Debt Progress Like Woah

Woah. All I can say is woah. Since June of 2014, just 16 months ago, I have paid off almost $27,000. Thats 27 THOUSAND dollars. Is that right? Yes, this is true. I just did the math. I'm so proud of myself and excited at my progress. I can finally see the light at the end of the tunnel.

This past weekend I made a final payment on my 3rd student loan and what remains is this little guy below. This little guy that isn't so little, a mere $20k, will be my final debt. Instead of concentrating on the large amount, i'll be taking it one step at a time month by month.

Liabilities	Min Payment	Balance	Interest Rate
Student Loan 1	$227.05	$20,879	2.36% / 6.8%
	227.05	$20,879

I am so excited to be getting these debts out of my life once and for all. And the thought of instead of $1,600+ every month going out the window to paying off debt, will instead land in my savings account and allow me to live a completely different life is such a motivator. I will be able to go after goals that I have placed on the back burner because of this dead weight debt. What a great feeling to have on a Monday! Have a great week!

How is your debt payoff going? Do you have a plan in place? Follow me on Twitter @financegirl 

If I Can Get Out of Debt, So Can You!

Roughly $6,000 later...I'm down to my last 2.. let me repeat that. TWO of Six remaining debts. 

Today, I made my last payment of $184 to student loan #3 and closed the door to that bad decision, never to relive the mistake of taking a loan out for something that I can't pay for in cash. 

I love the feeling of knocking these debts off my list, one by one. Sometimes I get a little ahead of myself and start thinking about how much i'll be able to save once i'm completely free from these last 2 mistakes and what kind of freedom I will experience. 

My life will be completely different.

I started this blog in June 2014 and I've gone from $47K in debt to just under $29K. In 1 year i've scraped up nearly $20k to get these things out of my life. In 2013 I would have never dreamed this was possible! This year, i'm determined to dream a little bigger and pay the last $29K off in 12 months.

Can I do it?

I think I can but stick around and see for yourself! I'll show you how I do it. 

This is A Girls Journey to Financial Freedom.

Do you want to learn more about how to get out of debt? Send me a message and tell me about your own debt problems. Follow me on Twitter @financegirl

Want to Know What Getting a Net Worth Feels Like?

Guess what? I just paid off my credit card today! I made the final $300 payment and i'm not looking back. Goodbye forever, credit card debt.
I'm down to my last 3 debts totaling roughly $31,000, down from $47,000 just 1 year ago. Wow! Can you tell I'm excited?? Whats even better is that next month i'll be paying down the last $2,000 on Student loan #2. I can't believe i'll be down to my last 2 loans and $29,000 of debt after sitting on them for 10+ years. The tunnel is still long, but I am really beginning to see the light at the end and I couldn't be happier. It is an incredible feeling. What will I do when I don't have to send $2,000/mo to debt collectors? I will finally be out of the negative and begin to actually have a net worth at a rate of about $24,000 per year to be specific.
I never gave too much thought to net worth before, but if you're in debt chances are you have a negative net worth. Which sucks! To me, saying, "I have a negative net worth" sounds way crummier than "i'm in debt". I think i'll make that my new mantra when contemplating purchases that aren't in the budget.

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How I'm Getting Rid of My Debt - FAST

That's kind of a trick blog post title, because I actually don't think there is a FAST way to get out of debt. The secret to getting out of debt is persistence and considering all purchases carefully.

'Do I really want to spend $30 on a meal out tonight or do I want to get out of debt $30 sooner?'

I was listening to a finance podcast yesterday with a sometimes arrogant albeit entertaining host and he was talking about people who act rich. They have all kinds of fancy clothes, drive nice cars, etc. but they're up to their eyeballs in debt. They have no savings, no retirement and no paid for house. He yelled into the microphone, "Stop ACTING like you're rich!". I loled. It's so true. Sometimes I find myself planing and justifying luxury sunglasses and bags purchases, and then I hear that sentence in my head and I stop.

Stop ACTING like you're rich! 

Lets get out of debt so we can ACTUALLY GET RICH and then go shopping. 

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Rising Above A Hard Day.

Today has been, and will continue to be until 6pm, one of those days that is incredibly hard to fake enthusiasm for. I am talking about my day job here. I know this year will be hard but it's really important that while i'm here from 10am to 6pm everyday that I remain positive and continue to do my job at the highest level possible. 

When I find myself in these kinds of moods, mapping out my plan and goals usually helps to clear my mind of the negative poor-me thoughts and steer me back to the 'why'. Why am I doing this and why should I be happy to have this opportunity. 

