I paid off another credit card today. It feels really good and I’m trying to focus on that and the good choices I’ve made recently rather than the decade of terrible money choices I spent making before recently.
It’s not always easy. I have paid off four credit cards so far. I have one left. It’s the big guy. Well, big for me anyway. It’s going to take me a while to take care of that one. And that’s not even taking into account the student loans and the house that I own but don’t live in.
If I think too much about it all, I get mad at myself. Mad because I took out the maximum student loans to help me live. I probably could have made do with a little less. Mad because not only did I take out credit cards that I didn’t need, I used them carelessly. Mad because the choices I made regarding money in my twenties are forcing me to still live paycheck to paycheck in my thirties.
JW is so good at putting a positive spin on it. The student loans were an investment in myself (never mind that my job is not in the same area as my degree – not even close – but that’s for another day). The house is an investment for our future. And the credit cards? They were unfortunate but we’ve worked really hard to pay them off the right way and now there is only one left.
And he’s right. We have spent the last few years trying to make our money go further and really concentrating on getting rid of debt. I’ve got a 401k at work so we are starting to build some savings. We’re taking on one thing at a time because that’s all we can do. And when this card is taken care of, we’ll move on to the next thing. He is a voice of reason when I want to let it bury me. We’ve come a long way and we’ve still got a ways to go but we’re on our way.
2013 is our year, remember?
Thighs On Fire 