I was once the stupid guy, spending my paycheck as quick as I earned it.
Knew all the tricks as to how long before the check I just wrote would take to get to the bank, which bills could be skipped for a month, lies to tell the landlord when I was 2 weeks late, then the lies started..Paycheck lost, car broke and was expensive to fix (out of gas and no credit left) the check is in the mail etc.
Then one day it all hit home! One of my employees came by and asked us to go to the movies with them. I had $7.00 in my pocket, no electricity, no gas and a pile of bills. Gave the money to my girlfriend and told her to go to the movies as I figured out our money problems.
As I crunched the numbers I realized I was paying $485 in interest per month alone. My bounced checks and late fees were another 400 bucks and I owed way too much money on cards that would be paid off in 2042 and the money I owed family and friends was staggering. I was surprised that they still talked to me!! Turns out that talk was all..loan money..NO!
Girlfriend never came back...tired of being trapped all day in a Texas summer with no air conditioning with a financial idiot may have been the deal breaker.
As I walked to work (4 miles) the next day, I formed my plan.
Which bills got first attention to stop the freefall I was in.
Budgeted spending to free up cash to accelerate the plan.
Sold my big stereo, comic books, jewelry and other items to just get back to being normal.
Never got to normal....got much better!
6 months to fully realize which habits were killing me and stop them, 2 years to having enough money left to accelerate my credit card payments.
3 years to the day I had 1 card with $235 dollars owed, 6 more car payments, survived an uninsured broken jaw, trust was being reexamined by my family and friends and I lost my job!
Reshuffled the budget and got a new job (30% pay cut), moved to a much cheaper area and did fine.
5 years and I was debt free, with a lot of frugal habits that were gonna stick forever.
My brother was SO tired of hearing my explain the old platitudes to him I thought he was going to hit me.
A penny saved is a penny earned...
Don't count your chickens before they are hatched..
An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure..
Me and Ben Frankilins advice got real close as I Learned to apply his teachings to my financial life.
My brother came on board when he noticed that he made 3 times what I did but I could afford (had budgeted for) a few nice vacations, a new car and a paid off house.
He discovered Dave Ramsey and got full tilt into it!
3 years later we have conversations about not buying a helicopter or classic Jaguar even though we could afford it!!
15 years ago I made twice the money I do now, worked 3 times the hours and had a horrible life because I did not play the money game to win...I played the possession game that the people playing the money game wanted me to!
Play to win...or lose!
Bruce