Review of Goals

As you all know, my highest priority in terms of goals this year is to diminish my debt by about a 1/3. Decrease, decrease, decrease. Without this day job for the next year I would not be able to come close to obtaining this goal. In fact I'd be going into additional debt! I must focus on this and remain grateful. Though I might feel trapped in the daily routine, I need to keep in mind that I am slowly accomplishing bit by bit the goal of becoming debt free and as a result financially free.

My 2nd goal is to be building my business on the side so that it will be ready to partially sustain me in 2016. I must use my time wisely since it is limited to time outside the hours of 9am and 7pm. Keeping a very specific to-do list is imperative so that I do not waste time thinking about what is next and getting overwhelmed. Mini goals within this goal for this month is to launch the new blog centered website with new photos of products and have 5 blog posts already up.

There. I already feel better and more focused!

Here's to powering through 2015, identifying what you want, and making it happen! 

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GOALS For 2015!

2015 Finance Goals

Happy New Year everyone!
I love a fresh start. The ending of one year and the beginning of a new year is something that I look forward to, probably because of how much i've screwed up during the year in the past.
The following are my (perhaps lofty) goals for 2015.

1.) Pay off $12k of debt this year. By using 75% of my tax refund and anticipating a at least 4% raise in March, I should be able to pay an average of $1000/month on my debt bringing my end of year debt balance down to $27k.

2.) Double my business sales from 2014 and sell $5K in 2015. Whooptiedo! I have a small clothing and accessories line which I am creating and selling when i'm not at my day job. I do craft and art fairs around holiday times and have sold consignment to stores in the past. I'd like to do even more of this in 2015, which brings me to my 3rd and last financial goal.

3.) Get out there more! Participate in 1 Spring market and 2 holiday fairs. Sell to at least 1 store and creating more online buzz.

What are YOUR goals for 2015? 

Send me a message. Did you love the post or hate it? What would you like the next topic to be? Follow me on Twitter @financegirl 

End Of 2014 Debt Update!

I am so serious about getting out of debt.

Remember that $4,500 credit card debt that I had back in June? It's gone! Paid! What a relief. The consumer debt weight has been lifted! There is light at the end of my debt tunnel and I feel so motivated. I am that much closer to obtaining financial freedom!

So my debt spreadsheet went from $47,039 of debt across 6 different 'loans' in June to $37,772.78 across 4 loans currently. This is called hardwork and dedication, people! If I can do it, you can too.

My current debt spreadsheet now looks like this below. I will take the $300 that I was putting toward the credit card debt and put it toward Student Loan 4 since this is the smallest and I want to keep the momentum going. (I should probably be putting closer to $400/mo extra on the debt but i'm cutting myself a break here at least until I get caught up from holiday spending). Also, all of my interest rates are quite low so the order of payment won't make a huge difference here. In addition, I will be putting $500 on this loan from an apartment rental that I am doing this month, bringing the balance down to $1,207.18 by the end of the week. I should have this paid off in the next 3 months and will start on SL 2 putting $372.55 extra on that loan balance every month.

Liabilities	Amt/mo	Balance	Interest Rate
Student Loan 1	$174.65	$21,691.39	2.36% / 6.8%
Student Loan 2	$82.50	$5,797.62	5.25%
Student Loan 3	$87.92	$8,576.59	3.25%
Student Loan 4	$372.55	$1,707.18	2.36%
	$717.62	$37,772.78

You know what else will happen within the next 3 months? 

Tax refund! Oh yes, 75% of the refund will go to the debt, the other 25% will go to savings. AND March is raise time at work. Woo hoo. Chip, chip, chipping away.

Happy New Years everyone!

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My Debt Spreadsheet

I want to talk about my debt in specifics. I'm prepared to get very real and open about my debt. In the hopes that it will keep me on track (because I really don't want to fail publicly) I have prepared a spreadsheet listing all of my current debt, the monthly payments, interest rates, as well as the balance still owed. I'm not going to lie. I had been hiding from the truth, a bit, and got a little sad when I saw the actual number presented before me of what I owe in the balance column. Gulp!

Liabilities	Amt/mo	Balance	Interest Rate
Credit Card 1	$190.00	$380.00	15.24%
Credit Card 2	$300.00	$4,335.00	0%
Student Loan 1	$174.65	$22,898.00	2.36% / 6.8%
Student Loan 2	$82.50	$6,792.00	5.25%
Student Loan 3	$87.92	$9,695.00	3.25%
Student Loan 4	$72.55	$2,939.00	2.36%
	$907.62	$47,039.00

The good news is that i'm only 2 months away from paying off credit card #1! Yay!!

Whats your debt look like? How close are you to paying it off and 

celebrating your new financial freedom?

