a little honesty
Just so you know, I have credit card balances. I have been spending money. This Saturday, I paid my credit cards to make them each current. But on one card, I just paid the balance that was due for the preceding billing period. To clarify: I paid more than the minimum balance. I paid the full amount I charged between the closing date of my last statement and the closing date of my most recent statement. However, there is still a balance on that card because automatic payments billed to that card during the time between my most recent statement and the present day are still not paid yet, so the card is not paid to zero, and it won’t be for another few weeks. On the other card that has a balance, it was paid to zero. But on the same day I paid it to zero, I went and bought some eyeglasses and work clothes, which ran it up again. No portion of any balance on either card is overdue or late, but my ideal situation would be to pay my cards down to zero, every single time I make a payment, regardless of billing periods. I just charged too much to do that this time around.
I say all this to point out that I don’t want to make the impression that I have perfect willpower, that I’m so frugal that I never spend on non-necessities, or that all my credit card balances are zero, because they are not, and none of that other stuff is true, either. I find this important because I think that it would be wrong to try to appear more perfect than I really am on this blog. Actually, I’m pretty uncomfortable with my credit cards right now because I would prefer that they were paid down to zero at the end of this and every month, and I can’t do that this month without going into my savings, which is UNTOUCHABLE in non-emergency situations such as these.
Fact of the matter is, I spent too much money. Forget for a moment that I actually have the money to pay the cards to zero today if I wanted to (and, for that matter, my old credit card debt, too). The point is that because I am trying to save money, I shouldn’t spend money in such a way that I would put my savings at risk. Period. In order to keep my savings safe, I shouldn’t live beyond the means of whatever I’ve decided to leave in my checking account after paying bills and putting money in my savings account or IRA.
No worries, though. When it comes to money, I tend to forgive myself easily, try to find the lesson in mistakes, and then move on. I’m looking forward - to my first check from this new gig, to paying my credit cards down to zero, and to calculating my net worth and finding that it’s increased again, despite a month and a half of unemployment. Things are still looking up, partly because I just identified something that I want to do differently to be more successful at reaching my goals.
