Progress Chart Resurrected

See it over there?

That little chart right above the coffee cup all but begging you to subscribe to my feed?

Well, the last time I used a progress chart was back in 2008 — the year that I plowed through just about every single goal I’d set for myself.

Then, in 2009, having accomplished so much, I got a little fluffy and failed to accomplish much of anything.

I didn’t use a chart in 2009 and I think it might have been partially to blame for my lack of progress too…

So it’s back.

And hopefully it’ll work.

I’ve got a looooonnnnggggg way to go — roughly $26,266 — to accomplish my goals for 2010.

Posted on February 8th, 2010 at 6:55 am by Brainy Smurf
2010 Goals, Finance, Motivation | 3 Comments »

You Lost Me at $21k…

When I first came across a personal finance blog, which happened to be Jonathan’s My Money Blog, just over two years ago, my most anticipated post was the one that comes at the beginning of each month — the net worth update.

At the time, I was in 20-something thousand dollars in credit card debt and seeing updates like his — how his finances were on the up-and-up each and every month — really inspired me not only to start Pants in a Can but to get my own finances in order and start really keeping track of not only of my finances but my progress too…

I also felt that I could relate to his situation (and many others too) as it seemed that we were all in the same boat. A decent income, a nice retirement plan already in place, and some HUGE debts.

It got to the point where I started to think, hey, if so-and-so can knock down $XXX off of their credit card balances each month, why can’t I?

Just weeks later, I was doing the exact same thing — following their lead — and it took less than two years to wipe all of my debts off of the table. It was an awesome exercise.

Another blogger’s net worth that I’ve followed pretty closely for the past couple of years is Flexo’s over at Consumerism Commentary.

He’s been doing the net worth updates since 2003 and really started from scratch with a net worth bouncing around the $20k mark for the first few months.

That has to be pretty relatable for those just starting out.

His whole journey of building wealth from that $20k mark has been really amazing — each month he just kept plugging away.

It’s also been quite motivational, giving me the feeling that, hey, I can do that too…

Until recently…

You lost me at $21k…

See, Flexo’s last two monthly updates have listed “other income” of over $21k for each month. That’s in addition to his salary.

Yes, in February and March, he brought in over $42k of “extra” cash.

Our net worths aren’t that far apart but I’m not even close to having made even half of that this entire year — including my salary.

I can’t relate.

Now I’m not knocking Flexo’s site or even his success — it’s downright amazing and I’d like to shake his hand — I’m just saying that I can’t “personally” relate to his situation anymore and I’d bet that that’s the case for a lot of readers out there.

I mean, I’ve had a few great months here and there where I’ve brought in over $10k in the span of a month but… $21k consecutively? In a down economy? (I can’t believe I just said that…)

He’s doing something right, that’s for sure.

It just doesn’t feel like it falls under “Personal” anymore. More like, “Small Business” or something…

I dunno, maybe it’s just me.

Posted on April 12th, 2009 at 9:38 am by Brainy Smurf
Finance, Motivation, Success | 10 Comments »

Sensationalism: S&P Hasn’t Been this Low Since 1996!

It’s almost comical now that I stated that my 401k was tanking back on March 11, 2008.

That was almost exactly a year ago. I’m not sure that I imagined that it would tank this badly or for this long.

Or maybe I did.

The line I keep hearing on the news is how the markets “haven’t been at this level since Bill Clinton was in the White House.”

It’s almost as if they expect that little tidbit of info to stir up some dismal feelings or, at the very least, get some sort of reaction, but for me, well, first, the Bill Clinton presidency doesn’t seem that long ago (so it’s hardly a “wow, that was a long time ago” tingle that I’m feeling) and my memories of the mid-to-late 1990′s, financially speaking, are actually quite bright.

Things were good.

I was making a lot of money, I was living way beyond my means, and I didn’t have to worry about the “Axis of Evil” plotting against me just around every corner.

I think that most folks can say the exact same thing.

I dunno, from where I’m sitting, the media are going about this all wrong — you know, if they’re trying to sensationalize a non-story. Like they always do.

If my memory is correct, I’m pretty certain that the NASDAQ was just starting to ramp up with all of the dot.com start-ups in 1996. Politics aside, things were on the up-and-up…

I mean, if we’re really back “there” again, as they seem to be indicating that we are — if even just as a “number”, I’m really looking forward to the next few years.

The late 1990′s were very kind to me.

