One of my goals is to decrease debt and increase my net value. I’ve worked on decreasing the debt by signing up for a debt management plan last year. I was never late on payments, but I always made the minimum payment, and the balances were never shrinking. I maxed out my credit cards after I got out my car accident (no health insurance at the time), and holding these balances is a daily reminder of how I almost lost my life. The sooner I get rid of it, the better off I’ll be. So far. on my DMP (debt management plan) I’ve saved over $2000 in interest – and after I charted my progress with my liabilities, I can see that I’m slowly but surely going to get out of debt before I’m 30.

2009 was definitely my year of feeling financially helpless. I supported myself and my mom, and my barely made it by paycheck to paycheck. I had my first overdraft fee ever! I am thankful I started the DMP to manage help manage my finances, but I need to do more. I still owe James money (ugh!) and Lisa and Shyla… (ughhhhhhhh.. I hate owing money to people).

My Final Situation as of 12/31/09

Creditor	Balance	APR	Monthly	Payoff M	Payoff/Years
Capital One	$ 105.51	15.90%	$30.00	3.63	0.3 years
Household Bank	$ 114.51	9.00%	$15.00	7.89	0.66 years
Target	$ 204.73	0.00%	$10.00	20.47	1.71 years
Franklin Capital	$ 5,451.28	12.45%	$263.00	23.46	1.95 years
Citi Financial	$ 604.98	27.07%	$25.71	33.92	2.83 years
Addison Avenue	$ 1,354.02	12.99%	$45.50	36.11	3.01 years
Chase	$ 375.24	10.00%	$11.00	40.30	3.36 years
Citi Card	$ 2,986.67	9.90%	$85.00	41.66	3.47 years
HSBC	$ 2,193.28	9.00%	$61.00	42.06	3.5 years
Best Buy	$1,693.98	9.00%	$46.00	43.26	3.6 years
Wells Fargo	$ 2,229.94	7.30%	$57.00	44.81	3.73 years
Worldmark	$ 8,174.12	13.00%	$152.89	80.33	6.69 years
Liabilties	$25,488.26
HSBC Savings	$ 0.15	1.35%		Net Worth	$(25,036.54)
Car Account	$ -	1.35%
IRA Sweep	$ -	1.35%
E*Trade Roth	$ 7.71
E*Trade Trad	$ 17.31
401K	$ 426.55 323.62
Assets	$ 451.72

I had a rough start with January. I spent WAY too much money on NYE.. and now after rent and all the bills… I’m stretching $130!  EEk!

I’m going to start budgeting my money.. I have to. Although I have a rough patch, I did start one goal I know I’ll stick to. I finally started my E-Fund (emergency fund). Each paycheck, I’m depositing $105 [at least] making it a total of $2500 this year. I closed my HSBC online account of 1.35 APY for Ally Bank for 1.50 APY…

It’s a beginning.. and I’m glad I’m starting somewhere.