I fully paid off $77,000 ($76,524.22 to be exact) in student loans! If you want to skip to how I paid it off, scroll to the bottom =) What a weight off my shoulders. One of my many money moron mistakes I made in my 20s can finally be put in the past. I went to an out of state college and I never worked part time. I used my leftover student loans on….stuff. After…
I made some dumb financial mistakes in my 20s such as defaulting on my student loans, but it all started with not saving money. This was the catalyst for all my eventual money mistakes. I want to share the excuses I made for not saving money in hopes of encouraging you to start saving money no matter what age you are. It is never too late. 5 excuses I made for not saving money 1….
I am sure most of you have come across a 0% financing offer typically when buying large ticket items such as electronics (TVs, cameras), large appliances, jewelry, mattresses, and furniture. 0% financing is also referred to as 0% promotional financing or “no interest if paid in full”. You might also come across 0% financing offers on lower ticket items because banks know they can make money. I have worked in the financial services industry for…
Thanks to a variety of personal finance and side hustle podcasts, I have been motivated more than ever to pay off my student loan debt. In my 20s I defaulted on my student loans and I have been paying the price on that mistake ever since. I am now on pace to pay off my student loans a month ahead of my personal goal and pay it off entirely in February 2019. I have been…
There are some financial “entertainers” who believe that building credit and building your FICO credit score is unnecessary and a waste of time. There are some who believe you need to build your credit and continue improving your credit score. I believe that you should keep an eye on your credit and build your credit so you get a 760 and above FICO credit score. Aiming for an 800+ FICO credit score is a fool’s errand…
Recently I was talking to a colleague in her 20s and we started to talk about interests. I started to bring up my interests in financial independence, investing, and going on my podcast and audiobook binges related to those subjects. Throughout this conversation I realized that her financial mentality is exactly the same as it was for me when I was in my 20s. The biggest differences are she did not have the massive amount…
Ever since I set my student loan debt payoff goal of March 2019, I have been motivated more than ever to continue seeing my student loan debt shrink and eventually paid off. I have been paying a bit more on top of the $2,300 a month I currently pay thanks to my side hustles. Although my payoff month goal is March 2019, I am aggressively pursuing a payoff goal by the end of February 2019….
I was on a pretty good roll with putting posts up on this blog since starting this in May. Real life happens and the past 30 days has been hectic. It all started with business travel in October and then my favorite baseball team made the World Series in back to back years so I made a trip for the weekend. Probably a money moron moment, but I am a big Dodgers fan. I get…
I genuinely believe that if you are just starting to plan for your future whether that is early retirement or financial independence or developing a plan to get out of debt, then you need to start budgeting. I spend a minimal amount of time a month budgeting and it has helped me to know where my money was going. I noticed a pattern of spending behaviors that became acceptable to me. Here are 5 actions…
As I started to spend a couple minutes every month budgeting, I noticed a pattern of spending behaviors that became acceptable to me. I have also witnessed my dad going above and beyond to save a few pennies or a few bucks. I never asked if this was a thrill or some sort of satisfaction by beating the game of what is the lowest price he can get? I guess I should not assume. Here…
Earlier this year (May 2018), I had a personal finance epiphany. Out of nowhere I got this urge to get a hold of my finances and start aggressively paying off my $77,000 student loan debt and further educate myself on personal finance, financial independence, and investing. During this epiphany I decided to plan how I could aggressively tackle my enormous student loan debt. The baby step moment was to start budgeting. I needed to understand…
For this week I rounded up the following blog posts that I enjoyed reading. OMG My Money’s favorite personal finance posts of the week How to automate your money by Let’s Automate Your Money – click here My take – I am a big believer in automating your money. It is one or 10 less things to worry about. Why spend those brain cells remembering to pay yourself first or pay those bills when you can…
Back in July (2018), I wrote a post about getting motivated to pay off my student loan debt. In that post I did not set a specific date and simply noted that I wanted to pay a little extra per month. I had a great start last month in August paying an extra $9,600 towards my student loan debt. That is on top of the $2,000 monthly payment, which makes the total amount $11,600 in…
I have always worked out at home despite some of the companies I worked for either subsidized or basically paid for a gym membership. Perhaps it is the introvert in me, but I find comfort working out alone. I also get to multi task and work on other things during my rest period. (Honestly though I would not recommend this because you will get distracted and the workouts end up going from 45 min to…
Last month (August 2018) I posted 15 total blog posts, slightly lower than the 21 blog posts in July 2018. With so many posts, I thought I would start a monthly post recap to share the most viewed. I do not think I can do a weekly recap so baby steps for now. Most viewed August 2018 posts The lamest excuses I made for not saving money – I share the 9 dumb excuses I…
Summer is wrapping up and kids are either back in school or getting ready to go back to school. Randomly I thought it would be fun to share what an over thinker goes through when planning for a vacation. What areas do you over think or over research whether personally or professionally? Do you think this has held you back in some way? One personal example of over thinking is vacation planning. I think I…
I have to admit, the older I get the less I want to think about long term plans. Similar to how I have been thinking about how the next Olympics is X years away and how old I will be. In 3 years I will be close the big 4-0, which is crazy to think about. Back in high school I used to think 30 was old. Well I am in my mid-30s now and…
I am sure you have seen the articles about how the average college graduate has a 5 figure student loan debt amount. Here is an article from CNBC for a refresher. I ended up owing a 6 figure student loan debt upon graduation and defaulted. Fast forward more than 10 years and I still owed the US Department of Education nearly $77,000 total. The minimum monthly payment on my student loan debt is $826.24. For…
All of us have bad financial habits, right? I had some horrific financial habits in my 20s and even to this day I still have not cut some of those bad habits. Are there bad financial habits that you are trying to quit? Here are 6 bad financial habits to monitor and eventually quit Buying coffee, munchies, or lunch nearly ever day – this is a matter of laziness. I admit it. I am way…
I started planning for a major expense planned earlier this month (August 2018) to support my side hustle of buying and selling sports cards. Every year an annual sports card show takes place called The National Sports Collector Convention. 2017 was the first year I had gone to “The National” in more than 8 years so it was more about gaining the experience of attending a huge show and interacting with the big dogs who…
