Woo Hoo!

Among other things, the regulation asks for:

• Bills to be mailed out 21-days prior to due date
• An end to the practice of applying payments only to balances with the lowest interest rates (leaving the higher rate debt in full)

But what I found to be one of the best excerpts from the story was:

Just ask Victoria Ramirez. The San Jose elementary school teacher once had as much as $45,000 in debt on six different cards.

Now she and her husband have whittled that down to a balance of about $10,000 on a single card.

Ramirez, 37, said card issuers make it all too easy to get into trouble.

“They loan you a big amount of money that you can’t take care of,” she said.

This isn’t so different from what’s happening in the housing market. One reason so many people are in danger of losing their homes right now is because banks handed out high-risk loans to folks who had no business getting deep into debt.

To be sure, many such loan recipients deserve a share of the blame for being so reckless with their personal finances. But they wouldn’t have gotten into trouble without the willing complicity of lenders, which encouraged virtually all home buyers to take the plunge, regardless of their ability to repay loans.

While I agree with that – I’m most impressed by her debt reduction. They don’t say how she did it or what the time frame was, but debt reduction is debt reduction and I can’t wait to join the club.

Also, I just want to call out that I don’t think that the debt crisis is the credit companies fault. And I don’t think that they are to blame for my situation either. I think we should all be responsible. But drug dealers that don’t do drugs still go to jail, know what I mean? Sure people have to be responsible for their actions, but they should not be enabled to ruin their lives.

Sorry for the delay – due to the new pay check schedule most bills of mine are now getting paid during the first month of the week. So I wanted to wait for some of the checks to cash before tallying up this month’s net worth.

Like I said in my last post, July/August hasn’t been the best of times. But, I never expected this stuff to be easy, nor did I truly expect my net worth line (located on the right hand column) to skyrocket straight up month-after-month. It would have been nice, but not realistic.

The main thing is that these past few months have served as a wakeup call and reinvigorated my desire to pay down this debt. I want to have the freedom to buy a home – maybe some rental properties. I don’t know really – but basically the key word/phrase is that I want freedom.

She ate my emergency credit card and my debit card. As well as a few other things, but thankfully no money or checks.

Oh well, I needed a new wallet anyway.

(by the way, I’m about 1/2 way through reading the Dog Whisperer’s book, “Cesar’s Way” – so hopefully the eating of wallets will soon be a thing of the past)

The entire process went about 3 days (I know – I was shocked too).

Why is it relevant to this blog?
Well, there’s some more money coming my way and that means I can pay off my debts faster.

Very exciting. In fact, I’m not sure what I’m more excited about? The new job or the bigger debt payments. Either way, it’s close.

Thanks to everyone that wished me luck on the job search – either through a comment or an e-mail – it worked!

Like I said before, it feels good to see the good numbers increase and the bad numbers decrease each month. God, is it slow though. Oh well…I should get a nice little bump up in the amount I can contribute soon – details in next post.

As for the bankrate.com experiment – You’ll notice I only made it to day 5. Why is that? ‘Cause weekdays are easy to keep track of – it’s the weekends when you’re out and about that are difficult. Let’s face it – I’ve said it before – I need to make whatever I do painless and automatic or else eventually I just won’t do it anymore.

The first step in victory is learning where it is you’re most likely to lose.

…is that a quote? ‘Cause I think it sounds good…and I’m pretty sure I just made that up.

Most of it went to paying off a credit card – my snowball plan has changed drastically since transferring a lot of my debt to recently opened 0% cards. That’s for the next post though.

But the rest of it went to bumping my “Income Security Account” (a.k.a. Emergency Fund) to $1000 status. I will still make my small monthly contributions, since I figure it can’t hurt and I barely notice the money is being taken out of my account anyway. Frankly, I’m just relieved that my Emergency Fund is up to a decent/recommended amount. Especially considering the alarming number of people out there that don’t have any money saved up “just in case”.

For my state return, which will be around $400, I’m planning to put about half of that towards my Christmas Gift account and the rest will help me get down to Florida for my buddy’s bachelor party in a few months.

And yes…again…I know it’s probably better to not get as many refunds or as much of a refund back at the end of the year. But there’s something therapeutic about these lump sum allocations that is worth the time missed. Maybe I’m alone on that.

