Wednesday, December 9, 2009

Finances

I've never been good at finances.  I've come a long way though. When I owned my own home in Virginia before getting married, I wouldn't even open the bills because I was scared of them.  I know, most of you are aghast that I would actually admit that.  Oh well, it's true.  That was at my worst.  I'm not at my best just yet, but I'm much better than in the past.

Because we're self-employed, our financial circumstances tend to be either super great or not so much.  I'm actually ok with both.  I prefer super great though.  One of the good things about being self-employed is that you don't have a set income necessarily which means you can actually capitalize on opportunities presented, therefore making a good amount of money.  The other side of that is when the opportunities don't come, alas, we don't eat.  Of course, I've have my food storage which has saved our rear ends many times.  

But, recently I ran across a blog called www.debtfreeadventure.com.  I'm not sure why this blog appealed to me, but it did.  This fellow, Matt Jabs, decided to get rid of his $15000 i debt and grow a savings fund at the same time.  He determined to learn all he could about finances and money, etc, etc.  He has lots of people make comments on post topics that I have found to be invaluable.  I enjoy Dave Ramsey and even Suze Orman to some extent, but the real world people who can give down and dirty advice is what I seek.

Because of the advice and tools offered on Jabs' website, in just about a week, I have organized my finances.  Detailing in spreadsheets my constant bills (ie electric, gas) and figured out how much interest I'm paying on my mortgage, credit cards and other debts as a way to understand more fully what is going out my door every month.  Because of the organization of it all, I feel as though a burden has been lifted.  I'm not choosing to be in the dark anymore.  The debt burden is still there, but at least I know that it's possible to overcome.

I just wanted to document my personal success.  It's nice to not be so overwhelmed as to now even know where to start.  One step at a time.

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