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Friday, January 9, 2009
Money, Money, Money
Money makes the world go around
the world go around
the world go around
Money makes the world go around
It makes the world go ’round.- Cabaret
Money seems to be on everyone’s minds lately, and I blame that entirely on the — what are we calling it? It’s a recession right? Economic downturn? I don’t know. I know it’s been a major concern for Johnathan and me for the last year or so, because of my unemployment and then tight finances as we tried to catch up from five months of one income. We got caught up just before we got married, and now we’re on our way to becoming debt-free.
Compared to others our age, we’re not badly off in debt. Our combined debt is lower than the average for a single 24-year-old. Still, we view credit card and loan debt as unnecessary and want to start planning toward bigger things – like buying a home someday. We’re using the snowball method. Including our two cars, we should be totally debt-free by mid 2010. By the end of this year, we should be free of all harmful debt. It’s an exhilarating thought, that at ages 23 and 25, we could be free of $1,000 per month in debt payments.
On top of this, we’ve got an emergency fund hanging out and earning fairly good interest, some savings for unexpected things like car repairs, and a rolling balance (albeit not a great deal) in our joint checking account. We each get fun money twice a month, and we’re paying toward a Walt Disney World vacation (late September, whoo!). We’re not really struggling anymore financially.
I suppose it’s kind of a strange realization knowing that while other people are finding it more and more difficult to make ends meet due to rising prices and ballooning mortgages, we’re staying steady. We’re actually even improving. Our overall debt has decreased by over $2,000 already since we started this in earnest in early September. I’m left thinking, “What recession?”
“What recession?” is certainly not fair to the rest of the country, though. I understand that circumstances have changed; jobs lost, pay cuts, skyrocketing prices for everything… it makes it hard, especially if it was difficult to make ends meet before. I suppose my point is that while the economy is heading downhill and things are getting harder for some people, Johnathan and I are just fine, and Bob willing, things will continue to be fine for us, and in fact, they will improve.
Money, money, money… we’re not rolling in it, but I think we’re going to be okay.
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