Finances

The ugly truth about being a grown-up is that at some point you sit down and think, I have to deal with my money. The long stint of under-employment last fall and the brief stint of it this spring has left me with a ugly little pile of credit card debt, to say nothing of my rather massive pile of student loan debt. Then I get this new job with a big pay raise but I have to move to a far more expensive place to live and find a new expensive apartment. So today I concentrating on getting my finances in order. I'm considering looking into Quicken or some other money tracking software. But mostly I'm just setting up some goals for myself.

1. Save $100 a month. It's not a lot, I know, but at this point, if I want to really chip away at my debt, its all I can do. And its important to pay yourself first.
2. Pay off one credit card by the end of the year.
3. Start an emergency savings fund with some of that $100 a month. Actually I'm doing this one right now. You can get far better interest rates at online banks. So I'm hoping to get a savings account with a 5% rate at HSBC Direct.
4. Give myself a budget and learn to live within it.

That's all. It's going to be a learning experience. But if I ever want to get out of debt, I've got to start somewhere.