Patrick at Cash Money Life is hosting the first ever Carnival of Financial Goals. He is giving away an iPod for blogging about SMART Goals for 2008. You can read all about the giveaway on his site.
Reflecting on Financial Progress of 2007
A year ago I felt hopeless. Full time student, half time intern with no car, not enough money to pay rent much less to buy food. Putting prescriptions on credit because I had no health insurance. Sold my holiday gift cards to make minimum payments to 9 different accounts that had long since decided to jack up my interest rates to 28% or more and refused to budge.
Since then I have gotten my degree and a full time position at a company I love. A loan through wonderful people at Prosper allowed me to make my highest interest debt my lowest plus reduce the number of open accounts. I now have only 4 cards carrying balances and I've worked hard to lower the interest rate on each.
Despite all of this, even a month ago I would have said that this goal was impossible. I was already being very frugal and focused, not to mention stretching my paycheck to the limit. At that rate I would have been debt free around June 2010!
Then last month I set some very specific goals: I asked for a 10% raise and I challenged myself to make $744 income outside of my job to help cover unbudgeted expenses and speed up the repayment process. Not only did I meet both of these goals, I got more than I bargained for... I got a 15% raise and brought in over $775 additional income! I am truly inspired to be ambitious for 2008.
Setting SMART Goals for 2008
I am going to pay off my $16,884.28 debt by putting $1400 per month towards it. This is going to require me to make several small cuts in my budget and to bring in no less than $300 additional income each month. I can make this by tutoring at least 1 hour each weekday night. I will continue to sell unused items online and work hard at my day job to earn bonuses. By sticking with the monthly challenge of $400 AND staying within my budget I can do this. Next year I will be free of credit card debt!
Thank you to everyone that has given me support. Please come back and check on my monthly progress it helps me to feel accountable :)
Read more about my 2007 Progress:
- Creative ways to spend $2700 (My Finance Charges for 2007)
- Score Watch Alert (Your FICO Score Has Gone Up)
3 Comments:
That is so awesome that you were able to increase your income by so much. Congratulations!
For most people, cutting $750 a month would be difficult. But making an extra $750 a month can be done, as you have just proved.
Thanks, Ryan. You know, the thing about this is... I didn't think I'd be able to do it. Making more money is difficult, but not impossible.
I'm ready to continue pushing myself until I'm out. I'm sick of being taken advantage of. I'm sick of paying other people for my mistakes. I can work my *** off for one more year. Me vs. Debt. Its on!
You've come a long way in a year! Congratulations on your successes, and good luck meeting your goals next year! :)
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