Here's the goal: financial independence, which to me means the ability to do what I want, when I want, how I want. I discovered a couple of years ago that in a sense, money=power (to me, at least). Not in a power-grab way, but in that when I have plenty of money, I feel like I have options. So I worry less (probably a holdover from a tight-money childhood), and in general things go better. One of my real challenges, though, has been in not spending everything I have due to a perceived lack of "stuff."
I think, though, over the past year, I've changed a lot in terms of how I see that "stuff" and how much is enough of it. Books, though, will probably continue to be my failing....at least from a "don't buy that" perspective. So I've built into my upcoming budget a certain weekly amount for fun that includes books, movies (not that I go to many of those. In fact, I've got a pair of tickets a friend gave me a year ago that I still haven't used).
Looking at my budget through the end of the year, though, I see that while I can certainly pay the bills on time (as long as I stay in my budget and don't think this week's extra cash is really extra instead of committed to something happening two weeks away), accelerating the getting-out-of-debt goal is going to be a challenge. I've set myself a schedule of sorts for accumulating money. It looks something like this: I don't have to pay rent in November (I've been given the opportunity to use this month as a "get ahead" month, because I'm used to paying rent weekly and starting with January--or maybe December--I'll need to go back to paying it at the first of the month.) so I'll build the bank account to pay the November bills (which include two overdue October bills--both of which will actually be paid this Friday), then December's rent and bills, then January and February the same. I figure, if I get that much ahead, I'll be able to pay off one of the smaller debts without worrying that I'm going to put myself short on the rent.
Setting aside my own skepticism re my ability to set aside a month's worth of anything, much less three. Right now, I'm looking at the budget and I can see that at the end of November, based on standard income and outgo, I have enough to pay the December rent if it's the half-month that I assume it will be, and have a touch left in the bank. The challenge then, is that starting in December, I'm about a week's pay ahead on actual "got to pay it now" principles (and this is actually a HUGE improvement), but I'd like to be a month ahead already, because that would be evidence that I'm bringing in enough more than I'm spending to actually make some headway.
More income and less outgo are going to be required. Fortunately I'm spending the better part of the weekend working--some card reading gigs thanks to a wonderful friend who's giving me the opportunity to work with her again, and working in a friend's metaphysical shop on Saturday, filling in for an absent assistant. This is all good and will probably put half of December's bills in the bank by the end of November. A couple of the expenses I've anticipated for November will be at least partially reimbursed. Also good. Crossing my fingers I haven't forgotten anything. Friends and family will be getting my love and maybe a short story for Yule gifts. No cookies this year, probably, or anything else material while I pay attention to other priorities. There is some additional extra income coming along, just not sure the amount or the exact days, but it's already committed thanks to the handy list I've made of financial priorities for this next year. Hopefully by the end of December, these extras will actually have me up to that point where I'm paying next month's bills out of this month's money.
I did a lot over the past twelve months to bring my outer life in alignment with my inner life. The next twelve will bring even more into alignment, so if nothing else, I'll enjoy looking back a year from now to see how things have changed.
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