If I Had No Money Honey ...

I've spent my morning hard at work (read: diving into MSN's Money & You artcle archives) learning about money - how/why/where we spend it. I have to admit, a self professed mis-manager of all things money related, I'm impressed. Normally an article about money would have me running for the hills (or devoting another 3.5 hrs to the miniclip.com website) but these articles were truly inspiring. One woman lives frugally and makes it work on $12,000 per annum. Confession: I make over $20,000 a year and even that doesn't seem like enough. Oh yeah, she's also 48 with a grown up daughter knee deep in wedding plans.

Recently I opened a Savings account - and promptly deposited $100 into it. Boy was I proud! It's still there - don't worry, I just checked. And next Friday, my bank will automatically transfer another $100 into Savings - lather, rinse and repeat for the next 11 months. Whoa - hang on. Am I on the road to financial stability? Weird ...

I've always wanted a Savings account but was never in the financial place to have on. Buried under credit card debt, I was lucky to pay the minimum payment on my Visa every month - at 24.5% interest, the struggle is understandable. Recently, I received a letter from my bank - I didn't open it right away because letters from financial institutions always scare me but when I eventually read the letter it said this: Due to consistent payment made by the due date, as of April 8th 2008, your interest rate will DECREASE by 5%.

NO. WAY.

Never have I received a positive letter from my bank. I'm sure the person typing it had tears in his eyes too. What a lovely affirmation. Within the next 3 months, I will have a $0 credit card balance, at least $700 in Savings (God willing) and fully paid bills.

Today, life is good.