Comments on: When Did You Start Caring About Personal Finance?

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Thu, 05 Apr 2007 23:54:57 +0000

I started when I was 12. I started working for my parents company & my mom would only give me 1/2 of my paycheck. I never really cared all the much & really liked the money when I graduated high school. – Now… I still try to save 1/2 my money now. – Garry

By: When Did You Start Caring About Your Finances? ∞ Get Rich Slowly

When Did You Start Caring About Your Finances? ∞ Get Rich Slowly — Thu, 05 Apr 2007 12:00:26 +0000

[...] is about. I encourage you to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!Cap at Stop Buying Crap recently asked: “When did you start caring about your finances?” This is an interesting question. [...]

By: lyndissima

lyndissima — Fri, 30 Mar 2007 13:56:17 +0000

hi! i had just borrowed $6000 from my mom, with the plan of quickly paying it off… i paid $2000 within the next few months, but then she was diagnosed with cancer. At the same time, the entire industry of my self-employment changed… so i was taking days away from working to go to the hospital, etc. while my days AT work were very unproductive. All of a sudden, a year later i owed $10,000. I actually broke up with my boyfriend over it because i felt it would be totally irresponsible to enter a relationship owing so much money! Anyway, i even took a job at Pier 1 just to feel secure that at least i would get a Regular check every week, no matter how small. In another 2 years my job situation got better, but i still was owing $15,000 after having to purchase a used car on top of the debt!

So, needless to say, i had spent already 5-odd years, and the debt had only gotten worse, not better, after focusing on clearing it up! And that was after switching to 0% interest cards!

That’s when i started googling information on saving money. I think i fell upon “Savvy Saver” first, but honestly, your blog came up on a search, and i dug the name SO much! The particular entry intrigued me, discussing how we buy so much *C* from all over the world, but none of it is of any value. So then i started on focusing on Net Worth. And everything changed.

Thanks for being a part of my life! I am now debt free (after 3 years of working like a dog and spending NO money), have an excellent credit score… and feel great! The scripture that says, “The wicked one is borrowing and not paying back,” really made me realize that hey, i “borrowed” all this money from the credit card companies, and i should pay it back to them with the same conscientiousness that i would pay a friend or family member back.

It can happen to any of us, i realized that, too, because i always regarded myself as pretty good with money. I had never been in debt until 26 years old.

Long story long… :) I came to enjoy all you bloggers… Savvy, Madame X, FMF, SBC, mapgirl, S&B, ELYM… You guys are great, and responsibly educate many a person in trouble. Keep it up!

By: Mapgirl’s Fiscal Challenge / Blogger Interview at My Mint

Mapgirl’s Fiscal Challenge / Blogger Interview at My Mint — Thu, 29 Mar 2007 13:40:49 +0000

[...] had a few thought provoking posts lately including asking us when did we start caring about personal finance and a follow up called Finding That Special Reason to Care about Your [...]

By: Terri

Terri — Mon, 26 Mar 2007 03:47:10 +0000

I started caring when Husband decided after 25 years it was time to retire from the Marine Corps. We had always talked how when he retired, I’d work in a career field I loved for at least 10 years, then think about retiring myself. We’ve been living in military housing (yuk!) and have mused about that dream house we wanted. We also decided that I would quit my job and move to where we were going to retire to start job hunting and house hunting about 3 months before his retirement date. I have always kept my CC debt separate from his so I sat down one night to total up my debt and nearly freaked out when I saw it was close to $30K. I am determined to pay as much as I can toward it by August 31, 2007.

By: Kimble

Kimble — Mon, 26 Mar 2007 02:23:10 +0000

I only recently became interested in personal finance. After incurring no debt through all of undergrad, I was accepted into my dream grad school with a two year deferral. With a price tag of >$50K a year, I’ve suddenly realized that debt is going to be a very real part of my life for the first time ever. With that in mind, I’m trying to save up as much money as possible before tuition bills start coming in to reduce the amount of debt I actually need to accumulate. I understand that educational loans are “good” debt, but going from $0 to $100,000+ in debt is still scary.

By: Margo

Margo — Thu, 22 Mar 2007 23:43:16 +0000

I can’t afford the premiums for LTC insurance for my mom right now, not when I’m saving up to go back to school. Plus, I’m also concerned about the ‘healthy enough to live alone, not healthy enough to earn an income’ phase.

