"Write down every dollar."
Damn, that puts some stark reality on the picture, doesn't it? I've been tracking each dollar spent lately, and am shocked by the incredible mass exodus of money from my checking account. I knew we had more of a layout this month (property taxes, special "dog needs" and some quarterly bills), but I just can't believe that by the end of July, we will have paid out $12,624.00 to the cards, the mortgages, grocery stores, gas stations, utilities and the car loan. So much of that is Credit Card Interest - they should teach that side of compound interest in schools - how it works so well for the CC companies.
Still, there is some good news. Seeing the cold, hard numbers has forced me to work more, charge more, sell more and really just think outside the box (perhaps I should sell the box on E-bay).
From the 1st to the 15th, I was working intensely, booking jobs and banking bucks. On average, I banked more money in those first two weeks than I usually do in a month. Then...things...slowed...down and I have had very little work this week. Did that send me into Panic mode? Yes, of course. And you just know that Panic doesn't go anywhere without his good buddy Depression - they like to get silly together and sing show tunes in my ear. Their favorite little diddy is "Daddy's Worth More Dead than Alive", and when things get really bad, I sing along (it's a pretty dark musical, in case you didn't get that).
Well, I only got as far as the chorus this time, scrounged up a little more resolve, and went about the business of finding more income. Listed some more books for sale on Amazon.com, marked down some items on Craigslist for quick sale, and started re-thinking some of the elements of my business and how I might do things better and make more $. It felt good and gave me some hope. I should hang a plaque on my wall that says, "Self Examination is Always Better than Self Destruction."
I also went over to Networth IQ to get me one of those handy dandy net worth graphs. While again, the stark reality of seeing my negative net worth is jarring, I'm taking heart in the fact that the graph is showing upward movement, and will continue in that direction if I have any say in the matter.
Back to work - more later.
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2 comments:
Good lord. I just read your Net Worth IQ details. I'm not going to ask how it happened, but here's what I think you want to do with this blog.
Get some more ads from Google AdSense and start promoting your blog. Beef up your blogroll and people will follow back here. I did. You want the traffic. It's not a lot of money, but it's more than you got. You set it up once and you won't have to do much else.
A lot of ppl hate the ads. I sure did at the beginning, but I think if you're really motivated, you should give it a try.
Good luck! (I don't blogroll anyone around less than 3 months, so don't ask me for a link till you've been around. Standard policy with a lot of bloggers.)
Hiya mapgirl,
Thanks for the response. Yes, posting my Newtworth details was a hard choice, but it's a great motivator for improving one's net worth. I'll soon be posting the tale of misfortune that got me into this negative net worth, so check back.
Thanks for the advice, too. This is new territory for me, and I appreciate the guidance.
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