# Starting my journey, better late than never.



## ABRich (Jun 28, 2011)

Hello, I stumbled onto this site while googling ways to save money and decided that starting my own diary would hold myself accountable for my spending.

Like a lot of us out there, I come from a lower class family who never thought about tomorrow and I was never taught about money and the importance of saving it. I've done ok for myself but I know that I should be light years ahead of where I am now. I have a wife, mortgage, bills ect and I am 34 years old in August, living paycheck to paycheck with a lot of bad debt and I intend to change this. I make pretty good money where I work but every year what I earn goes down (i'm a flat rate bodyman working in a shop that is on its way out as far as i'm concerned), I fully intend on opening my own shop but now regret not having any substantial savings to help.

I have the following


Mortgage = $288 000 biweekly payment of $790.18

Line of credit = $19000.00 balance (bought a piece of equipment for my shop, it was a good deal and plan on having my company purchase it back to eliminate the line of credit)

Property taxes = $324.00 monthly

Capital one MC = $3200.00 balance
TD Visa = $1800.00 balance

Holiday trailer = $29000.00 monthly payment of $387.64 (10 year term)

No RSPs
No real savings

I want to break out of this cycle and start establishing wealth. I realize that my credit cards need to be taken care of first and intend on paying them down asap. I have a lot of things which I don't use and plan on selling them to put towards my credit cards.

Any comments / input would be welcome.


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## Mensa (Oct 19, 2010)

Welcome to the forum!

You have started moving in a positive direction by deciding to plan for the future. Good for you!

You are correct in deciding that the first step with your debt must be to pay your credit cards off. You mention that you're living paycheque to paycheque. Given your monthly payments (loc, mortgage and [I assume] personal loan for the trailer) you'll need to establish a workable budget that allows you to put your extra cash against your credit cards. Selling unneeded "stuff" is a start, but a budget is a necessity.

I would also suggest that while you're working out your budget, you manage to find some money (doesn't matter how small) to be putting toward savings. I know that some will disagree with me, if favour of putting it all toward the cc debt. I find that there is a psychological boost to not only watching you debt go down, but also to see some accumulation of funds. Doesn't have to be (and at this point SHOULDN'T BE) huge. Just a little bit to start with.

Have you worked out a budget yet? You mentioned that you're married. Does she earn and income, and can she help? 

Best of luck!


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## the-royal-mail (Dec 11, 2009)

Paying off those debts is an excellent motivator. Consider for yourself if you have changed the behaviour that lead to this debt. What sort of things have you purchased to be able to rack up so much debt? Is the stuff still valuable enough to get a lot of it back in resale? How do you/we know you have changed your ways? These are all questions you need to ask yourself and to answer.

Also, please keep in mind that paying off debts is like mopping up spilled water. It's necessary to mop up the floor, but more importantly, have you stopped the source of the leak? No sense mopping up (paying off debts) until you have plugged the leak.

Feel free to answer these questions in the thread but the answers are really to help guide you.

Good luck - keep us posted and feel free to ask questions and interact with us!


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## Four Pillars (Apr 5, 2009)

You're going in the right direction if you want to make a change. 

Given that you have $5,000 of credit card debt, I'd say you aren't even quite living paycheque to paycheque.

Start with paying off the cards.

Maybe figure out some kind of budget? It doesn't have to be super-detailed, but something that ensures you are saving some money. 

You don't mention any income figures, so it's hard to evaluate your debt. 

Have you thought about selling the holiday trailer? Would that help you meet your goals?


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## kcowan (Jul 1, 2010)

I would also suggest selling the trailer. That will inflict some pain but be a key indicator of how serious you are. Getting out of debt is like stopping alcohol consumption.


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## I'm Howard (Oct 13, 2010)

Get a higher line of credit at Prime plus 1%, pay off the credit cards.

the monies used to buy the shop equipment should be interest deductible.

Keep a trailer, maybe you could get a gently abused one, but you need some recreation in life, you are 34,Senior Citizens have slightly aged bias opnions.

Pack your own lunches, watch where you spend yoor monies, ask yourself what you would do when your Mortgage Rates hit 10% and prooceed with a sense of urgency.

Can you rent out part of you home, short term pain for long term gain.

34, you are still young, kudos for stepping up to the plate(Mine called me last night from a train station in China on his way to a city whose name I can't pronounce, retirement, morgtage, RRSP's ,not part of his language, differant strokes for differant folks).


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