Also – if you’re as interested as I am – check out this Frontline Piece:

FrontLine: Secret History of the Credit Card

It’s all part of their plan and most all of us played right into it.

You Can Go Out and Payoff Debt at We’re in Debt

An interesting post about inexpensive ways of having fun while watching your bottom line.

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Money Mondays at Mercurial Scribe

A brand-new series of posts detailing the start of her debt reduction journey. In it she talks about lowermybills.com and how their third party agencies have called non-stop. I have experienced the same thing with my brief interaction with that company. My advice: stay away from bill consolidation companies all together.

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Merging Lives, Merging Money at Simple Guru

When you move in with your boyfriend/girlfriend/etc, will it be separate accounts or joint accounts? Simple Guru details the pros and cons and provides some good tips along the way.

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How to Furnish Your House On Any Budget, Even For Free at The Digerati Life

Recently, I moved into a new apartment and – for the first time ever – don’t have a roommate. So far it’s been great, but I quickly realized that my roommates had always provided the bulk of the furniture. In this post The Digerati Life details a few furniture strategies ranging from buying retail to…well…you’ll see.

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Refinancing When the Rates Are Higher at Searchlight Crusade

Professional insight on what appears to be a very common problem.

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Divorce During a Chapter 13 Bankruptcy at Bankruptcy Law Network

This just in…Chapter 13 Bankruptcy is no fun. Neither is Divorce. What happens when the two meet? By the way…I had assumed that a common reason for divorce would be “money problems” and was going to write a little something about that. But after some quick fact-checking it turns out there’s little truth to that.

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How to Improve Your Credit Score at Free Money Finance

A few tips on what really matters in terms of getting that score up.

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Paycheck and Emergency Fund Calculators at Queercents

It’s okay to get a refund on your taxes…just be mindful of how much is too much. This post contains various thoughts and strategies on the subject.

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Citibank’s Universal Default Clause…Buh Bye!!! at Blogging Away Debt

This is the first I’ve heard of this news – and I can honestly say that I am just as excited about it as Blogging Away Debt is. Hopefully all credit cards will soon follow Citibank and American Express’ lead.

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Your Income Pie – How Should You Cut It? at Debt Free

How much of your budget should you allocate to certain things…Debt Free has compiled some interesting numbers as a starting point.

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Skipping EVEN MORE Nickels and Dimes for Bigger Savings (long and updated) at Wisdom from Wenchypoo’s Mental Wastebasket

Great post that details numerous ways to save here and there on practically everything.

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I’m in Debt – MTV True Life at My New Choice

My New Choice has some thoughts on young people and debt after watching MTV True Life – I’m in Debt. I think I’ve seen this episode actually, and speaking as a ‘young person’ myself…please don’t think those people represent the rest of us.
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Facing Your Credit Card Debt at Ask Mr. Credit Card’s Blog

Mr. Credit Card explains how the first step in tackling your credit card debt is to acknowledge that you’re in debt.

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Check Out My Prediction From Two Years Ago! at No Credit Needed

Personal Finance blogs are about two things to the readers: tips and motivation. Here’s a healthy dose of the latter from No Credit Needed.

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Paying extra mortgage principal the easy way at 40 Something Finance

Before making any extra mortgage payments, make sure you’re doing it the right way.

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Best Financial Choice – 15 Year Mortgage at Journey To Financial Freedom

15 or 30-year mortgage…what could you save?

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Man Can’t Live at Bread Alone – Or Can He? At Mad Kane’s Humor Blog

Might as well wrap up the Carnival with a little poem from Mad Kane

The reason for this is that I see how it would be useful to have specific buckets (a.k.a. Envelopes) in which to plan for certain things that may occur either throughout the year or throughout the month. What I’m skeptical about is how easy I will find it to be.

While the program does link to (most) all your online accounts, it doesn’t physically transfer any money for you. So it’s really just a fancy way of telling yourself that you only have X amount to spend on Y this month.

Like I said, I’ve decided to give it a shot and take advantage of the free 30-days to see if I like it and if it makes any difference come my next pay period.

Like always – I’ll keep you posted.