Send me a message. Did you love the post or hate it? What would you like the next topic to be? Follow me on Twitter @financegirl

Paper Trading.. for the Gun-shy

The stock market has always fascinated me. I've always wanted to get into investing in the markets but never knew quite where to begin. It seemed like such an intimidating world and way out of my reach but recently I decided to take control (that's kind of my new thing if you haven't picked up on that already), and dive in! I'm reading everything I can get my hands on, scanning all of the stock market websites that I come across, and keeping my ears open for any tips on specific stocks that are "going up". I think i'm finally ready to give it a shot! But if you're feeling gun-shy and want to practice first, you can try out one of the paper trading sites like Investopedia or Trademonster. Both sites allow you to sign up with them and let you place real trades on real stocks with fake money. You can track your gains and losses against real-time stock quotes and see how you stack up against the pros before placing your bets with your hard earned cash.

Are you paper trading now? And if so, how is it going?

Send me a message. Did you love the post or hate it? What would you like the next topic to be? Follow me on Twitter @financegirl

5 Easy Tips for Taking Control of Your 401(K)

When my current employer decided that the business was growing at a consistent rate and that she wanted to offer a 401(k) retirement plan to employees, I was stoked. When she decided she would match at 4%, I was even more stoked! A combined 8% of my earnings will be going to my retirement fund instead of taxable income to fill Uncle Sam's pockets at the end of the year. Sounds great to me! But how do I get the most out of my 401(k)? Keep reading for my 5 easy tips for taking control of your 401(k).

1. Roll over old 401(k) - Do you have a 401(k) from a previous employer that's just sitting out there in space? I did for years. At one point I totally forgot about that $2,500 just sitting there in that account! When I remembered my money, floating there in space, I decided to take control and suffer through what I thought would be a really boring and painful process of rolling it over. Turns out, it was quite simple. One short filled-out form later and my new 401(k) was authorized to withdrawal and deposit the $2,500 from my old 401(k). Done!

2. Increase your contributions - Every time I get a raise or a bonus I increase my contribution. It could be as little as a 1% increase. Regardless this is an important step if you want your investment to grow larger and faster. And besides you won't even notice that 1% or more is gone when it comes out of a raise or bonus!

3. Match the match! - What you contribute to your 401(k) is going to depend on a lot of different factors. Are you in debt? Is your job stable or are there layoffs in the works? Could you better use the money to build up your 3-6 month emergency fund? I decided that the best thing for me is to match what my employer is going to match. Until my debt is paid down, I will stay at this comfortable level. I can't see passing up free money!

4. Picking the Investment - There are a lot of choices out there with different 401(k) plans. Bonds, money markets, stock mutual funds, value funds. It's really going to depend on your risk tolerance and years till retirement. You're going to need to do your research on this one. (Stay tuned for a more intense 401(k) investment-picking blog post to follow!)

5. Don't borrow - Leave it alone! The only way it will grow is if you continue to contribute to it and let it grow up to be a be strong pile of cash!

Take control of the management of your assets. If you don't understand something about your investment then ask. But remember, no one cares more about the safety of your money than you do.

Send me a message. Did you love the post or hate it? What would you like the next topic to be? Follow me on Twitter @financegirl

Wise Words from Einstein?

One of the most popular quotes that I have come across on my path to financial freedom is, Compounding interested is the 8th wonder of the world - Albert Einstein. Apparently, there is no evidence to prove that he actually said it, but who cares, it's true!

This is how I understand and define compounding interest. (Disclaimer: Feel free to google the definition and find all kinds of different ways of explaining it, most more technical than my layman version here. This is how it makes sense in my head). There is also a great book called The Power Curve: Smart Investing Using Dividends, Options, and the Magic of Compounding.  In it, he talks about the magic of compounding.
Compounding interest is when you have an investment that gains interest. This interest is then reinvested with the original amount and as a result, the combined amount is now gaining interest. As time goes by and this reinvesting keeps happening, your investment grows exponentially.

Lets look at my current 401k investment. I have a whooping $10,000 currently in my 401k, and i'm getting about a 7% annual return on it. What will I have in 30 years? Not enough, but I plan to fix that, as soon as I get out of debt!
I will have $76,122.
How did I get there? The formula goes like this:
Present Value x (1 + interest rate) to the n-th power (years) = Future Value OR
PV x (1 + r) n = FV

So...

$10,000 x (1+.07) to the 30th power = $76,122

Compounding interest is key to understanding your investment to time relationship. The longer you wait to invest and save the less time you allow for the 8th wonder of the world, compounding interest, to work for you! When I crunched the numbers on my own finances it was a bit hard to swallow some of the financial choices I made in my 20s, but beginning now is better than never starting at all!