And I expect the next few years to follow suit — regardless of whether we’re “there” again or not.

Posted on March 3rd, 2009 at 8:36 pm by Brainy Smurf
Current Events, Finance, Motivation, Rants | 1 Comment »

Do I Spend too Much?

A simple yes or no answer will suffice.

Over at the Happy Rock, Debt Destroyer lists out his monthly expenses and every month I think to myself, “Man, that guy spends a lot…”

I’ve even left a comment a few times saying almost exactly that.

But does he really spend a lot?

Obviously, his numbers always seem high to me so I’m pretty convinced that he spends a fortune each and every month but, honestly, I’ve never really kept great track of my own spending — just my plus/minus.

In short, I’m going to give it a try.

I think I had a pretty expensive February, so these numbers might be a little bit higher than usual, but maybe not…

• $1350.00 : Mortgage
• $897.20 : Auto Insurance
• $498.00 : Hockey Jerseys
• $327.08 : Natural Gas
• $320.00 : American Cancer Society
• $154.72 : Electricity
• $123.62 : Business Expenses
• $109.26 : Cable/Internet
• $98.67 : Water/Sewer
• $62.00 : Clothing
• $60.00 : Valentine’s Day
• $59.40 : Phone
• $38.87 : Gas
• $20.15 : E-Filing
• $14.97 : Finance Charges (GRRRR!!!)

That adds up to $4133.94!

Holy crap.

DD’s tally for January was $4205.68 — just a tad more than me!!!

I’m actually quite surprised that I’m right there with him… and to think people gave him a hard time, myself included, over a $180 Pearl Jam box set and here I am dropping nearly $500 on hockey jerseys.

(In reality, I dropped over $800 on hockey jerseys as the American Cancer Society donation was in fact a charitable donation for, well, a jersey…)

It’s complete madness.

The only good thing I can take from this analysis is that, as I said, this was an expensive month for me.

It’s not like I drop $897.20 on auto insurance each month. And the $818 spent on hockey jerseys, as lame an excuse as it sounds, was a much needed splurge.

Subtract those two from the picture and my expenses for the month were only $2418.74.

I say that like it’s nothing… Crazy, I tell ya…

And, technically, I could even take it a few steps further and take out the water bill (it’s quarterly), Valentine’s Day, the e-filing fee, and the finance charges.

And really, with the weather warming up, the gas and electricity bills be be cut in half (or more) in a couple of months.

So I guess it’s all good news for the months ahead.

Either way, though, my short term goal for March will be to keep my expenses under $2500…

According to Microsoft Money, I haven’t accomplished this since April of 2001 — not even close. That blows my mind.

Posted on February 28th, 2009 at 9:38 am by Brainy Smurf
2009 Goals, Finance, Motivation, Spending Report | 11 Comments »

Break Over

Remember that list I put together when I decided to stop my automatic savings plan?

I claimed that I was “taking a break” from saving.

Yeah, it was less than a week ago.

In short, I stopped my weekly transfer into savings because my checking account was feeling drained.

That, and I also wanted to:

1. Pay my latest auto insurance premium in full.
2. Erase the remaining credit card balance from the baby furniture purchase back in January.
3. Be financially irresponsible and feed my addiction one last time before the smurfling is born.
4. Pad my checking account balance to $5000.

So here I am, less than a week later and I’ve already accomplished the first three items.

Insurance is paid, credit card balance is zero, and there are 5 new jerseys in my collection.

The crazy part is that my checking account balance doesn’t look too bad even after all of that! (This is due in part to my State Tax Refund coming in this week.)

So maybe I won’t be off the saving wagon for as long as I’d originally thought?

I think that all I really needed to do was break from the monotonous routine for a few days…

Posted on February 26th, 2009 at 8:42 pm by Brainy Smurf
Finance, Motivation, Savings | 2 Comments »

House Number Procrastination

Back even before we had the house sided, I was contemplating having custom house numbers fabricated.

The diminutive selection offered at Home Depot or Lowe’s just wasn’t cutting it and I wanted something that looked nice. Unique. Classy.

At the time, I blamed my hesitation on wanting to wait and see what the house looked like once the siding was up before making a final decision.

That was nearly 2 years ago now.

Hesitation has become procrastination.

Our house still doesn’t have a number on it.

I’m pretty sure that we’re breaking some sort of local law there but because the mail has continued to be delivered, well, I haven’t felt any sense of urgency to get the issue resolved.

