Who am I? Just as my header proclaims, I am a twenty-something girl living in Los Angeles, and I’m trying to figure out my life, one dollar at a time.
Why this blog? In truth, I am intensely disappointed by the direction that my life has taken, in all areas, but especially financially. Maybe because our finances affect us in so many ways. Cost of living is high, my income is low, and to top it off, I have large amounts of personal debt (more about that below). I work two jobs to keep up with my bills, and neither one of them is especially mentally stimulating. As corny as it sounds, this blog is my opportunity to start using my brain again, and my inspiration to actually stick to my budget (and I do have one!).
With that said, I am a first-time blogger, one of the most technologically unsavvy people that I know of. I don’t know how to link to other pages, or change the colors of my text. But I will! After all, two weeks ago I didn’t know about high-yield savings accounts (is that even what they’re called?), and now I keep my emergency fund in one at ING. So I am learning, and I hope you’ll bear with me while I do so (and maybe even help).
Where I am, financially. And now, for the scary part. But how will I ever help myself if I don’t put it all out there? So here goes…. We’ll start with
Consumer Debt: Right now, today, I owe $8122.28 in consumer debt. That’s $7196.23 to Bank of America, $362.44 to Capital One, and $563.61 to Nordstrom. I plan to pay off the two smaller balances by the end of July, and my Bank of America balance in 14 months. That’s the bad news. The good news is that I have already paid approximately $6000 in consumer debt since July 2007, so I’m getting there. I’m sure many of my future posts will be devoted to my credit/debts.
Student Loans: Today, I owe $24,620.53 in student loans. $6131.18 of this is a higher-interest private loan that I will start aggressively paying once I am free of consumer debt. The bad news is that I want to go back to school, so my student loans are more than likely going to increase in the next few months.
Parental IOU: I currently owe my parents $6720, or $240/month for the next 28 months. This is money that I borrowed from them after my first credit card debacle (I know, I had to have more than one? I didn’t learn the first time? *sigh*)
AND finally… Car Loan: I actually need to look up the remaining amount of my loan, which is in my paperwork at home. So for now I’ll just say that I’m on a 72-month repayment plan, and I purchased my car in August. Once I have repaired my credit score somewhat, I’m hoping to refinance my car loan to something with a lower interest rate and a shorter repayment term.
So that’s what I owe…. and what I have is not a lot. Quite obviously (yet still depressingly), I have a negative net worth. But I do have an emergency fund of $3000 (which, in the interest of full disclosure, I share with my boyfriend), and I have been contributing to the retirement account offered through my employer. Not a lot is in it, but it is a start. So cliche, but everyone has to start somewhere, and this is where I am.
Where I am, in life. Well, my first post is turning out to be quite a bit longer than I imagined, so I’m actually going to come back to this last part a little bit later on. No doubt I will blather on, when in reality a simple “I have no idea” would suffice. But blather on I will, so expect to hear from me soon.
THIS IS FUN!!!
[...] pretty excited because…. a new job may be on the horizon! As I’ve alluded to in my first post (and yes, I’m going to go in and edit that last part someday), I am far less than satisfied [...]