future-minded
Mentally, I am always at least three steps ahead of where I am today. My money mind lives in the future. That’s not to say that I’m not on top of what needs to happen in the present day-to-day management of my money. It’s just that my eyes are on the road and I’m always looking forward.
Right now, I’m on the cusp of getting my old credit card debt down to just under $2,000, which is amazing to me because I’ve carried it for so long and I can almost taste victory. There is a very real possibility that it will be a thing of the past by New Year’s Eve - that’s my revised goal. I’m really excited! But my mind has already moved on to something new.
My next big project is trying to get $13,000 in a pot by the end of October 2008. That’s enough money to put a down payment on an affordable house in an affordable neighborhood in the city limits and have a little money left over for some of the incidentals of buying a house, like turning on utilities, doing light maintenance/improvements, and contributing to what will need to be a bigger emergency fund. The math I’ve done tells me that if I continue on the present path, having $10,000 by this time next year will be no problem, and the other $3K is pushing it. But pushing it seems to work well for me. The harder I push, the more creative I get, and the more juice I can squeeze out of a paycheck. God willing, I’ll wake up Christmas morning in a home with my name on the deed. If I can pay off a debt that I expected to finish in August ‘08 by December ‘07, I can push for that extra $3K by next Halloween.
And I’ve already thought about what my priorities will be once I’m in the house. I’ll try at that point for three months’ spending expenses, including the new mortgage. After that comes the payoff of my smaller student loan, which at that point will be my highest interest rate debt. It should take about six months or less to pay off. Then besides my mortgage, I’ll have the car note and my grad school loans to repay. First comes the car, which should take about a year, and then comes the student loan debt, which I’ll finally accelerate once the other stuff is taken care of. One day, I’ll be debt-free outside of my mortgage.
There are two things I immediately have in my favor: First, I’ve chipped and whittled and hustled my expenses down enough so that I’m living on the equivalent of half of my current take-home pay each month. That other half, if saved diligently, will help me to get to achieve my goals. The other good thing is that my plan does not account for windfalls or pay raises. If I’m not blindsided by an emergency, I may accomplish my goals even sooner than I think I will.
Part of the reason why I’m able to control my spending and stick to my plans is because my focus is on the "later" and not the "now." I can visualize my future progress so clearly that it’s REAL to me, not just a dream. It keeps me going. It propels me forward. And every little victory just confirms that my efforts are worth it. This is how I stay motivated. This is why I won’t give up.
