Secret Folder #0000

Dark and dusty describes this place.  It smells like old people and moldy paper.  Or it could be Depends.  This is the place where everyone wants to go, not for the surroundings of course.  It’s not a hip bar, or a high end gym to meet beautiful people.  Its not a chic restaurant or a gloriously extravagant hotel.  Not even close.  Here the only sound is a drip from a pipe somewhere and the occasional scurry of vermin.  This place is where Secret Folder #0000 rests.  This is real life.

At least thats what it all seems like.  All that old knowledge about finances and money manegment.  Almost seems as if it was started somewhere around the time when someone named Ughhiklheim invented the wheel.  I know all of this, in my room, on my own bookshelf lies the secret folder.  All it contains are the finacial advice, how to make money, millions even.  We all have it.  Funny how we try to look in everyone elses secret folder to try and make heads or tails of our own issues.  In every folder, the information stays the same.  It NEVER changes.

I remember everyone telling me things like.  Live below your means.  Avoid credit and use cash.  Save a percentage of your check each week.  Invest in mutual funds.  and most of all Get out of debt.   Look in your own folder.  I bet you’ll find the same stuff.   The one I am going to focus on at this point of my life is getting out of debt.  I know sounds terrible doesn’t it.  You mean people can LIVE WITHOUT DEBT?!?!  Well yes.

The reason why I want to get out of debt first before starting to save for the honey moon is this:

I figure I pay out (roughly) about almost $200 in bills each month.  Now most people would have it made if thats all they had.   But you have to realize I haven’t hit the house payment yet, and that number doesn’t include my insurance every three months.  I get paid every two weeks so I get paid twice a month, about.  So if I put into the bank about $600 each month.  I really only get about $400.  Factor in gas I average about $100 a month so thats $300 left.  Ok so now food.  5 days a week at about $6 a day thats $30 a week on average.  Subtract another $120 from that.  $180 is about what I have left.  I usually hav eto make some purchases for something it seems like.  So by the time my next check rolls around I am usually sweating and playing “Time the Bills”.  You know, where you time when your bills will come out so your not late, but before you have the money so you HAVE to deposite that check on Friday.  So I figure if I could cut it all out and just pay for the occasional food and gas then I’d be able to save MORE for the honeymoon.

Thats why I got some books and

Blood in the Water

My blood’s in the water. My financial blood that is. I have this feeling that somewhere below me, there are a lot of teeth that want to increase the amount. Many mouths, that if they weren’t underwater would be salivating at the thought of my precious green blood flowing out on azure waves.

Its not a secret that everyone makes money off of us. Do you ever feel like your somewhere in a small pod, like in the “Matrix”? Like the banks and credit card companies are the harvesters? No? Ok scratch that last comment, In addition to slight A.D.D. I am also on the verge of insanity. You mean this knife? No I wasn’t thinking…. *cough*. So I suppose the only way to not feel like this is to not owe them anything. I’m trying.

So as I put on my other page, I am trying a few other things to make some extra cash. I keep bidding on some freelance design projects. Haven’t got to much going on as far as that goes, but I am going to make an extra $1000 this month from two websites I have put together. I am working on my own for my design company, Form Designs, but when it comes to my own work I am a perfectionist so I have scrapped at least a box car load of ideas. So with part of the money I have to buy a new phone. And pay for XM radio for this period. I know, I know. I should just cancel it and start saving and investing that money. But seriously, have you LISTENED to normal am/fm radio lately? I mean there are more commercials on there than paparazzi photos of Britney Spears. So that will be the last to go. I will let it go if I have to. Thats a big if.

Well thats really all I have to update today. Next week I will be working on 3 more websites. I’ll post them. One is for a church so I am not really going to charge to much-so I will have to rely on some more freelance stuff to get more dough. That and I need to stop spending money eating lunch at fast food or restaurants. See, I know how to SAVE and all that jazz. It’s just doing it that is difficult. It’s like my minds that good angel and tells me what not to do, but the bad angel controls my body. So until I exorcise myself and get that straightened out I’ll do my best. Thanks for reading people. Have a fabulous day. See you tomorrow.

Oh No! The Numbers!

