Week Twenty-Four: Money Talks

This week I want to bring it back home to re-focus on my list, two items in particular: putting four digits in my checking and savings accounts and paying down 10% of my total debt. 

I also would like to preface this week's blog with an admission: I am bad with money.

It seems to be that throughout my life, I have struggled with money. Part of this is due to my circumstances as most people never leave the financial bracket that they were born into and part of this is the "la la la I can't hear you" method of dealing with debt. This lack of discipline (and really lack of understanding on how to budget) has gotten me into trouble more times than I can reasonably count. Thankfully, I been fortunate enough in my life to have people in my corner who were willing to bail me out financially when I needed it. 

But here's the thing: I don't want that to be my life. Who would, quite honestly? While there are some schools of thought that say "Do what you want now because you might not have the chance later", I'm of the opinion that you work hard now to reap the rewards later. I've always wished I could be the kind of person who takes weekend trips abroad because I can or for whom money is seldom a worry. It sure would be nice to live in such a way that I'm never concerned about being able to pay my bills or buy groceries or pay for gas while counting down the days until my next paycheck. But I'm not. And I never will be unless I practice some measure of diligence that puts me in the position of having fully managed my money and not my money managing me. 

All of that being said, I'm still pretty sucky at budgeting. Believe me when I say that over the years, I've tried various methods of keeping track of my expenses from physically writing everything out to having an app or two on my phone that tells me when bills are due to trying to do everything in cash. For all my attempts, it seems that I still lack the fundamental skills to manage my budget effectively. 

How do I remedy this? This is not a rhetorical question. How do I get myself from point 'A' where I always have the threat of not being able to pay my bills looming around the corner to point 'B' where I have enough funds in my back pocket (figuratively speaking) to account for any unexpected expenses? And before you mention it, I'm pretty sure a sugar daddy is out of the question at this point in my life (besides, who'd ever heard of a almost thirty year old sugar baby?).

One of the things that I've done in an effort to work on this continuous thorn in my side is splitting up my paycheck and using the "out of sight, out of mind" method of dealing with my savings. I figure if I put so much of my paycheck into my two savings accounts and then "hide" them so I can't see the money that's there, I'll kind of forget about the money and just use what's in my checking for everything else. 

I recognize this is a faulty plan but it's what I have to work with right now. 

If I haven't mentioned it previously, alongside this "30 Before 30" project I'm doing with Casey Sue is another project, similarly named the "40 Before 40" project. Same concept, much longer time frame. One of the goals on that list is to become debt free by the time I'm forty. While I'm sure there have been plenty of people with debts much larger than my own and have accomplished the zero balance life, it seems an insurmountable feat. How exactly am I supposed to pay down all of my debt when everything costs money and what's left over after bills are paid is minimal at best?

As seems to be one of the many running themes of this project, I have no answers. Ask me again towards the end of the year and we'll see what kind of financial outlook I have then.