personal Finance
The Digerati Life asks How did you get interested in Personal Finance?
*rolls up her sleeves*
Instead I am doing a timeline of events that kinda escalated my interest in Personal Finance out of necessity at the start, and then out of desire and overwhelming feelings of accomplishments towards the end.
Circa 2000:
My father falls off of a building and lands headfirst onto a metal beam, splitting his scalp open.
My father has a stroke.
Circa 2001:
- I decide to leave the Naval Base and move home to take care of my dad.
- August 1st: Dad is told by the doctors if he doesn’t quit work completely, he will lose his leg because of the ulcers.
- August 26th: I get hired on at the Vet at $8/hour, which is what we live on for the next 6 months while we wait for Social Security Disability to kick in. This was the first big wake-up call, realizing my father has no retirement, no pension, and absolutely no money saved up. I knew then that I would be the one supporting my father, and I needed to figure out a way to get there.
Circa 2005:
- I get my first credit card (by myself, I had one while married), to try and build up my credit with at $200 limit.
- May: I make my first attempt at buying a car after getting fed up with my bronco.
- I am unable to get approved for any loan, nor convince family members to co-sign for me to even buy a $10k car. This was the second big wake-up call. How was I going to make it if I couldn’t even buy a used car to drive back and forth to work?
- I start using Microsoft Money to track every financial transaction I make.
- I start an emergency fund
Circa 2006:
- Capital One sends me one of those “pre-approved” offers so I decide to check it out. I get approved for $14k which I use to buy my 2004 mustang.
- I get another credit card through USAA’s military program.
- I work on paying down all of my debt, which was actually quite easy.
- I sign up for ING’s high interest savings account
- I find a better paying job making 10k more a year than I was making before, doing something I love to do
Circa 2007:
- I sign up for ING’s high interest CHECKING account and eliminate BB&T completely
- I start a Roth IRA
- I start contributing to my 401k
- I start paying down my fathers debts (This -will- be completed in 2008, I can feel it!)
- Started evaluating my bills and reducing them to the lowest minimal cost possible
- I started changing how I view money. I take lunches to work, I don’t go out to eat, I don’t have food delivered, I don’t buy things I don’t need, I sell things I no longer need or that make me happy anymore.
- Started keeping track of my dads finances, helping him make small adjustments and stop getting overdraft charges.
- Started a Christmas Fund and had all the money saved up for Christmas instead of trying to scrimp and save last minute making myself miserable.
Goals 2008:
- Pay off all of my fathers debts
- Buy our home here as an investment
- Pay off my mustang by March 2009 (2 years early)
- Reach $5k in my emergency fund
- Up my contributions to my 401k and Roth IRA to 10% each.
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One Response to “How I got interested in Personal Finance”
February 27th, 2008 at 11:18 am
Wow! Amazing story. I see that you’ve had a very eventful last 7 years and this is probably the most detailed response I’ve seen to my question of “how did you get started with dealing with finance”. Thanks for sharing!