Queercents

A good plan, violently executed now, is better than a perfect plan next week. –General George S. Patton

To get control of your debt, you need to make a plan. Your Debt Plan doesn’t have to be fancy. Like General Patton says above, the most important thing is to implement it now, rather than get it perfect. (NB: please do not take General Patton to be your role model in all areas of life.) Here is my earliest–distinctly unfancy–handwritten plan, from last year when I first started to try and get hold of my finances:

I taped this (see note below) to my nightstand as a reminder of my goals. As time went on, I discarded this plan for a slightly more savvy one. But just having a plan was a major step forward for me.

So how do you come up with a Debt Plan? This will get you started:

STEP ZERO-Track Your Money. Nothing can be done about your finances if you can’t see what you’re doing! I accumulated a lot of my debt simply by not paying enough attention, and not facing the reality of my financial situation. Read the rest of this entry »

Once we’ve realized that we’re in debt and decided to do something about it, the natural sequel is to decide what to do.

In future weeks, I’ll be talking about more specific strategies for getting out of debt. Today, we’ll just start with the most basic of basics.

No matter what form your exact path out of debt takes, it will be shaped by one of three strategies. As all sensible people know, there are only three and exactly three ways to get out of debt:

1. Spend Less
2. Earn More
3. Both

The Big Leap: Changing Your Mental Money Outlook

It’s difficult to accept that we have to make big changes in our lives. Some people seem to be born with an integral ability to manage money successfully, but I am not one of those people. I was used to spending carelessly and thinking very little—very, very little—about the consequences. Those of us with this kind of money management frailty may have a difficult transition to a financially stable life. Read the rest of this entry »

Hello again! Cate here, talking, as usual, about debt.

The point of my series here at Queercents is to talk about the dangers of getting into debt. But when I strenuously suggest avoiding debt, I’m not talking about all debt. Good Debt and Bad Debt are polar opposites and mortal enemies.

Bad Debt can make you miserable and have wide-reaching negative consequences in your life. Good Debt can enable you to buy a house, or go to school, or own a car. And if it’s properly managed, Good Debt is a healthy part of your financial life.

Good Debt generally results from your conscious decision to borrow money for a big ticket item that will produce concrete benefits to your life. The bad kind of credit card debt that I’ve talked about often result from the opposite–an unconscious trickle of spending on small items that produces no obvious benefit. I’ve had both kinds: Read the rest of this entry »

Everyone has their own money story. The basic principle of personal finance is that it’s, well, personal. What works for one person doesn’t always work for another. The most important thing to remember is that you have to do what works for you, in your life.

Which means that everyone who wants to get out of debt has to do so in their own way. And everyone got into debt in their own particular way.

This is how I got into debt: At the beginning of this year, I was looking at finishing college in a few months. I had spent the past year or so working in an unpaid internship and a very low-paying fellowship. I knew that working at these instead of real jobs would have financial hardships, but I figured it’d be worth it to build up my resume. I had used up all of my savings, except a retirement fund, and had racked up about $1000 in credit card debt, most of which had been avoidable if I’d been willing to pare down my lifestyle. I figured after I started working full-time in March, it wouldn’t take long to pay that down.

Unfortunately, I was hit with some major unexpected expenses, and *without an emergency fund*, I had few options. In March, I ended up paying a $700 debt that was never mine in the first place to my former apartment managers. (That’s another painful story. Read the rest of this entry »

Hi! I’m Cate, I’m in debt, and I’m going to be writing about it here on Queercents.

I’m a recent college grad working in a non-profit job. After graduating, I had no student loans, but about $5000 in credit card debt.

A LOT of people are in credit card debt. The average American has $9000 in consumer debt. I’m going to guess that the average Queercents reader has less than that, because if you’re paying enough attention to your money to read blogs about it, you stand a better chance of having a handle on your financial situation.

Everyone who’s in credit card debt has an shocked moment when they realize that they are in serious debt. That’s the moment that you decide you need to take serious steps to pay it back, even if you don’t know how to do that. Read the rest of this entry »