Pages

Sunday, February 8, 2015

2015: Numbers, Goals, and Baggage

A long overdue update:

As of February, 2015.... our house is worth more than we owe, so hurray for that! We took out a car loan about six months ago (for the first in quite awhile) after my car was totaled in an accident, but it's a payment we can make easily every month. And the car too is worth more than we owe on it.

We are down to a balance on ONE credit card, and it's a small balance. Well, at the time of this writing, it's around 5K... which I realize isn't a small balance, but it feels small when you've dealt with balances across several cards in the tens of thousands each.

Interestingly, my biggest and most increasingly frequent money frustration at the moment is a mental one.  It seems that over the years, as we've made more money, paid down more debt, become comfortable financially, it's brought to light all the issues I developed surrounding money when we didn't have any.  Unlike so many of the people around us, we don't talk about how much money we make.  We don't aspire to "keep up with the Joneses."  We live simply, and don't feel any sort of need to upgrade our houses or cars or lifestyles just because we can.  And because of it, we're looked down upon, and we're treated as if we're less-than in some way.  It's condescending and it's frustrating and it's exhausting as all hell.    I recognize that it's my issue though, and beyond making different choices about what kind of energy we allow in our lives, it has nothing to do with anyone else.

Money baggage aside, all is well.  We just increased our payment on our second mortgage so it will be paid off before the balloon payment is due.  Next step is to pay off the last of the credit cards.