All right so I know alot of people in the country are in the same situation as I am, that is in debt and hating the “Interest Hounds of Hell”, eating our paychecks little by little.  But personally, whenever I think about the numbers of it all, I would much rather attach a car battery to my cereal spoon and take a bite.  At least that way you have one heck of a hairdo, and you could claim disability the rest of your life.  I think that might even make the debt go away…  However, since I don’t plan on doing that, I have to face up to the fine mess I’ve gotten myself into.  They always told me that part of growing up and becoming a man was to face your fears.  That you had to either beat them so you weren’t afraid anymore, or at least learn to deal with them so they didn’t hinder you.  That said, I suppose this means that it is time for me to grow up financially.  It wouldn’t bother me so much if it was easier.  Mind you it’s not that I am lazy or hate hard work or any of that.  Really it’s just the amount of time that its going to take to fix all of this.

Most problem a guy, (sorry I’ve only ever been a guy so I can only address my problems from a guy’s view…or at least my view), might run into we deal directly and with fervor.  We pummel it into the ground, we take action and knock it out, bust it up and throw it away.  Or we grab some wrenches and a monkey wrench and start to go to town on some poor, defenseless pipe or appliance.  Things that we can’t deal with in that direct forward manner, we don’t get.  Thus our issues with women, but thats for another blog.

So this debt problem I know it CAN be fixed.  The issue is that it will take at least another year and a half at my current income to knock all this out.  I’m ADD to a fair degree, just not enough to take anything for it.  At least thats what they tell me.  So with this I can’t pay attention to a project for longer than 5 days, I am afraid I am going to screw this up.  But, I can’t do that either because I have to get married, and my fiance doesn’t know the extent of my debt, and I don’t want her to either.  On a side note, she knows I HAVE debt, I’ve just never outline the numbers for her.

So somehow I have to increase my income to pay off my debt AND pay for our honeymoon.  To Italy…and Greece…*sigh*.  Ok so for the sake of less math and easier numbers, I’ve rounded out my debt.

I have 5 credit cards with a rounded total of around $5,000 charged.

My school loans go in around $15,000

Now to some of you, that doesn’t hardly even seem like any debt at all.  But you have to remember that I am still in college with both early and late classes, so I can only work the weekends.  Needless to say, I don’t make that much a year.  Plus I have to drive 35 miles to school everyday.  Yea ouch is right.  Gas right now is killing me, and I drive a Cobalt.  Some of you trucker must be walking around in a daze at the gas stations.

So anyway thats the damage.  To me its like looking down the long, cold barrel, of a 50cal just knowing that a wrong move will be the last move.

I am going to try some internet stuff to see if I can’t peck out a few more dollars somewhere.  I hardly dream of making millions in this year, but hey I need about $35-$40,000 to pay off everything and make the honeymoon all that it should be.  Last year I think I made $12,000, all year.  Yea I know, I am beginning to wonder if this might be impossible myself.  Oh and I need a new phone as well, so make that $40,200.

So here’s the Deal…

Ok, so I know you already think, I’m trying to sell you something or whatever. Well I’m not, sorry.  There are enough marketers etc in the world that I think you wont have any problem if you so choose to Google them.  Anyway.  I said I was going to lay it out so I will.  I’m 21, and I’ll be 22 in October.  The blessed day of the 24th if your really nosy.  In May I proposed to the love of my life and sweet heart and we decided to get married in June of next year.  Sounds like life is just goin’ peachy huh?  Well almost.  The deal is this.  I am getting married, of course like almost every other poor sap in this country I have debt.  I am still in college.  And I have to pay for the honeymoon.  Did someone say, Greece and Italy?  She did.  She wants to see her family in Italy then head to Santorini to spend our blissful first weeks of glorious matrimony.  Me too, except I have to pay for it.  Thats a problem.  (Of course if all you fine people would like to send me some Euros, or heck even USD…didn’t think so).  So I have one year to shed my financial shackles, throw back my head in a victory howl, and some how make some money.  That what this blog will follow, one whole year until my wedding on June 6, 2009, the quest for me to make the cash necessary to do everything I need to.  I will be calculating my exact debt and posting it.  Also I am going to be trying all kinds of “stuff”, some stupid i am sure to make some extra money on the side.  So I’ll document all that as well.  My hope is that some how at the end of all my pain and suffering, like a mother in labor, I can give birth to something useful, and helpful, (minus the slime, crying and then, poop).  So stay tuned.  I will try to do this about every day or so, but between work, school, and the missus, we’ll see.