A (Former) Spendaholic's Road To Recovery

I read a really interesting blog on The Simple Dollar. It says that the hardest part of getting your financial situation in order is the waiting. Because as everyone will agree, getting out of debt and saving for something such as a downpayment for the house or car, will not happen overnight. Not even days and months, but years.

I have also noticed that it's ironic how whenever the
money's tight, that's when you realize that there's a leak in the roof or the light bulbs suddenly needs changing, there's a sudden medical emergency, etc. Just goes to show that the universe has a sense of humor.

I chanced upon this very nice e-book on personal finance. It's a simple and practical guide on saving which I think you all will appreciate.

Just click on the link below:
http://www.thesimpledollar.com/onepage/

So far, so good. I've been sober for 4 whole days!

Although to be honest, I replaced soda with iced tea which is still caffeine! So I think that that will be my challenge for the 2nd week -- cutting on soda and iced tea altogether. Oh boy...

I've tried this (and failed) so many times. I've always told myself that at least soda doesn't cost that much and it's way better than alcohol or cigarettes. But I believe that if I can take soda out of my system, weird as it may sound, I feel that I can conquer just about anything.

So today is Day 1 of my no-soda challenge.. No bets against anybody nor prize to be won. Just a challenge to myself. Wish me luck!

I don't know if it's just me, but i get very melancholy on my birthday. I start to wonder where i have been, where am i going and what have i done with my life. When I turned 36 last week, I actually felt very panicky inside. I realize that i have very, very little savings and very, very big debts. I officially belong to Generation Broke!

I have credit card debts from purchases that have already been long gone, and personal loans/debts for stuff that i didn't really need. Long story short, i made very bad financial choices.

I know that this financial mess wasn't acquired in one day, the same thing that i didn't gain weight in one eating (which is a whole other story), so i also know that getting my financial life in order will surely take time and lots of discipline. But if i want to live comfortably by the time i retire in say, 30 years, i need to start doing something NOW before it's too late.

And so with this blog entry comes my wish for my 36th birthday - freedom from debt and financial independence.

It's been a year since my last update and sad to say, I didn't do well in any of the goals I set for myself. So I guess I'm back where I started, wiser but none the richer.

I was very optimistic and hopeful when the year started but things at work didn't run as smoothly as I hoped it would be which made me so stressed out and depressed. But now that I'm doing okay again emotionally, I feel that instead of beating myself up wasting six months sweating the small stuff, I can just focus that there are still six months left before 2010 ends yet again.

Game on! =)

I never believed it when people say it. But when I think of how much stress (the lack thereof of) money has brought into most of my adult life, it makes me believe that maybe money may really be the root of all evil. I got my first credit card when I was fresh out of college and my financial life has pretty much been a yo-yo ever since.

But enough blaming the credit card industry because they didn't force me to charge anything in the first place.

I had the chance to visit a home for the elderly about two months ago and the experience has been truly life changing. I met some cool people there and the one elder that struck me the most was an old, single lady who has been staying there for only about 2-3 years. I found out that she worked for more than 20 years in one company and she admitted that one of her greatest mistake is that she celebrated her youth and singlehood mostly by shopping - thinking that she has all the time to save later. Until she realized much later in life that she was already old and retiring very soon without much saved for her retirement.

I can convince myself all I want that I'm different from her and I won't make the same mistakes she did, but the fact remains that the decisions we make today will have a huge effect on us tomorrow. I looked back and I realized that I have spent way too much on things that I felt I deserved just because I work too hard or I had a bad day. These "must-haves" has already ate a huge chunk out of the money I could have saved up and invested.

And besides, in our old days, i guess what we'll remember the most are the relationships we build, the places we've seen and the memories we've shared with people we love... and not the material stuff that we will eventually throw away.

I read somewhere that to be able to budget, it will be very helpful to write down every penny that goes out of your purse for at least a month. This will give you an idea on your spending habits and to be able to identify what you spend on your hard-earned money.

I know that i don't shop as much as I used to and I honestly control my spending; but out of curiousity, I did write down my expenses. Lo and behold, looking at my expenses for the first 2 weeks kinda shocked me. I found out that I have spent so much on unnecessary things.. a soda on the way home, a popsicle, the new lipstick, the glossy magazine with a picture of Suri on the cover.

The horror and shame! Tsk, tsk... And all this time, I have been wondering where all my extra cash went...

Not only that, as much as my expense list makes me cringe, it is kinda liberating in a weird way that everything is out in the open. And it made me aware of my faults and weak points and where I can improve on in the future.

I read an article a few years ago about how the show Sex and the City influenced not only how fabulously people dress up nowadays, but how people unconsciously spend more than they earn. Because if Carrie can afford that Manolo Blahnik heels in a writer's income, then so can the rest of us, right?

But that's where the problem starts.. for me, at least. When i got my first credit card, i paid my first bill in full. And another card came, then another bill, and another. The top that i just had to have. The shoes that were on sale just for today. The dinner with friends. The massage for a newly-engaged friend. The new must-read book. The i-deserve-that-because-i-worked-a-lot-this-week purse. The my-exboyfriend-is-a-jerk jeans. Oh my goodness, the list goes on and on and on.

Saddest part is, the interest rates in all the stuff i bought a few seasons ago are all still in my credit card bill. And i realized that more than half of the stuff that i really, really had to have, i didn't. The high-tech cellphone i bought because i really, really need, it's not as high-tech now as it was a few months ago.

The malls will never run out of new fabulous things to sell and i can always find some reason to buy something to make me look and feel better. But right now, i'd rather be a little less fabulous to be a lot more richer in the future.