Minimizing Debt

Challenge Day #1

Today was my first official day to minimize and document.  From the moment I woke up I spotted items that will soon be heading out of my lovely abode. I also saw the piles of items that have been sitting for a month or more that have been ready to go to a new home (I know you’re thinking, “Why are they still sitting there?” I thought the same thing. I get distracted easily if I don’t take my Ritalin and then I forget or choose to step over it). I decided a pile counts as 1 item and anything that I've already grouped to send away.  Here are some other rules that are going around in my head: Do I have to go somewhere each day to get rid of something? What if I commit to one day/ week to drop everything off.  It will save time and gas- I'm trying to simply, right? Does listing items on amazon.com, etsy.com, or ebay.com count as getting rid of an item or is this in addition to? I'm thinking it should be in addition to since it hasn't left the house. I'm not giving this up. My shops are a secret to most of my friends, very few people know what my shops are called. I've had the ebay and amazon shops for 7 years, but just sold on ebay this past year.  Why have I kept this quiet- I don't have an good answer to this. I don't like copy cats? I was embarrassed that I had so much stuff (I was a closet hoarder)? It was a way to earn secret money that I could spend?

While I was thinking about the “rules” of the challenge I decided to take on the Credit Union.  They’ve been advertising a credit card for 7.99% all summer.  A few months back I had visited a financial planner to review my life and have had a goal to get a credit card that has a reasonable interest rate.  I had to rebuild my credit after a bankruptcy 10 years ago (yes, it was one of the hardest things I’ve been through) and I haven’t had the best relationship with credit card companies.  I didn’t have a choice in the early years in which cards I could get to establish new credit, and in the past 3 years, we’ve all had a hard time with credit cards limiting our credit because we were responsible users and paid off our debt.  There was nothing more exciting to me to get my limit slashed from $8000 to $1200 and an interest rate of 29.9% when I had a $0.00 balance.

I figured if I could qualify for this card, I could transfer the little debt that I do have, pay one bill a month at a lower interest.  It was a pipedream, but I bit the bullet, took a deep breath and went to the bank. To my surprise, I qualified and was thrilled to find out my credit rating had gone up 40 points over the past 2 months! This was one of those moments that I wanted to call my parents to tell them that I passed- but I am 32.  I called the boyfriend instead.

[item]  Credit Cards with high interest rates

[purchase info]  2001-2007

[time in my possession] 4 – 10 years

[last used] Infrequently- used to build credit

[difficulty level in getting rid of it] Medium- I worked hard to get my credit score built up (now in the mid 700s) and I didn’t want this to be a negative experience.

[destination] Some of the cards will be cancelled over a period of time and the remaining will be kept to maintain good credit. 

www.rethinkgood.comwww.rethinkgood.com