Introduce Yourself

[Ima saver]

Welcome ron!!

[Fern]

Why don't you join us in the blog section? It's even better!

[Madwand]

Hi I'm Scott Marvin

I find Savings Advice very interesting. I hope to help some people with my 15 years experience in Real Estate.

Scott

[tark]

Hey all, I am really liking the forum. I am excited about having conversations about money!

Few things about myself: I am tall, I like sports, I like computers/internet, I live in the United States.

[seattlemanicurist]

I suppose I should go and introduce myself now. I am a 29 yo divorced female living near downtown Seattle with my SO of 3.5 years. I have been doing nails for over four years and I work in an upscale nail salon downtown. My job is pretty much everything I ever wanted and I wouldn't want to work in any other industry. My SO is a professional temp. :P

I have an 8yo daughter with my ex husband who is with him during the school year and with me on breaks. She goes to a really good magnet school in Alaska, and the schools here are questionable at best (some of them are downright awful) so it's better for now if she goes to school there and lives with her dad and stepmom.

Right now I am working on paying off a lot of medical debt. I have had several medical problems since I was 19 years old, and for part of that time I had no insurance, plus I was unable to work for several years, so there has been a lot of debt. I am down to about 3500$ left, with an all time high of over 12K. I always paid off as much as I could while I was well and working, but never all of it. I've never had the opportunity to get into consumer debt due to what the medical bills have done to my credit. I often had to borrow money from my family just to buy my medications. It has been rough. Right now things are stable with my health so hopefully it will stay that way.

I haven't had a car in over 6 years, have never had a cell phone, don't have a tv or cable, and am not really interested in consumer electronics. Every computer I have ever had has been really old with no resale value and given to me by someone else, except for the one I bought my first year in college. I am willing to pay for a fast internet connection, but not much else. I'm not a shopper either, there is no room to store the stuff I already have here anyway, so it's pretty easy for me to be frugal.

We go out to restaurants a lot since it's the one thing we really enjoy, and that is completely worth it to me. Since I get a smallish amount of my pay in cash tips (credit card and tips on checks go in my paycheck) which are irregular and nothing I can count on, I use that for eating out, chair massages, anything I want to buy that I don't really need. I also use it for activities when my daughter is here.

We have an aquarium and my fish are the second most important thing to me next to my daughter. Not really, but close. We have 2 blood parrot cichlids and a big pleco. My SO and I are both huge fish lovers and would like to get several more larger aquariums when we have the space. They are expensive, but you can save a ton by buying them from craigslist. Cichlids are very entertaining fish and they have the funniest personalities. You would think fish would be popular in the city, but everyone has dogs here. We have to walk a couple miles to buy fish food and supplies in Chinatown. I also wouldn't mind getting a miniature poodle someday. I am not so enamored with the work involved in having a dog in the city though, so I may not. I sure like them.

Anyway, if you have made it through all of that, it is nice to meet you all.

[ClearClouds]

hey tigerstar...welcome and don't forget to have fun!

[Abiqua]

Hey everyone! I'm always ending up here when I do research for articles on personal finance so I figured I'd stop being a lurker and actually register. =) I do a lot of work on wikiHow.com, so don't be surprised if that comes up a lot, I promise I'm not a spammer!

I'm 26 and I live in Oregon. I moved here mainly because I liked the ratio of cost of living vs. quality of life. Before OR, I was in New Mexico, where the cost of living was lower, but it was a little quiet for me. And before that, I lived close to NYC, and that was expensive, and CROWDED!

[Judi Dial]

Hi.

I haven't found a general "Newbie" thread yet, so I'll introduce myself here. I'm a used bookseller, ex tech writer, wannabe fiction writer. I have a part time job in a farm stand, which is hard work, but i love it. I grew up in L.A., moved to the low desert in college, then followed my guy to the high desert, GA, FL, and finally New England, where we've been for 15 years now.

I'm married, no kids. LIve in a log house on the side of a hill next to a ski resort. We bought on the downward slope in real estate years ago (Geo Bush Sr, term 2).

My immediate goal is to get rid of at least one of our cc's with my salary (we live on DH's income). My long term goal is to get rid of all but one or two of them and put something aside for our retirement.

Glad to see a common-sense board. I belong to a lot of "how to save money" groups online, but many of them get more and more elaborate over time. I don't mind graphics etc. but I'd rather have content.

JD

Sorry, I just found the intro thread, pls. move this. My apologies! jkd

[Aleta]

Welcome Judi Dial: We're glad that you've joined us.

[woodie96]

Hello all...
Been lurking here for a couple of years and finally decided to register...
DW and I, both 44, live in Virginia beach, VA. She has been here most of her life, I was a military transplant.
I'm retired military (21.5 years) and she has been in the hair care industry for about 22 years.
When we met in 2000, she had 5 kids, I had 2 (WHAT WAS I THINKIN' !!!), talk about stress and money flying out the door. We are finally now down to only 3 children left in the house (17F, 17M, and 13F) and can finally begin to put back for a "rainy day" and retirement.
I love coming here and getting some great ideas to think about and ponder.
Thanks everyone for all of your posts, keep them coming, love to read them. Both the great successes and also the tragic failures.
Like my dad always says, "You can learn something from anyone."

[kmj1104213]

Hi, I'm Kristen and I've always loved reading about personal finance, this forum is great!

I'm from the Boston area and graduated from a local Business school a few years ago, so learning new things about finance is one of my hobbies... and I love to save money!

[abballmom]

Hi-

My name is Betsy and I live in Oregon. I am extremely frugal and it drives my kids crazy. I keep an Elntertainment Book in the car and decide where to eat based on whether I have a coupon or not. The kids are used to ordering from the dollar menu and have not starved to death. Being a frugal person serves me well in the insurance business because I love to find a great deal and that's what I'm able to find for my clients.

[MoneyTalks1203]

Hello everyone just wanted to drop by and say hi! I just sighed up today and wanted to let everyone know I'm here to help. Money makes the world go around and sometimes that can be good and sometimes that can be bad. Unfortunately it's so true and in this day and age finding new ways to make and save money is key!

[MYOM]

I am a retired Certified Financial Planner and Registered Investment Advisor since 2006. Over a 30-year career, I developed a money management technology that I did not want to take to my grave so I developed it into a Personal Money Management Course for high school seniors. Because the handout was so popular among students, teachers, and staff, I decided to put it all in a book.

My passion is flying my Cessna 172. I am an aviation junkie. I am happiest between liftoff and touchdown. I also authenticate Charles and Anne Lindbergh’s autograph for Reeve Lindbergh, Manager, Lindbergh Literary, LLC for eBay, individuals, and auction houses.

I believe in trying to help others and that is why I am here on the forum. I do respect other peoples opinions so feel free to disagree. If I can help, you need only ask.

Dan Clemons

[wiseradvisor]

Thanks all for the welcome.

[rizzmo]

Welcome glad to have you here!

[Joan.of.the.Arch]

Howdy, Wiseradvisor. I'll be looking for some posts from you.

[MomofFour]

Welcome aboard!

[kork13]

hmm, I wonder how many posts we can get for this single hello...

Hi wiseradvisor!

[Broken Arrow]

This used to be a very friendly board.

Well, I still think it is, and I hope it stays that way.

But... things have gotten... I don't know competitive and strained maybe?

Most of the women that used to be on here have left now, mostly preferring to blogs I think.

I kinda miss the "old days" where you can crack jokes and have a few laughs. Hopefully, we can still keep that going. A good, friendly atmosphere.

So yeah, hello and welcome!