Why I care about Personal Finance

What seems like a million years ago, I got my first car. 1988 Suzuki Samurai. I had a part-time job during high school at McDonalds to pay for it. It was great. My first car. I felt so independent. Little did I know that it gave me the freedom to get myself into financial trouble.

Receipt Roundup

Cocoa Beach Pier

I had a great time on vacation! I stayed with a friend, which means no money for a hotel or a resort. We did alot of free stuff. We went to City Walk, which is a free part of Disney. We went to Cocoa Beach Pier and parked at Publix so we didn’t have to pay $10 for parking. I did spend quite a bit and here is my receipt round up:

Total Clothing: $88.44

Total Food: $93.45

Total Lodging: $52.43

Total Misc.: $23.83

Overall total was: $258.55. Not bad for concert tickets, dinners out for 4 days (one at Planet Hollywood), sou verniers and other miscellaneous stuff (my rechargeable battery for my camera died halfway through my day at Universal Studios). The total does not include my airfare which I bought back in February. I have another trip coming up which the airfare is also paid for.I’d like to say that although I’m trying to get out of debt, I’ve made some pretty big life changing events over the last few days. I’ve decided to go to the University to finish my 4-year degree. Yes it’s a bit more expensive than the private college I’m currently attending, BUT the reason I decided to go to the university is because I will finish a 4 year degree in the same amount of time I would have spent getting my 2 year degree. I have also decided that when I complete my degree, I will pursue other opportunities outside of New York State. I have thought about Orlando, Charlotte, Phoenix, and Houston. Obviously all of these cities don’t get the frigid winters that we get here in central New York. I don’t have any kids, and I’m not married, so I basically have nothing holding me back. So, where I’m going with my rambling is this: I have taken a trip to Orlando already and have a trip to Charlotte planned next month. I will be looking at job opportunities and living arrangement situations in each city to evaluate where the best place for me to go is. I already know I will feel very comfortable in North Carolina or Florida, it’s just Texas and Arizona that I’m not too sure about.

If you were in my shoes, what would you do?

So, I’m obsessed with Coach

I don’t know how to break my obsession. I’m just a sucker for an overpriced, well made bag. I’d like to buy all of them that I see at Marshalls and TJ Maxx, then resell them on ebay. Trouble is, I just can’t afford it right now. I don’t want to put it on credit, not knowing if I’d get my money back in return. BUT it would be a way for me to kind of, live in my obsession. Maybe that can be one of my goals for 2008. Link to post from 3/4/07.

I sent off a letter to First Premier Bank today. Of course I sent it CMRRR, just so they can’t say they didn’t get it. I have this trade line on my report that is reporting wrong, and they have verified it with the credit bureaus once already. I just wish it wasn’t so tough to keep my reports accurate. It’s annoying actually.

Anyways, I balanced my checkbook today. Not looking good until next Friday. I really need to cut back on things. I’ll try to keep track of the things I don’t buy this week.

Having annual fees on credit cards annoys me too. It’s like, what the hell am I getting for that $59 annual fee? Something else to pay off at 17.4%APR. Damn. I really gotta pay that off. I sent in another $75 payment this week. I’ll have to update it when I pay it off. If my calculations are right, I still owe $118.68. on it at this point. I’d love to just take the money that I have in my Electric Orange account and pay that off. I could do it and still save, because my 401K is valued at about $400 so far. I still might do that. I’ll think about it.

What would you do?