Until now — though I’m sure this feeling will soon pass…

Posted on January 30th, 2009 at 7:25 pm by Brainy Smurf
Home Improvements, Motivation | No Comments »

Downsize? No Way… I’d Rather Just Pay it Off…

The lack of a financial goal for 2009 is sorta making me worry… I mean, I set all of those very specific financial goals for 2008 and worked hard all year long and pretty much accomplished them all.

This year, I’ve got nothing.

I’m saving up for a home improvement project without a price tag.

It’s too, um, fluffy for my tastes.

So, in a desperate search for something more specific that I can keep track of — and after reading Frugal Dad’s resolution about downsizing his home (and concluding that while it will work out well for him, it would be a horrible idea for me), I’ve been toying with the idea of hitting the mortgage hard.

Over the past two years, my debt attacking strategy has knocked around $25k per year off of my combined debt balances. At a pace like that — now, finally, with no other debt besides the mortgage — I could theoretically pay off the house in 4 years.

I mean, just last year, when I set out to overpay the mortgage by $6100, I instead ended up knocking $11k off of the principle, almost double, while still paying down the credit cards and an auto loan.

I can totally “afford” to do this.

Yeah, yeah, I know, it’s dumb to pay off your mortgage early… But I think it’s even stupider to downsize a home that you can easily afford, while likely taking a loss on it as well.

Now, Frugal Dad intends to pay off his future mortgage (for the smaller home) in 10 years time. Maybe that means that I didn’t fall into the bigger is better trap of the last decade because, if I pay mine off in the next 4 years, I’ll essentially be paying it off in 10 years as well.

Regardless, the thought of being just 36 years old and owning my home free and clear (with no other outstanding debt) kind of outweighs the stupidity of it all. Different strokes for different folks.

Still on the fence about it though…

Posted on January 4th, 2009 at 10:04 am by Brainy Smurf
2009 Goals, Finance, Mortgage, Motivation | 5 Comments »

The Most Awesomest People – Mrs. Nancy Jones

I seem to have a special knack for making connections with people, almost instantly, that have ended up pushing me up the social and financial ladder…

Maybe everyone gets that feeling, but for me, it seems to happen on a pretty regular basis and often times from the least expected sources…

The first one that I can recall was my second grade teacher, Mrs. Nancy Jones.

We’d just moved to town and I joined the class a few days into the new school year. It was awkward enough being the new kid, but being the new kid who missed the first 4 days of school made it that much more uncomfortable…

Very early on, probably by the second day, it was apparent that my Midwest “edumacation” wasn’t going to cut it in stiff and preppy New England.

I could read, yeah, and I could write just as well as the other kids. I was up to speed in the math department too, but there was one thing that totally baffled me.

Alphabetical order.

To this day, just thinking about it sends shivers down my spine. Really. I’m not kidding.

See, each morning when we’d come into the classroom, there would be a list of maybe 10 vocabulary words on the chalk board (remember those?). The first task of the school day was to print them out in your neatest handwriting in alphabetical order.

Say what?

For the first few weeks, I faked my way through it. Obviously, that didn’t work and the teacher, Mrs. Jones, called me back to her desk one afternoon and confronted me about it.

I flat out lied to her and said that I’d just messed up that morning and I’d put them in the correct order tomorrow.

Well, the next day, I threw a few sideways glances towards my next-desk neighbor Jacquie Ainslie’s desk, you know, to copy her order of the words.

“Brainy,” growled Mrs. Jones from the back of the room.

BUSTED!

I got up from my miniature desk and walked back to her BIG desk, scared out of my mind.

As I neared, she grabbed my arm, got in really close — we’re talking right in my face, looked me in the eye with and icy blue stare and through gritted teeth said, “You need to tell me when you don’t understand something. You understand me?”

I nodded as I bit the insides of my cheeks.

“You’re better than this. I know you can do this,” ask she shook her grade-book around for added emphasis or something.

Then she proceeded to fill out a “white card”, which in our school was what all of the troublemakers got for, well, being troublemakers.

If you were really bad, you got a “blue card”. I’d have died if I ever got one of those… Either that, or my parents would have killed me.

Basically, they were the elementary school version of detentions and suspensions. Not really harsh, nothing more than a little printed index card, but still not something you wanted to take home and ask your parents to sign… I’m pretty sure the office called your parents about them too — you know, to make sure they were aware…

Anyway, she snatched my paper from my hands, smiled in a scary sort of way, patted me on the head, and told me to go sit back down.

