Stressed Out

I drive for at the very least two and a half hours a day. I'm one of those people who flips between Elvis Duran and the Morning Show, music stations, and my own CDs. I have heard "Stressed Out" by twenty one pilots so many times I should start keeping a tally sheet going for the week.

I have a lot of time to think. Lately that means Adele hits home a little too much, but I cannot stop and think about this song too. "Stressed Out" is really a song about life before we had to be responsible. The time when we could choose "tree house homes" and be completely content, but now we have a choice. That choice is between irresponsibility and "adulthood" (or whatever that actually means). It says that, "Out of student loans and treehouse homes we all would take the latter." It is those memories that only our siblings and childhood best friends will remember. These lyrics, "Wish we could turn back time, to the good ol' days, When our momma sang us to sleep but now we're stressed out" show that people are really affected by their student debt. 

I keep wanting to ask twenty one pilots if they would really give everything back to return to that state of innocence. I wouldn't. It would be fantastic to be rid of my roughly $65,000 in debt, but I happen to be proud of my education and the job I now have. Yes, I wish my college years didn't have to set me back so much. Yes, I like to curl up in bed with my sister every now and then. Yes, it's great to rely on others for support. But the thing is, I wouldn't want to go completely back. If having my own experiences, thoughts, and developed critical thinking skills means that I have this student loan debt, then it's my job to get it paid off. This stress many of us feel can be eliminated, if we only keep a positive frame of mind.

Timelapse

A lot has changed for me in a year. Thanks to Facebook's addition of memories, I see where I was last year, and multiple years before that. I used to be pretty lame on social media and studied (or talked about studying) a lot.
Now, I work hard for a company and people I'm starting to love. I have friends and family who are still around from the good old days. I also have changed a few of my habits.
Last year, I bought myself a necklace with part of my tax refund money. It is the first "real jewelry" I've ever bought. It is real pearls and real white sapphires. It's a classic piece and I adore it. I'm glad that I did it in the long run, because I got it for about $200 and it was originally priced at about $1,000.
This year I resisted the urge to splurge, but today I was even more proud of myself.
 I saw that mint.com updated my transactions and there was a deposit for $835.00 from the IRS. I spent the morning running some numbers of what I need to have in my account before payday on Friday. I decided to put $478.89 to my auto savings account and $300 to my student loan savings account. It feels so liberating to have money built up again for my car emergencies. Yes, I know that $800 is the minimum I should keep in that account with all the driving I do, but if an emergency came up I could not put extra towards loans that month.
I'm getting anxious to pay off more of my loans again. I may pay off this almost $4,000 loan in $1,000 chunks. It would be great to see the progress quickly.
What's changed the most is how I feel about my decisions. I'm excited and addicted to making right financial decisions. (Now I'm hoping I can start tricking myself in other aspects of my life.) The nights I spend a little too much out with friends or splurge on spring flowers I have a tinge of heart beak, since I know my debt will be around just a little bit longer. When I bought that necklace a year ago, I knew I shouldn't really do it, but I felt exhilarating. Now, when I was in the same situation this year I made a more productive and successful choice.

How have you grown in your decision making? What makes you excited to keep going?

Tax Time

It’s Tax Time America! No, this isn’t an add for a tax return service. Actually it’s a few helpful hints on how to best file your taxes and use your tax return.

I will admit that my dad still does my taxes for me. I am completely satisfied with him buying the software, badgering me for my paperwork, and letting me know the end result.

I had heard that you could write off the interest you’ve paid toward student loans in the past year. It was about less than $2,000 in my name, but that amount reduced my total income. I wasn’t able to claim more since the Parent Plus loans I’m paying on are in my dad’s name.

Also, when filing your taxes, always take the free option. It may cost a chunk of your payout to file and receive your check quickly. Really this should be extra in your pocket rather than something on which you are depending.

I’m sure other financial blogs will tell you right around now that having a large tax deduction is actually a bad thing since you didn’t get to use that money all year long. Maybe I’ll consider changing from a 0 to a 1, but that won’t really change much for me right now.

Instead, I will gladly take back my almost $1,000 dollars and spend it wisely now. I plan to put about half of it towards rebuilding my auto repair savings account. That way I can focus more on my student loans. The rest will be towards my loan pay off. I’m trying to decide if I’ll make an extra payment towards my lowest loan with the highest interest, or if I should add it to my savings account towards that goal. Either way, I won’t be spending my extra money on a new Kate Spade watch like I really want to.

Resist the urge everyone! How will you wisely allocate your tax return funds?

February Net Worth

I’ve mentioned a couple times that this month was rough for me. Now that I’m on the other side of things, I’m happy that I’ve still made progress towards my goal of paying off $10,000 in debt this year. I’ve paid off $786.57 so far. I’m also excited that I am +675.92 from last month. Of course, I’m still in the negative net worth camp, but I’m making progress and at -61,165.82. As you can tell by my fancy chart, I’m on that upward trend.

I’m so proud of myself for sticking to my goals.

Hopefully, next month is less of a challenge and I can get back to really enjoying my savings. I have started the single lifestyle again, so if I come up with any good tips for the other ladies out there, I’ll certainly share.

You’ve probably noticed the ads on my blog by now. I’ve been active and viewed enough for Google Adsense to accept my application. Yay! I have never done anything like this before, so I have pretty low expectations. I know that, as of now, this won’t be my official “side hustle”, but I’m sure that’s how a lot of popular bloggers started out. So who really knows.

Here’s to starting fresh in February.