Plan B here i come

So life has determined that i should take Plan B.

Fine.

So here come thrifty shopping,
borrowing money from savings for our trip


Life goes on, and we are on our way to vacation no matter what, life is too short to not enjoy it, borrow money, pay it back on a better day.

cool, Plan B is all set.

33 Days till 2013

SO i have paid off all of my credit cards, used half of it again, and now back to paying minimum on a couple till i pay it all off again, the bandwagon.  its OK, as long as i now have the drive to make sure to pay it all off i am in a better position than i was before.

6 credit cards paid off
3 all paid off
3 re -used
1 almost paid off again while the 2 others on minimum payment..


discipline....discipline....

Life never gets easy, we just get stronger

I came across this line and it struck me big time, all this time i have been looking forward for a better day, "when life gets easier.." starting line to every hopeful conversation, but as the years go by, i realized there is always a challenge ahead you are to face, and everytime, its does get tougher, but what's interesting is how i deal with it changed, i used to cry a lot over it, but now, i just shrug and say here it comes, bring it on.

Yeah, we get stronger overtime.

64 days till 2013

WOW. 64 Days. this means i have 64 days to:

- pay off my credit cards
- finish all my travel shopping
- invest $500
- save $4000 for January trip

Time has been flying too fast, and in 2 days, our fate will determine where we will be by next month.
If everything turns out good, i will be able to fulfill there goals easy. If not, what is my Plan B?

maybe:
-continue paying minimum on credit cards
-only buy necessary stuff for travel, no more goodies for friends
-hold investing
-borrow money from savings - (which i dont really want to do)

sigh, wish me luck. ill update soon.

Save, Pay it Off and make it AUTOMATIC

So i have $250/paycheck direct deposited into my other checking account, that is $500/month of money i use for whatever if i ran short from my paycheck, which was most of the time. Now that hubby will be hopefully going back to working full time since he's done with school, i have used this money to be my vehicle to fund my retirement, savings, and to pay off all my credit cards.

So here's what i have set up to be transferred per paycheck:

10th of the month:

$20 - USAA investment
$100 - ingdirect savings
$100 - pay off credit card
------
$220 - total

25th of the month:
$50 - USAA investment
$100 - Roth IRA
$100 - pay off credit card
-----
$250 - total

i have the following credit cards to pay off:
target - 200 - 2 paychecks
cc #1 - 500 - 5 paychecks
cc #2 - 500 - 5 paychecks
hubby cc #1 - 3 paychecks
hubby cc #2 - 7 paychecks


i am also looking for some money that i can move also into my p2p investment but as for right now, i think this is a good set up:
-I am funding my emergency fund 5% of paycheck, need $50 more,
-Retirement -- target will be 5% of my paycheck so i need to add $50 by next year,
-$200 a month to pay off my $2200 credit card balance.. which will be in about 11 months!

and the greatest thing is my paycheck will still be intact! i didnt touch it at all to pay off these credit cards.

now that this is set in stone, i will just let this drive on its own.

Pay it all off GRADUALLY

I have come to a decision of paying our credit cards gradually.. I have gotten a bunch of advices from paying everything off all at once and start on a clean slate to slowly paying it off while enjoying life at the same time.

So here's my logic of the two:

Paying them all off at the same time when you have the money will free you from bondage, saves you interest and leaves you with nothing extra to spend. It will eventually end up to you using the card again anyway.

While gradually paying it off, setting some aside to savings and enjoying some for shopping and appreciating life will make you feel less of a burden that you are on a mission.
So i opt for the latter, life's too short and id like to enjoy at the same time be debt free.... Eventually.

Extra money - to keep or to give?

All this time i have been looking forward to this day where i can just write off all my credit card bills and bid them goodbye. I now have this money to pay it off and has chickened out. and i have called this blog "PAY IT ALL OFF" not making sense right?

I am in a dilemma where im too scared to use up all my liquid cash to pay off my credit card debts.. and instead to keep it sitting in a savings account, like its gonna grow up to millions overnight.

So if it was you, and you have that extra cash to pay off all but one credit card, would you use it or keep that money sitting pretty in your savings account?

Millionaire's Club here i come

In order for me to become a millionaire, I pledge to do the following (each year):

1. save one paycheck per month, at least $2500 or hopefully more

2. max my Roth IRA every year

3. set aside $1 a day in a jar (as of today, i already owe $283 oops) 

4. invest $1000 in P2P investing with at least 10% return 

5. save all profits from my online shopping store

if i only do #1 and do it religiously, based on CNN's millionaire calculator http://cgi.money.cnn.com/tools/millionaire/millionaire.html i will be a millionaire in 19 years and 4 months! 

just around the time i want to retire! 

so with this, i pledge to myself to join the millionaire's club with J. Money and everybody! http://www.budgetsaresexy.com/2008/04/my-millionaire-to-do-list/

Finding my niche

i have been thinking over and over about what could be a possible niche to make it in the business world.  I talk to people and read numerous blogs and still come back with a big question mark. bottomline, i want the following in a business:

-online
-automatic
-no legwork
-low startup

some are really too smart to get something started and takes it off right away, but for the rest of us, ideas like this dont come easy.

someday, i hope to find this niche.