Later that day, as our class headed towards the cafeteria for lunch, Mrs. Jones pulled me aside, discreetly this time, and told me to head to room P-7 after lunch instead of heading outside for recess.

Now I’m thinking she’s going to beat me up or something. Really, I was afraid. I wasn’t real keen on this new school to begin with and things weren’t going like they had in my old school. I’d had just about enough, really…

I headed to the classroom during lunch actually trying to avoid any sort of intersection with Mrs. Jones — she was still eating. I opened the door to P-7, and one of the other 2nd grade teachers was inside with a few other kids that I sorta knew but not really since they weren’t in my class (and I was new).

These other kids were, sorry if this comes across as obnoxious, but they were dumb. I don’t know how else to describe it. I mean, these weren’t only the troublemakers, they were the morons too.

Now, being that I couldn’t alphabetize anything to save my life, perhaps I was just as much a moron, but it really opened my eyes…

Mrs. Jones was right — I was better than this. I didn’t belong in this room.

(An ego was born…)

I missed two recesses total hanging out in that classroom after lunch. That’s all it took before I had a firm grip on what the concept of alphabetical order was all about.

Now I know that a lot of people will just say that Mrs. Jones was just a good teacher doing what good teachers do.

That may be true, but I wasn’t the only kid who struggled in that classroom…

I was, however, the only kid in her class that year that she wouldn’t let fall behind.

She picked me for some reason…

She even stayed on my ass until I moved on to junior high. She didn’t forget. It sucked, actually…

Amazingly she’s still teaching the second grade at that very same school. Hmmmmm, maybe she really is just a great teacher?

Sometimes I think about stopping in but, honestly, I’m not sure I’d have the courage to face her even now!

I mean, what if she told me again, “You’re better than this!”

[I'm never really very good at keeping up with "series" postings, but I'm gonna try harder on this topic. This is the first of at least 15 super awesome people -- not related to me -- who should probably get some credit for the successes and failures I've made and my way of going about, well, everything...]

Posted on November 17th, 2008 at 7:07 pm by Brainy Smurf
Life, Motivation, People | No Comments »

Trying to Keep My Spirits Up

Getting to the elusive debt-free mark was supposed to free up all kinds of money, wasn’t it?

So far, I’m finding that it hasn’t.

Okay, more accurately, it doesn’t feel like it’s freed up anything.

My checking account is still hovering where it’s always hovered.

My savings, well, sure, it’s growing, but not at nearly the rate my debts were falling just a few months ago.

It feels… slow.

One this is for sure, I’m certainly not getting rich like I thought I might…

Seems each month has some unexpected expense come along.

My auto registration was due this month. Last month, I had to pay a huge internet hosting fee. I’ve got that homeowners insurance premium looming. And let’s not forget the bill that is sure to come from the landscape company picking up my leaves…

I know, I know, everybody says that.

Unexpected expenses will always be around the corner and should be expected…

I know that.

None of these were unexpected. They’re nothing new, but in the past they never seemed to hold me back any. Just throw them on the credit card and continue to plug away paying down the debt. Simple as that.

Now, though, when I see my credit card balance swell to over $400, it’s like a crushing blow to my month-to-month plan (which I have yet to detail on the site.)

It shouldn’t bother me, really, it shouldn’t.

Back on this date last year, my credit card balances totalled over $15k. This morning, they top out at $103.

But you know what?

Ridiculous as it may seem, it does bother me.

I’ll get over it… I should, anyway…

Posted on November 11th, 2008 at 6:30 am by Brainy Smurf
Life, Motivation | 4 Comments »

I’m in the Black, not just on Paper, but for Real!

I did it.

I’d claimed that I was going to finish off the car loan on a slow and steady pace but, this morning, I fell back into my old ways: Red Zone Finances.

It has been driving me crazy for a few weeks now seeing a $1k balance just sitting there waiting to be wiped out.

As today was a pay day, and there are no remaining bills for the remainder of the month, I had the funds available to take action.

This was the first car I purchased where I’d actually made a sizeable down payment. It was also the first car purchase that I had a car to trade-in too.

Even still, back in July of 2005, I financed $15210.32.

Wow — thinking about that now — Scion xA’s were/are really expensive…

But it feels good, you know, now that it’s paid for.

