(07-07-2020, 12:39 AM)Tyler.M Wrote: Let me tell you, these past 4 months have been tough as hell, more so emotionally than financially, for me. I'm one of the "lucky" ones that works in an essential industry (I guess candy-making is essential?) so I've been swamped with work plus 20% hazard pay. BUT all the other external stuff makes falling into old habits (retail therapy) hard to avoid. I'm staying strong, but I'm like, one steam summer sale away from going back to the mindset that got me here in the first place.
Refinanced my house though and shaved off 7 years off of my expected pay off date, which is good. Working nearly every weekend for some extra dough to continue to pay off my high interest debt. It's taken its toll but there's not really much else to do until recently because of COVID. I think I've paid off 30k this year in debt alone already and I'll have a 3 month emergency savings by December, assuming no surprises. Also, my credit score jumped like 60 points in 4 months putting me over 800 for the first time. Good shit.
I'm struggling with the "I really want a fun car" thing right now when I'm still behind on maxing out my Roth contribution, necessary home repairs, and investments. I've read through all of this thread again and all of the "right" things to do but when the hell do you actually build up some money for a big unnecessary purchase like a track car? Even after I get out of debt and start investing my money properly, I just don't see where I'll be able to have the cash to spend on an expensive racing hobby, or even a decently nice car anytime soon. How do you guys fund this stuff or budget for it?
I've made over six figures for the last 6 years. I haven't put a down payment on anything in that time. I don't have anything in retirement. I'm not drowning in debt but that's entirely too much money for entirely too long to have the negative net worth that I do. It weighs on me but I try not to dwell on it too much. What I have done is invest in myself skills-wise and fortunately will likely never be out of a high paying job for the rest of my life barring any kind of collapse of society. I try to focus on that and that the financial recklessness while stupid has brought a good bit of fulfillment to my life. My student loans should've been paid off years ago. I'm sure that's going to be a great feeling knocking those out but so was hearing my engine fire for the first time both on the stand and in the car.
My advice is just focus on your goals at hand and crush them, whatever they may be. Don't worry about the sacrifices or downsides. People being smart and paying down debt wish they were having more fun. People having fun wish they were smarter and paying down debt. I gave myself until I was 30 to prioritize fun and now I'm switching gears a bit. Sure had I prioritized being smart I could be swapping a hell cat crate into the Demon rather than the backyard hack job I did over the last few years but hey it was rewarding and that's what I choose to focus on. If I'm smart for the next 5 years, I can think about being dumb again but won't until then.