Until I catch up w/the February and March events, I will co-mingle past and present events, so bear with me.
I called AX today to find out about lowering my interest rate. The answer was no because i had a late payment in July. Hmmm...thought I had been on time since early last year. I'll call back soon and see what someone else has to say. What I will do is pull my statements to see what has happened w/the interest rates in the past 6 months.
According to Ms. N.. any amount I paid over the balance due would go directly to principle (or the new principle). Even though another amount is due for more charges next month. We'll see.
Monday, March 31, 2008
How I Arrived at this Stage Again
A post by Valorie Burton titled "What is it Finally Time for You to Do" hit my inbox. Now I have been known to skate on her posts because they require more work than I'm willing to do. However, I read this one. It hit me. It's finally time to deal with my money and get my financial house in order.
Now this is not the first time I had engaged in this process. I grabbed my Money Book. A simple composition book where I had been recording my $ stats since early 2000. I began to record in my 2 categories. What I Have & What I Owe. Just this step was empowering. I didn't have access to all the info at that time but little by little I filled in the numbers.( I have just one figure to obtain). I looked at it all and realized I had been whittling down my debt. I forgave myself for any past indescretions, acts of stupidity or just plain falling asleep at the wheel.
I also thought about and wrote down my feelings about money and how I was handling/thinking about it and shaped those thoughts into a few goals.
The next momentous thing that happened was flipping thru my Citibank statements, I noticed that I paid $200 interest the previous year. WHAT!!!! Now the loan was roughly $1,200 at the time of that statement. I've yet to confirm. I'm still mortified. In February however the balance hovered around $812 or so. I had just made my usual $40 payment. Something clicked. Stupidity of the situation perhaps. I got in gear. Since I had received a bonus from my job, I put 400 of that toward the loan. My other terrific action. Was to put about take $300 from my savings toward a non-interest bill that is due yearly. I surmissed I could pay them 50 bucks a month and still be okay. In the following two weeks I made another 40 payment to Citibank. Silly me for not cancelling that payment since I decided I'd shift that 40 to my Amex which has a much higher interest rate.
All told I'm awaiting my next statment from Citi which will give me a much better idea of where I am.
Now this is not the first time I had engaged in this process. I grabbed my Money Book. A simple composition book where I had been recording my $ stats since early 2000. I began to record in my 2 categories. What I Have & What I Owe. Just this step was empowering. I didn't have access to all the info at that time but little by little I filled in the numbers.( I have just one figure to obtain). I looked at it all and realized I had been whittling down my debt. I forgave myself for any past indescretions, acts of stupidity or just plain falling asleep at the wheel.
I also thought about and wrote down my feelings about money and how I was handling/thinking about it and shaped those thoughts into a few goals.
The next momentous thing that happened was flipping thru my Citibank statements, I noticed that I paid $200 interest the previous year. WHAT!!!! Now the loan was roughly $1,200 at the time of that statement. I've yet to confirm. I'm still mortified. In February however the balance hovered around $812 or so. I had just made my usual $40 payment. Something clicked. Stupidity of the situation perhaps. I got in gear. Since I had received a bonus from my job, I put 400 of that toward the loan. My other terrific action. Was to put about take $300 from my savings toward a non-interest bill that is due yearly. I surmissed I could pay them 50 bucks a month and still be okay. In the following two weeks I made another 40 payment to Citibank. Silly me for not cancelling that payment since I decided I'd shift that 40 to my Amex which has a much higher interest rate.
All told I'm awaiting my next statment from Citi which will give me a much better idea of where I am.
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