Thursday 3 May 2012

A Huge Leap Forward

I was kind of hoping I'd be able to write this post (as I hinted at earlier in the week) and thankfully it's all turned out just dandy, so I can!

It often seems in life, that just as one area of your life stutters a bit (dating, weightless, take your pick), another part comes together.

Some of you may know that I've really struggled with debt for the last 18 months or so. I had debt before that, at a much more manageable level, but The Great Life Upheaval of 2010 caused it to spiral rather out of control. Suddenly, I found myself on the receiving end of a lifestyle I couldn't quite afford and not an easy exit to be seen.

And for the first time in my life, I picked up the reins and determined to get myself the hell out of that debt hole without parental help and on a permanent basis.

Last year tuned into a near constant struggle to make ends meet, as I teetered along a very uncomfortable edge of just-about-managing-my-debt, and I ended up having to make some very tough decisions to get my expenditure under control.

After reading lots of literature online about debt management, I finally took a deep breath and downsized my car (not such a trauma since the old one was giving me so much grief, although it went against my long-inbuilt snobbery to get a cheaper car instead of a flashier one). After that came an even bigger step as I move out of my beautiful warehouse flat and into a shared house with strangers. It all turned out well (after a bit of deposit-juggling and a few traumas with moving date delays), and I started this year able to finally start making inroads into my debt.

Today, the next big piece has finally fallen into place. As a result of my improved financial management, my internal credit rating with the bank has gone up, and today I scored a loan to consolidate my debts. All of them. Even better still, it's a staff loan (as I work for a bank) and it turns out it comes with some very nice perks attached such as a lower interest rate and the ability to make as many over-payments as I want with no financial penalties.

Today I paid off pretty much all my credit cards and laid a small "safety" fund on one side in my savings. Today, I move forward!


- Posted from my iPhone

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