Start as you mean to go on

What does that phrase mean exactly? I've heard it a few times in my life. To me, it means begin today with the actions that will contribute to the success you want to achieve in your life. That is exactly what I intend to do.

I'm tired of the stress that my financial mismanagement has brought me. What is so ridiculous about this situation is that I could have taken steps to rectify this YEARS ago but I was too disinterested, didn't see the relevance, or just too consumed with wanting to live my life that I let it all go.

Fortunately, I am young enough that I can dig this out and start planning for a happy, stable, financially wonderful life.

I am proud of my progress today because I got out my credit card statements and student loan statement and figured out exactly how much I owe, what my APRs are, and what my due dates are. This is where I stand as of this morning:

Store credit card #1:
My limit is $100 and I'm over the limit with a balance of $103.53. My APR is a shocking 24.90%.

Store credit card #2:
My limit is $200 and my balance is $199.44!! How close am I!?? My APR is 21%.

MasterCard:
My limit is $300 and my balance is $335.39 - I'm over the limit with this card as well. My APR is 9.90%.

Visa:
My limit is $500 and my balance is $550.77 - again with the over the limit. My APR on this card is an out of this world 28.24%!!!!! Holy Moly!

My total debt on credit cards is $1,189.13.

Okay, so that's not totally horrible, right? It's not completely out of control in terms of the amount but good lord do I suck - 3 out of 4 cards are over the limit and I'm only 61 cents from being over the limit on the 4th card!

Here is the run down on my student loans:

My loans are consolidated under 1 roof so I only have one payment. My balance is $21,238.43 and I am over 30 days late - I a payment of $315.21 was needed to get in good standing. My APR is 3.25%.

So after I did this research, I immediately went online and made payments through my online bank account to all of the above accounts bringing them back down to below the limit. Then I went to ING Direct and opened up an Orange Savings Account with a 3.4% APY. Some of my favorite Personal Finance Bloggers have said a lot of positive things about this online bank so I'm gong to give it a try and see how it goes. Because I opened the account with $250 they gave me an additional $25! So my emergency fund already has $275.00! Yeah!!

I have started developing a game plan in terms of paying down my debt and increasing my savings. Initially my reaction was to tackle the credit cards immediately so that I'm no longer paying the outrageous interest but what would happen if SOMETHING happened and I needed some money - maybe I blow out a tire or two on my car, get in an accident and have to pay the $500 deductible, or something worse. I'd be screwed! So, I've set my initial goal for my emergency fund at $1,000. That means that I am already almost 28% there! Go me!

Once my emergency fund is saved up, here is my plan:

1) Tackle the credit card debt . . .
2) Dig into my delinquent accounts (I haven't even looked at a recent credit report . . . that is a baby step goal that I will accomplish soon) . . .
3) Pay off my car loan
4) . . . and finally pay off my student loan.

After finishing 1 and 2 my plan is to increase my emergency fund to $5,000 - that is roughly two months take home pay. Since I'm single and don't have any kids, if I were to lose my job this should be enough to cover expenses. I'm confident that I have the brains and skills to get another good job in two months . . . or at least two BAD jobs - LOL! But in actuality, I have a stable job with a very stable organization so I'm not worried.

This feels so good - I'm starting as I mean to go and I feel FAB-U-LOUS! I have taken some great strides today towards decreasing my debt and increasing my savings. Small baby steps that I will take next:

-Contact Bank of America (I have a second checking account with them - not my primary account that I use to pay bills) and figure out how much I am overdrawn. I will do that today on my lunch break. I will deposit the amount of money that I will need to bring the account to zero PLUS the amount of money I'm budgeting for gas & groceries for the rest of March.

- Find my auto loan statement and find out what my balance/apr/due date is.