By: English Major

English Major — Thu, 22 Mar 2007 15:42:22 +0000

I’ve always been kind of a natural saver–my parents paid my full way through college, including living expenses, but I still had a part-time job and saved my paychecks–but the PF bug really bit me this fall, when I started setting up my post-graduation life, with an apartment, and a job, and the whole grownup deal.

I was reading MSN Money, and one article featured a link to Madame X’s Open Wallet, and given her extensive blogroll, I was totally hooked. I read for a couple of months before starting up my own blog, which I think has organized my thinking about personal finance and allowed me to set some concrete goals.

By: limeade

limeade — Thu, 22 Mar 2007 02:14:46 +0000

My parents never seemed to have money. My dad was self employed most of his life and never had any retirement savings. I started caring out of a desire to someday retire my parents. Hopefully I’ll make a little for myself along the way.

-limeade
http://fiscalmusings.blogspot.com

By: Cindy S

Cindy S — Wed, 21 Mar 2007 04:55:40 +0000

for Margo..if you know you’re going to have to pay support for your mom you might consider signing her up for long term care insurance.

By: Cindy S

Cindy S — Wed, 21 Mar 2007 04:30:11 +0000

i started caring about money when i filed for bankruptcy right after college. i had an excellent salary right out of college, but racked up so much debt in college thinking i’d pay it off when i got out. it’s not easy to pay of $30K in debt on a $58K salary. the market fell out after 9/11, and my salary decreased. at least for me it decreased since i had budgeted in those quarterly bonuses. i was young and stupid. my credit cards raised my interest rates, tacked on late fees, my car got repossessed. finally, i gave up and filed bankruptcy. i thought i’d never be able to buy a car or house again, but i had no choice.

so after going through bankruptcy i decided it would never happen to me again. and, i realized that all the money i put into nortel stock was trashed after the market fell out. i’d always believed in saving for retirement.

so, i’ve been working really hard the last five years to increase my salary so i can have a nice life and save for retirement. my husband and i make good money. i think i really started caring about money when i realized that we will have to fund our retirements, and i want to be sure i’m putting my money to good use.

i stopped here more for investing advice, but i found the blog funny so i kept it.

~cindy (30)

By: Rick

Rick — Wed, 21 Mar 2007 01:53:02 +0000

I too had a rude awakening. My wife wanted to file bankruptcy but I was dead set against it as I incurred the debt and I was responsible for paying it off. I had to get a handle on things to know what credit accounts I had. I developed an excel workbook with a monthly worksheet that had the account name, account number, type of credit card and contact information. I also had to identify what I owed, the statement’s minimum payment required, the interest I had paid during the prior month, the rate of interest (percentage) I was being charged and my credit limit for each account. I also threw in a priority column and some computations as to how close I was to the limit, the amount on each account available for use and percentage indicator as to how close I was to paying off the account. I then totaled each column and was shocked to find that I was nearly maxed out on several of the accounts. I almost fell over when I totaled the amount of interest I was shelling out each month. And even more surprising was the unrestrained interest rates I was being charged each month.
Account Name ACCOUNT # CARD TYPE TELEPHONE # AMT OWED MIN. PMT. INTEREST Finance LIMIT Priority % of Limit % Available % Avail. Est. Payment
Charge of 5% of Amt Owed
After gathering information and tracking each account, I was able to tackle the higher interest rate accounts in priority order from the greatest interest rate to the least. Firstly, I stopped buying crap and charging it. I eliminated the accounts with the higher interest rates and proceeded to the next highest rate. All the while, I was making slightly above the minimum monthly payment required on each account. Once I eliminated the higher interest account for the next month, I would take the amount of the payment I had made and combine it with the minimum payment due for the next highest interest account and before long that account was cleared and I would take the monthly payments on the two cleared accounts combine the amounts and apply them to the next highest interest rate account. And, so on.

