During my September Hiatus I received a few comments from some readers of the blog and though I read, consider and appreciate all comments, I felt that these two deserved some form of formal thought/response. They also helped me to shape some recent adjustments to my debt elimination plan.

Anonymous said…

KC I am ashamed of you, look at all your debt!!! pay some of it down, Kenny Chesney will be there next year… for now pay your bills.. and do you really have to go to the wedding ? come on ! its just a wedding… 4 hours of food and drinks and boring traditions.. just stay home and have them send you a copy of the video.

Yes, I realize that in order to achieve any goal – especially one as important and daunting as escaping major debt – you have to make sacrifices. Maybe I shouldn’t have gone to the concert, maybe I shouldn’t have gone to the wedding. But really, I can’t go about this goal by punishing myself, my friends and my family. Yes, I have to do a MUCH better job of living within my means, but going to that concert was the highlight of my girlfriend’s year so I don’t regret it. And getting married is a monumental event in someone’s life and I feel honored to have been made a part of it.

Jay said…

You want to get out of debt and you still have a credit card you are using? HA! You aren’t serious about this yet.

CUT IT UP and close the account.

You’ll never get out of debt while you still have one and keep charging to it.

I agree. As of this morning I shredded my remaining credit cards – all eight of them (3 mastercards, 2 visas, 2 amex, and a discover). It’s clear to me that I have an impulse buying problem. So here’s my plan:

Now without credit I will have to seriously consider whether I what I want to spend my $200 per pay check spending allocation on in order to make the money last. I have an emergency fund of about $1,200 – not even one paycheck, but it’s still growing and hopefully I won’t have to tap into it anytime soon. As for Christmas spending, I’ve been putting some money aside every month to prepare. If I ever feel that I need to use a credit card for something I can contact the company saying that I need a replacement card. This will give me 7-10 days, while I wait for it to be delivered, to decide whether I really need to use it and if there is another – better – way to get it done.

Thanks for the comments! Whether it’s support or critique it shows that people care and I really appreciate it.

What would you like first? The good news or the bad news?

The good news: I think the fact that I’m planning for April and August events in late February and Early March is a huge step on my path to being financially intelligent. Before, I was always more of the “eh…I’ll throw it on my card and worry about it later” type of guy.

The bad news: By looking forward to some major events in my friends’ lives, I’m seeing just how much it’s going to cost me.

Two good friends of mine are getting married (separately) in August. One of those friends is having a bachelor party in April. I live in Boston. The bachelor party is in Florida. The first wedding is in New Jersey. The second wedding is in Seattle. Yikes.

So that’s two plane trips, two wedding gifts (which I’ve never had to deal with before) and possibly three stretches of hotel stays. Again…yikes.

By using Kayak.com, I was able to get a decent price on a flight down to Florida. Mind you, when I say “decent”, I mean compared to the other fares I found for the same trip – not decent price wise. In fact, I think the airline US Airways should have at least bought me a glass of wine before “having me their way” like they did.

Anyway…

I’m planning on paying that trip off using my state tax refund, which I have not received yet.

The issue now comes with how to pay for the hotels, gifts and additional airfare. I need to start working on a budget that will be able to pay for all of these things. If I don’t – it could severely set back my debt reduction plan.