But it’s not just the auto loan that I can put in my rear view mirror…

The original snowball plan that I started back in November 2007, which had a total balance of $23085, and included the auto loan, can now be put to rest. All of it. Done.

I’ve had the “schedule” taped to my desk under my keyboard at work so as to keep it fresh in my mind five days a week.

This morning, I peeled it off and replaced it with a picture of my wife. She costs me *way* less money… And less worry too.

The original end date on my debt plan was set for October 2008. Two thousand dollars per month was going to go towards debt. I thought that was being a little too optimistic when I started, but I stuck to it.

Then, after a few months, I didn’t exactly stick to the plan…

I paid a few of the credit cards out of order…

I “broke up with” my highest paying client that was essentially funding the whole debt payment plan in the first place.

I started putting money into savings instead of towards debt…

I increased my 401k contributions when I couldn’t really afford to…

I even blew through tons of cash on vacation — and that was just a couple of months ago…

And who could forget all of the money that I foolishly threw at the mortgage (which was never even part of the snowball plan)? Yeah — that worked out well… Not.

But even though I strayed way off course, the concept of a year long debt plan got me pointed in the right direction, and look, here we are in September 2008 and I’ve already hit the target. A whole month early.

Okay, fine. A whole week early if you want to be technical about it… Sheesh…

Right now, Thursday evening, the only non-mortgage debt I’m carrying is an $824 balance at 0% on a Chase credit card. Yeah, the remaining balance from that ill advised birthday check I wrote to myself to further initiate the elimination of PMI from my mortgage. (more on that here)

But still… It feels good.

It’s like I’m coming out of the water or something. My top half is dry and warming up in the sun. That pig up in the top left hand corner of the screen, yeah, his snout is dry. Oink!

It blows my mind that, on short notice, I can get my grubby hands on over $5000 (checking, savings, and i-bonds) and the only money I owe is $824 total to a credit card company.

I’m not sure I’ve been on this side of the zero line before. Definitely not in the past 11 years.

I mean, I’m in the black, not just on paper, but for real.

That feels awesome.

I’m not sure I thought this day was even possible when I was carrying $32k in high interest debt on January 1, 2007…

Looking forward to when that $824 balance is gone too…

(Declining markets and home values of late aren’t bothering me in the slightest — neither affect my day-to-day, month-to-month, or even year-to-year finances… Sure, my net worth might be dropping like a brick, but my finances are in better shape than they’ve ever been!)

Posted on September 25th, 2008 at 5:47 pm by Brainy Smurf
Finance, Motivation, Success | 9 Comments »

Guilty Pleasure: The Biggest Loser

I admit it. I watch The Biggest Loser on Tuesday nights. All two hours of it. Every week.

I remember when the show first started a few years ago. I didn’t watch it back then.

I often wondered, who would want to watch a bunch of shirtless people go to Fat Camp? I mean, if Richard Simmons isn’t involved, what’s the draw?

Am I right?

But last season, for reasons unknown, my wife and I watched the first episode. I was hooked. Even had a television celebrity crush on Brittany — that’s her pictured. She was one smokin’ fat chick.

Anyway, we watched it religiously through the entire season. It blew my mind to see these huge people morph into, well, people you wouldn’t even consider overweight (though in most cases, they were still a little heavy.)

Then, as with most weekly elimination reality shows, the wrong person won. That left a sour taste in my mouth — the show is stupid.

But this past Tuesday, my wife and I watched the season opener and guess what? I’m hooked again. No television crush this time, I just like the show.

I hate Jillian — not a fan of screamers. I realize some people need that type of treatment to get off their, um, fat asses but I find that I’m more motivated by someone with Bob‘s approach.

The whole thing kinda reminds me of running track in high school. We distance runners would all go up to the weight room and try to hold our own among the fat guys who threw heavy things (shot put and discus). They spent a lot of time in there. We, being walking stick men, obviously did not.

The top priority while in there pumping iron was to not embarrass yourself. That was it. More important than building up some muscle — just don’t embarrass yourself.

They, the chuckers and hurlers, had their own coach who was, well, a yeller. You know, screaming at them and calling them degrading things in an effort to get them to do more. I’d say he got mixed results.

Our coach, Kurt Fioretti, infrequently even came into the weight room, but his approach was a lot more like Bob’s. Always encouraging. He made us think we could do anything — and often times it was successful.