No, I am not totally out of debt but, I am well on my way and I can actually see progress from month to month using the workbook. I guess from all this, YOU need to get control of YOUR spending, know where YOUR money is going.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Tue, 20 Mar 2007 16:00:56 +0000

Became more interested in my finances after I had my daughter, with my husband not working (and me being the sole income) and slowly going into debt by 500 monthly. I suddenly became involved in lots of 0% credit card offers and started to understand that money is a tool (even a tool that you can use when you need an extra $6K a year to get by). While I was never broke (I do have lots of retirement savings, which lets me sleep at night), I was getting more negative by the day.

The answer, of course, to my problems, was for my husband to get a “real” job (he had his own business) and we have been digging out of the CC debt for the past year and a half. I now owe out only $5K (and I’m doing some 0% magic with another $5K as per Jonathan at mymoneyblog.com), and have plenty of income. I’m looking to learn more from all the good advice out there so that by the time my daughter starts school, I can have a type of job that lets me spend all holidays and summer vacations with her. That’s what I’m shooting for now.

By: eh

eh — Tue, 20 Mar 2007 12:44:13 +0000

Graduated with my PhD in 1996 and was deep in debt & broke. The last two years before graduation was spent avoiding collection agents and selling blood. I even owed 1000′s of dollars to my close friends on top of credit card debt & student loans. I suppose I “cared” about personal finance then but only to avoid it!

But then I got my first real job (in my field even) and with my first paycheck I wanted to pay off my debt (at least to my friends). I was so helpless with money I could not even do that so one of my friends suggested that I get debt counseling (at Consumer Credit Counseling). I did so and it opened my eyes to budget basics. Budgeting came easy once I paid attention. I found money to pay not only my friends but also all my other debts (most which had gone into collections). Then I saw one of the Gardner brothers on C-span (press club) and that led me to the ever-increasing on-line world of personal finance. Just recently I have really started to read the pf blogs.

So today, 11 years later, I live well below my means, am debt free except for a modest mortgage, have ample credit, have substantial investments in individual stocks & index funds, and a solid cash reserve and am looking at the ability to retire early at age 50.

So I really got the importance of personal finance when I left the university and discovered that me being a deadbeat was not hurting some faceless/souless company but rather my very real friends. I am so very glad I paid my friends back…and yes, even those big companies too.

They were good friends…..and still are!

————
Great story Mr.eh! Glad to read that consumer credit counseling helped you out, apparently they are one of the better debt consolidation/counseling service out there. Your friends do sound a great bunch too, especially since it seem like they care more about your financial well-being than getting their money back.

By: Lauri

Lauri — Tue, 20 Mar 2007 12:03:44 +0000

I started getting truly concerned about the hole of debt I had been digging myself into for years just in the last few months. It started with reading a few personal finance blogs, here and there, until I realized I was adding blogs to my bookmarks and checking them many times a day.

Buying a house last year has also been a motivator. And really, it just seemed like it was time to own up to past mistakes and work on correcting them.

By: Debt Blitzkrieg » Blog Archive » So when did YOU start caring about personal finance?

Tue, 20 Mar 2007 04:47:37 +0000

[...] Buying Crap has a GREAT discussion going on about how people got started in their quest to improve their financial situation. Check it [...]

By: Jessica

Jessica — Tue, 20 Mar 2007 01:53:10 +0000

It wasn’t until I got some money that I got interested in it.

I was suuper poor all through college, I had a baby in the middle of it, got a full time job after school, bought a house… I never carried any debt or anything… I put into my 401k and saved and whatnot… but I wasn’t interested in finance until I got married and all of a sudden we had to houses and tons of money coming in. I sold my house and got a large amount of money that I had to figure out what to do with…

By: The Masterbating Bear

The Masterbating Bear — Tue, 20 Mar 2007 01:50:02 +0000

“Personal huh….?

By: Cap

Cap — Tue, 20 Mar 2007 00:18:10 +0000

Lots of great response, many of them varying too! It seems there are quite a lot that has always cared about their finances (which is awesome, by the way). I still haven’t fully (& carefully) read through all the comments yet; so if you haven’t share yet, feel free to!

Note: Just because I didn’t directly respond to your comment does not mean I didn’t read it.

By: junger

junger — Mon, 19 Mar 2007 23:27:39 +0000

When I started my first job, stopped living off of my parents and got married — all were within a 9 month period. We didn’t make a lot of money, but had a large rent (by choice). So budgeting was necessary. And, thanks to our wedding, we happened into a bit of money … and needed to know what to do with it.