October budget

Last month I was overbudget again in food. So I will try to increase my food budget this month:

Rent: $1350
Car:$430
Insurance: $98
Irs: $165
Local tax: $70
Power: $100
Gas: $15
Cellphone: $95
Cable/internet: $130
Gas: $280
Food: $500
Kids school: $541
Student loan: $96
Laundry: $40
Spending money: $200

I hope to not have any miscellaneous expenses this month except for the travel I will be booking.

October goal

Fresh month.. New goals!

September have been fruitful, online business have taken off and going well, consignment event was successful, hubby is done with school and ready to go back to work full time.

So for October, my goal really will be payback time:
-pay credit cards off
-bring bills to current
-start to save one paycheck
-start in p2p investing

I'm asking too much for this month but I can always move some stuff I can't fulfill to next month, it's a work in progress after all, right?

My first kids consignment event

My friend and i decided to put together a kids consignment event just about a month ago.  The journey from the day we had happy hour Sunday and marked the date which is exactly a month and 2 days after that for the big day was easy.. making it happen was a different story.

We put the word out there and marked the date, without consignors, no location, no idea where to start. it was refreshing, and definitely nerve wracking, but it was what we needed to push us to really do it.  We called fellow moms and encourage them the plan which half of them dont even know what consignment was, all they thought was to clear their closets and underbeds with junk and give it to us, which exactly what happened., after giving them the "consignment agreement, rules and tagging instructions", which thanks to the internet, a very helpful source, we knew how to sound professional.

So here we are, offering moms the percentage of the sales we make by doing literally nothing. We ended up doing everything, including re-washing the used clothes. It was hardwork. Looking for the location was hard, we didnt want to spend a lot on it, so i called friends around, and eventually landed on a friends unused office and jumped to it right away. Why not, its only $100 whenever whatever, exactly what we needed.

So the day finally came, and with 10 consignors signed up, we have inventory full of assorted kids clothes, toys and kids accessories. We went to the location for the first time (HUGE MISTAKE) and found out we are doomed... it's on the second floor of a no window building, where the front door is closed on the weekends, and the garage door only opens up with a key. No one will find us, and if they do, they cant get in. FUN.

So after spending much time in trying to make us visible to the public, flyers, balloons leading up to the second floor, sticking a folded floor mat to the garage door to leave it opened, we ended up with friends, friends of friends and consignors buying each others stuff. if not because they have our phone number, they will never find us.

Because we were a cheapskate, we lost a huge potential of getting passers by for our event. it wasnt really a disastrous one i can say, coz we still made money, made moms happy getting great deals, and we lost $68 in profit. not too bad for a first timer i think.

After today, i felt great. i feel i have achieve something great with investing time, effort and about $100, i will definitely do this again, with an awesome location this time.

Ending the month with an Over Budget ...

so im staring at my spreadsheet and as always, im over budget on a few locations especially food.
yesterday i tried walking around Target with a number in mind, and for every item i pick, i plug in the price on my phone calculator., i needed to only spend $25 on kids food and i made it in to $20.05 since i get 5% off if i use my Target card. I swear i felt good about it! So starting next month, i will stick to my budget and hold a calculator buying groceries. Let's see how this works.

I have noticed when i know how much i can only spend, and i keep track of it, i carefully choose the ones i can only get, when i used to just look at what's on sale, and what's another $1.99 right? but guess what, it adds up! and my biggest surprise is at the check out counter when my bill is over $100!

so i will try to stay on budget, and keep at it, budgets dont work if you dont work hard to keep it too.

Setting up Investments

I have started to set up small automatic investing mutual funds with www.USAA.com. It automatically takes the funds out of your account so you have no control of it. There's accounts that have good history of returns and only $20 or $50 to start.

I also have started investing with www.mylendingclub.com. It's a peer to peer lending site where you put in money to let others borrow, term of the loans are either 36 or 60 months and depending on the risk which you can choose, you earn interest as high as 5% - 11%. I have just opened this account so I will talk more as I go along.

There's lots of investing options out there but with small startups, so far, I like the www.usaa.com.

Bills need to bring up to current

In the next 3 months, by December 31, 2012, I will have all these below be current:
Truck - 1 month behind
Car - 2 months behind
Power bill - 2 months behind
Cellphone - 1 month behind
Cable - 1 month behind

As I go along, I will go back to this page to update.

Setting up your backup

After opening this blog, I realize that I just don't need to pay off my debts and set up my dream business, but I also have to set up our funds in case of emergency. Where do I put that? How much do I need? Is a balance free credit card good enough?

This is a journey from zero, I hope with this blog, it will motivate me to make,this happen and keep it there.

So far, I have 2 ongoing business that are doing well, but not well enough to make money for me.. I have found the product I want to sell online, but that is  a different world and I'm taking it slow. One thing I want to be sure is anything I will be setting up will all be automatic, online, less legwork and paperfree.

2012 Financial Goals:

1. Pay off all credit cards by December 31, 2012 - $2200
2. Fund travel spending money by December 31, 2012 - $4,000
3. Fund Gift money for holidays by November 30,  2012 - $900
4. Contribute/save one paycheck to financial freedom - about $2500 - ongoing
5. Invest $1000 - by December 31, 2012

inspired by: http://www.nomorespending.net/p/2012-financial-goals.html

My promise to myself

Today starts the mark of a life changing moment for me. Trying to live a debt free life. Life has taken us into a lot off rollercoaster rides and this time, we are back in the hole, and i will dig us out permanently and move forward spending money not just to pay bills and debts but to travel, build businesses around and be forever debt free.