Personal Finance-The Bane Of My Existance!

Financial responsibility has always aluded me! I know there are people living within their means, budgeting, saving just as I know there are people in credit card debt up to their eyeballs! I am somewhere in the middle of that, living paycheck to paycheck, dipping one toe in the debt free pool only to drag myself out of the water...yet again!

The depths of my financial irresponsibility are embarassing! I got my first department store credit card at age 16 after lying about my McDonalds salary on the application. Despite my Mother's warnings to the contrary and her attempts to confiscate the card, I had the sucker charged to the limit in about a week! That began my race to stay one step ahead of the creditors, eviction and debutors prison! They always manage to find you! I have 401k withdrawls, late card payments and overdraft charges that equaled close to a third of my take home! I have had cards cancelled and bank accounts closed. I have even changed phone numbers to stop the collection calls to no avail.

I reached a new low when several years ago I dabbled in the evil world of payday loans! It sounded good on paper: give them a check to hold in the amt of the loan and they will deposit it on your next payday. A check for the loan amt and something like 300% interest. Well....one of those quickly turned into 5 different ones each week and I soon was paying the interest and renewing them because I couldn't pay them off! They quickly added to a combined $1500 in loan amount alone! This self-induced insanity came to a screeching halt when I got frustrated trying to keep on top of them and just gave up and let them default. Most of them, it pains me now to say, just gave up trying to collect and I haven't seen or heard from them. However,one money hungry dude took me to small claims and of course, won! This $300 payday loan turned into $1700 after legal fees, interest and fines! It also earned a spot on the bad side of my credit report for 7 years! Oh joy!

The reason this has all come to mind and subsequently to the blog today is that due to an accounting error (a fancy way to say I forgot my vitamins would be debuted out of my account this week) I am overdrafted to the tune of $35 in fees! I am soo pissed! I had JUST told my roommate that although I have $5 in my account, at least it isn't overdrafted. Then I checked my online banking......ARRRRGH!! I can't belive I did this! This is why I HATE auto withdrawls out of my account! Send me a dang bill so I remember to deduct the freakin amount!!

The positive spin is in the reason I am pissed. It is because I have become a more responsible person with my money in the last year. I used my severance package to finally get out of that cycle of overdrafting my account and being $300 in the hole before I even get to payday! I paid off my cards (charged them up since but Suze Orman says that is ok in this economy) and decided that at least making an attempt to be financially secure felt better than a new pair of shoes. I make at least the minimum payments on the cards and my checking account is in the red more often than it's not! What a concept!

As with any self-improvement project, this one is a work in progress! I have a goal to be debt free and have money in savings by the end of the year! This time I plan to stay that way!