Things to think about
*Compounding interest and how it helps you in your investments.
*Run the numbers on my investments. Where will I be in 10, 20, 30 years at the current rate? Where will I be if I make monthly contributions to my current investment in 10, 20, 30 years? Where will I be if I increase my monthly contributions by $100 in 10, 20, 30 years?

Have you done the math on your investments yet? Are you contributing enough to get to your investment goals?

Send me a message. Did you love the post or hate it? What would you like the next topic to be? Follow me on Twitter @financegirl

Get Lost, Debt! - My Goals

After a lot of research, it is clear to me that you cannot get to wealth and financial freedom without getting out of debt first. This has been the common thread of all of the books and financial websites that I have read and podcasts that I have listened to and it has become my own personal mission. Yes, I have debt. It is time to stop ignoring the student loan statements and making excuses. Free me from the shackles of debt!
My debt consists of 1 credit card and 4 student loans. I went to college at a very affordable school. Great idea. But I took out the max on the loans that they would give me so that I could continue to live on my own, in an apt, and not work while studying. Bad idea. This is your money and your life so be careful with it. Think twice before purchasing something on credit. Do you really need it? Wouldn't it be better to wait and buy it outright with cash?

My get out of debt goals:
*Pay off the credit card first since it has the highest (19%) interest rate. Vow never to let my credit card spending get out of hand again..no matter how many travel points i'm earning.

*Triple the minimum payment amount on credit card. In my case it's $100, so i'll make $300 payments.

*Automate this payment every month so that I don't even see it come out of the bank. This is key to staying on top of debt and not letting it get you down.

*Pay off student loans with the highest interest rate first next.

*Once credit card is paid off, use the credit card payment of $300 and put it towards my student loan on top of the $85 minimum payment that i'm currently making on the one with the highest interest rate.

*Once student loan numero uno is paid off, transfer the amount that was being paid to the credit card AND the amount of the student loan payment, $385, to the 2nd student loan on top of the $75 minimum payment on that loan. See how it's a snowball effect?

*Continue till no more of my hard-earned cash is owed to anyone else.

Paying off debt becomes really fun when you start making final payments, checking the debt off the list, and watching it vanish into thin air, never to return.. hopefully. No, definitely.
I'll keep you posted on my progress.

How are you going to begin to get yourself out of debt?

Send me a message. Did you love the post or hate it? What would you like the next topic to be? Follow me on Twitter @financegirl

How Can I Make My Money Work for Me?

People often ask me why I got so interested in the topic of financial freedom and the means of getting there. Well, first of all the topic is money. That's a pretty interesting topic, especially if you're a young girl like me, living in one of the biggest most exciting cities in the world... and you are broke. But the light bulb really went off when I was introduced to a book called, Rich Dad Poor Dad by Robert Kiyosaki a few years ago. It was a quick read, I flew through it in a weekend. A real page-turner.
One of the biggest tips I took from that book was that I should work my 9-5 but I should also work on MY BUSINESS. My business? What did that mean? It meant that I should be making my money work for me by building my assets. This was eyeopening for me. I was raised to think that you work hard, you get a job, you stay at that job, and you're grateful for it. No one ever told me that I could be working on MY BUSINESS and creating wealth at the same time! 
So what does it mean to build your assets and make your money work for you? Assets are things, both tangible and intangible, that you own that have value and can produce wealth. An example of a tangible asset is real estate. A great idea for someone who has cash to throw down on some property and then rent all or some of it out. 

Things to think about: 
*Work on MY BUSINESS. 
*How can I attain assets and build wealth?
*What types of assets could I own that could put me on the path to wealth?

Send me a message. Did you love the post or hate it? What would you like the next topic to be? Follow me on Twitter @financegirl

Financial Freedom - The Journey

Financial freedom is a phrase that I heard over a year ago and immediately had to learn more about. It was like I was struck by lighting. Stunned, I sat there and thought, what the hell is this financial freedom and how do I get it?? You mean there is an alternate path in life to wealth that does not necessarily include a 9-5 job for the next 30 years? You mean I can have more than one stream of income coming in at a time? It was truly eye-opening.
I listen to podcasts daily on investing, entrepreneurship, and automation. I read books about stocks, options, dividends, and getting out of debt. I scour the web for articles on passive income and how to get it. The list goes on and on! The more I dig, the more I find. There is so much information out there and i'm here to share it with you!
This blog is a documentation of my financial discoveries and how I implement everything that I learn on my journey. This is A Girl's Journey to Financial Freedom.

-Girl Finance