An interesting find...

So, I'm bored tonight and scrolling through my livejournal (which rarely gets updated these days), and I came across a post that I thought I'd share here...

Oct. 13, 2008 So, according to my Quicken, over the past three years and 13 days (Oct. 1, 2005 to Oct. 13, 2008), I have increased my net worth by $12,603.53!! This is counting my student loan and whatever is in any savings accounts, so it's not like have that much cash just lying around. But it does mean that in general, my debt has decreased since I've been in Connectihell. And really, that stayed rather constant until August 2007 when my net worth increased by $11,806.52. That seems insane to me. But it's been my strategy of paying debt and not getting new debt. The only exception has been the fact that I had to take out a $7500 personal loan to pay off my shitty-ass therapist last year. So, yeah, I still have a negative net worth (~2/3 of which is student loan), but it's ticking up. It'll be nice once these last two credit cards are gone completely. I love bringing account balances to zero. =)

Interesting. Rereading it now, I'm curious to look up these numbers and delve deeper into this, but the Quicken is on the other computer and I'm all comfy here in bed.

An excellent post...

...of course, it's not mine. Dr. Faith sent me a like to This Post by Trent over at The Simple Dollar. I think that most people, or most people in my situation anyway, have had a moment like this. Maybe they don't even realize it, yet. Or maybe they're like me and living in the harsh, poor reality that they created years ago.

Ever since I read this tonight, in the back of my mind, I was searching for that moment in my history. There are lots of moments like those. I've posted before about my college spending habits, and I have to say that that is where a lot of my shit started. But was there a defining moment? I don't think in college. Well, I did buy a computer on a credit card that was top-of-the-line (for 1997). I remember years later still thinking how I was still paying for that computer. I still have it. It's in the kitchen, not hooked up, and collecting dust. I still have that credit card. I don't (can't) use it. But for a long time, the bulk of that balance was that computer.

There were plenty of things in graduate school (I swear I plan to write that post...trust me) that were horrible spending choices. I'm telling you Best Buy was the bane of my existence. Kinda still is. The most memorable was the day that a friend and I left lab early, went to Best Buy, and dropped a total of over $2000. ON A WHIM. All on credit cards. I get nauseous just thinking about it now.

Anyway, really I just wanted to share Trent's post and get you (and me) thinking about these things. One must learn from the mistakes of the past in order to grow and move forward. Oh but if I had a time machine, I'd slap myself silly. (Unless, of course, touching my past self caused a crazy paradox reaction as in Timecop.)

It's hot as BALLS in here!

Summer has "officially" (finally?) arrived in the shitty state of Connecticut. And it is balls-sticking-to-your-thigh HOT. I'd complain about the humidity too, but growing up in the south has pretty much desensitized me to humidity.

So, I'm having a crisis and a battle of wills with myself (myselves?). My apartment has central air conditioning. I've never had an apartment with central air before, so I know that I don't need it. I also know that running the bloody thing will drive my electric bill through the roof. These two things are what's keeping me from turning it on. I've promised myself that I wouldn't ever turn it on, because I know how horrible my bills could get (or I fear how high they would be).

But still, sitting here at dusk in a pool of my own sweat, I'm tempted to turn the frakker on. Last night, I rearranged my bedroom furniture so that my bed could be by the window with the fan blowing directly on me. It helped some, but I still yearned for the dry frostiness of the central air.

I think I may need to break down and turn it on when Dr. Faith comes to visit. But I fear that I won't be able to make myself turn it off when she leaves.

Oh but it would be so nice not to be sweaty and gross all the time I'm at home.

**sigh**

One day, I'll be financially stable enough that I won't have to worry about spiking my electric bill in the summer and my gas bill in the winter.

History of My Wordle - Parts I & II

Dr. Faith discovered this wonderful website the other day (wordle.net). I thought it would be cool to make one from my blog. The following image was created with Wordle using the History of My World Parts I and II.



I find it interesting how prominent certain words are. Really makes me think.

Seriously Addicted to Toaster Strudel

Since I shut down my personal website a few months back (I didn't feel like spending $10/month for something that never got updated), I needed to find a new place to host my photos. Who wants a blog without pictures? Not me!

Anyway, I got a Photobucket account, and I wanted to test it out. Here's a current shot of my freezer, just to emphasize just how addicted to toaster strudel I really am.



I seriously need a 12-step program.

Woah. Too much data in a short amount of time.

So, I'm sitting here tonight, awaiting the impending thunderstorm and watching The Bold and the Beautiful, and I get to thinking about my money. Well, I was thinking about all kinds of things, really, and chatting with Dr. Faith. She's got me excited about something that I never thought that I'd be excited about (but that's for another post). Anyway, the conversation turned to finances. She pointed out to me that Debt Ninja posted about getting your free credit report today.

Of course, I check it out. Holy crap! There is a ton of information out there about me, and there was a lot of stuff that I hadn't thought of in years on there. So, I've got 29 pages of my own personal financial data to go through this weekend. Most people would yawn or scoff, but I'm excited. At first glance I've noticed a few things:

(1) I'm not as horrible as I thought I was.
(b) No one has stolen my identity.
(iii) My total revolving credit is down to 47% (meaning that 53% of my credit card debt is paid off).
(4) My student loan is kicking my ass.
(e) I (again) owe my parents a HUGE truckload of gratitude.

It's getting late, and I still want to watch these two episodes of Samantha Who?. So, I plan to tackle all this head on this weekend. I don't have to work this weekend (thank GOD), and I've got 30 episodes of Days of Our Lives to watch. So, I'm going to multi-task some major PF blogging with some hot soap watching tomorrow.

I intend to discuss my student loan in more detail, which will probably come in the form of the long awaited History of My World - Part III post. I'm going to use the summary table from the credit report to rekajigger my status bars (and possibly adjust my 2009 goals). I'm going to figure out how I'm doing on my $100/week plan for July, and figure out where my money is going this month in a more systematic way (instead of a haphazard list). And we'll see what interesting information we can gather from my credit report. I'm totally stoked.

But for now, I'm going to enjoy (for probably, and hopefully, the last weekend of my life) my one remaining bad-vice, and then settle in for some more TV.