I haven’t bought a car for myself since 2008, at which time I bought an eighteen year old car I never should have sold.
In the intervening ten years, I’ve had two cars, both welcome hand-me-downs from my wife: The Camry-of-Doom and Sparky, my current 2010 Ford Fusion.
Having moved to Austin, paid-off my wife’s Sienna minivan, and begun to sock-away some funds for a new ride, it seems time to consider what’s next.
I’ve been a Dave Ramsey follower for 9 years now. Granted, I’ve never made it past baby step 3 because I’m a selfish spendthrift, but I’ve kept my debt load admirably low throughout that period. We’ve pretty much saved-up for everything we bought in that time, aside from our Honda Odyssey, and I swore with that one that I’d let that sick, in-debt feeling stay with me so I’d never make that mistake again.
Anyone who’s known me for more than a week knows I’m a Dave Ramsey fan. In 2001, I discovered Dave’s book Financial Peace in the bargain bin of a remaindered-book store and bought it for $4. (Appropriate, given Dave says “Never pay retail”!)
At the time, I had an awesome job right out of college and no student loan debt. I had a 2 year note on my yuppie-mobile Volkswagen (but hey, I *deserved* that car, right?) I did pretty much anything I wanted, anytime, by simply swiping a credit card. However, I kept wondering where all my money went. I didn’t have a budget, and I had nary a wisp of a financial plan. Money just flowed like water into, then out of, my hands.
Ah the joys of compiling a large native product from scratch. The time to get a cup of coffee, or blog. Some random musings:
* The stock market is in the crapper, and will probably stay there. The economy is fundamentally flawed, the the recession has already started–no one’s owning up to that yet. I’m reading Alan Greenspan’s “Age of Turbulence”, and I don’t think we’ve seen this sort of market since the 1980’s, though this is sort of a hybrid–recession, but without fundamental strength in finance. Actually, it might be exactly like the early 1980’s, where the banking industry tried to kill itself lending money to Latin America.
Well, after yesterday’s Miniature global stock market meltdown, looks like my options sale won’t go forward after all.
Something about chickens, counting, and hatcheries. :)
Lesson learned: When God smacks you upside the head and says “SELL AT 70”, listen.
Today was the first big milestone on our path to being debt free: We paid off all our credit cards, and we paid-off the Olds Intrigue. Our 5-year-old car is now officially paid for!
W0000000000000000000000000000000000000000000T!
Pretty straightforward:
Get a $1000 emergency fund saved up
Pay-off debts from smallest to largest (Debt snowball principle)
Save 3-6 months of expenses
Save for college
Pay-off house early
Build wealth
He has co-opted good ideas from others (the envelope system, etc.), but I like the focus on intensity.
See more progress on: get out of debt
A pal of mine once remarked that I was addicted to spending money, that money burns a hole in my pocket. I denied this for years, but I am here today to tell you she was right: I’ve cut out credit cards from my spending cold turkey, and I now have the shakes. That’s right, withdrawl.
The first month on this restricted living on a budget is now over, and I’ve just sent off my last big CC payment. (Netflix bills via CC, so I’ll still be getting a Discover bill monthly, but that’s no big deal). I don’t even carry my CC’s with me; they’re at home in a drawer.
Random thought I had while walking to the coffemaker: Socialism and American Capitalism are converging.
Think about it: The central tenet of Socialism is public ownership of the Means of Production. In modern America, most workers own stock in companies (via their 401(k), etc.), so in essence, the workers (the public) do own the means of production.
Now, granted, in our system, the top 1% of the bougeoisie never have to work a day in their lives (Paris Hilton?), but yet own most of the means of production by way of their influence on corporations as shareholders.
Quite alot to ‘blog about today…
First, saw an excellent debate last night on KET (Kentucky Educational Television) regarding the issue of Same-Sex marriage. Honestly, I’m not for it. Barring the religious, moral implications of redefining marriage as a union between consenting adults, sanctioned by the gov’t, it seems like a willful attack on an institution that works: Union between a man and a woman that they might raise children with influence from both the male and female, the Yin and Yang, the Venus and Mars. Forgive me for being trite, but seems like there’s nothing like the nuclear family (or, even the Eastern Kentucky version, the Thermonuclear 12-member-plus-35-member-extended-family family). I’m glad to have grown up with the influence of a mother and a father, and think any child would benefit from such.
