I have been gone from savingadvice for awhile. I stopped visiting because I was unemployed, not eligible for unemployment, had no money to save, and began having a lot of anxiety problems surrounding my finances. I really couldn't even think about my finances- even open bills- because not having any money coming in just really, really stressed me out that badly. My credit rating has suffered a lot (probably about 100 points) and I have about $2500 in credit card debt that I need to pay off.
But the good news is (yes, there's good news in this whole mess) that I have an income again.
So I'm going to take the next 4 months (Sept-Oct-Nov-Dec) of guaranteed work (the job ends in January, at that point I might be placed elsewhere in the same company, I might not; depends on work availability and performance) to pay off my credit cards and start improving my credit rating. I know that with all the late payments I've had, my credit rating can only improve so much in 4 months, but I'll do what I can. I'm not planning on needing credit anytime in the next 2 or 3 years (at least) so if I pay on time from now on, my credit rating should be much beteter by the time I want to buy a house or something, which right now looks like it's going to be in the very far future, if at all.
Plan for future:
1. Pay off smaller card (DONE)
2. Start putting away $100/month to retirement and $100/month to emergency fund (DONE)
3. Send $600/month to larger credit card, get it paid off within 5 months
4. Increase Roth IRA contribution to $333/month (to max it out for the year)
5. Increase emergency fund contribution to $400/month
That's the plan for now. I should be here by January; if my job continues, I'll be set. If not... Well, at least at the end of this job I'll be eligible for unemployment, and have no debt, so that's not so bad.
Back on savingsadvice, thanks to new job
August 20th, 2006 at 12:41 am
August 20th, 2006 at 01:58 am 1156039089
August 20th, 2006 at 05:42 am 1156052526
September 2nd, 2006 at 01:08 pm 1157202485
October 5th, 2006 at 01:37 pm 1160055423