I’ll never forget at an elite invitational meet where I didn’t really belong, way outclassed, and he handed me my race number — you know, the stickers you see some runners stick to their bare legs whenever track & field is on television.

Well, those numbers are seed numbers. If you’re expected to finish first, you get the number one. Second, you get number two, and so on…

He handed me number 3.

“Number 3?! Are you kidding? Have you seen the field?”

“Yeah, I told ‘em you run a 4:09 mile,” he said with a sly grin and a wink.

Now, at the time, the fasted I’d ever run the mile was maybe 4:56. That was a decent time for a high school miler in the early 1990′s, but that kind of pace at this specific meet would put me a distant last.

Just being there, I was at risk of embarrassing myself.

No, make that, I was at risk of humiliating myself and the town name emblazoned across my chest.

I remember lining up at the starting line and having that uncomfortable feeling of those around me wondering who the “new” guy was.

The first lap wasn’t a problem — I’d never had a problem hanging with the studs at that point. The pace was faster than I was used to but I had it in me to stay up front — leading actually.

By the second lap, I knew I was out of my league. I was still leading but there was no way I’d be able to maintain this type of pace.

My coach was running back and forth across the infield so he could cheer me on the back stretch and the home stretch (something he’d never done in the past) mispronouncing my name the whole time, “C’mon Breeny! You’ve got this… Stay strong, you’ve got this Breeny!”

In the end, I didn’t finish first.

I didn’t even finish third like I was supposed to.

I finished sixth with a time of 4:18.

I was ecstatic — I’d knocked 38 seconds off of my personal best. That’s over 12%. That’s HUGE!

After that, I never looked back — and that’s what I see on the show, primarily from those being trained by Bob.

Some motivation, a little encouragement, some shocking results, and then you’re off and running on your own.

It’s a good feeling, even if you’re feeling it vicariously through some really fat people while you lay on the couch with your pants unbuttoned eating ice cream.

I guess what I’m saying is that if you’re looking for a little encouragement for say, hmmm, how about putting more money in to savings, this show is a pretty good start.

No, it’s not about money (though there is the token cash prize at the end), but it’s not really about losing weight either.

It’s more about changing your ways to reach your goals. Some people need to be yelled at Jillian-style, others just need to be encouraged Bob-style. There’s a little something for everyone — just insert your own goal in place of losing weight…

(Now can someone get NBC to speed up the weigh-ins? Seriously, they draw that out for half an hour each episode… Totally unnecessary…)

Posted on September 19th, 2008 at 6:03 am by Brainy Smurf
Life, Motivation, Running, Television | 5 Comments »

Lack of Momentum to Get Over the Hump

I’m in one of those zones of funk where clearing my debts is within sight, but for some reason, after month after month of progress, it suddenly doesn’t feel like I’m getting any closer.

In distance running terms, I’ve hit the wall.

But, hey, I know what the problem is. That’s a start, right?

The additional money I’ve thrown towards the mortgage while trying to get the PMI eliminated has most definitely derailed my plans. Without a doubt. I know that.

So far, I’ve paid down my mortgage an additional $3k more than I thought I had to. And half of that was put on a credit card. That type of maneuver will derail any payment plan…

It was back on October 31, 2007 that I kicked off my first and only debt snowball plan. Through the Happy Rock, I stumbled upon a great debt repayment calculator and it got me excited to make an attempt at a more structured plan than what I’d done in the past.

Looking at my “schedule“, my last non-mortgage debt was to be paid off in October of this year. Having the numbers right there in front of me made it look so easy.

While I didn’t exactly stick to this payment plan all the way through, I was often times over a month ahead of myself. That felt great. My debts were falling by over $2000 per month. Then I hit the wall.

The good news is that it still appears that I’m ahead of schedule. Basically, without asking you to actually look at the chart, I’m supposed to have a balance of $3535 right now. My actual balance on those accounts is $2547. Just the auto loan.

I’m ahead by $1000. Not as great as I’d hoped, but not bad.

Of course, that’s pretending that the new credit card balance doesn’t exist… which means that I’m actually $500 behind.

Oh yeah, and I just booked $772 worth of airline tickets. Make that $1272 behind.

See what I mean?

I’ve hit the wall.

I’m out of gas.

I dropped the baton.

My train has derailed.

Use whichever disaster analogy you are most comfortable with.

Posted on August 22nd, 2008 at 9:02 am by Brainy Smurf
Finance, Motivation | 5 Comments »