Your breaking point

[jmjj215]

What was the point when you said: "I've had enough!" And you got serious about your finances?

[DivaJen]

I've always been serious about my finances, from the time I had piggy banks galore in my room as a child.

[CRFSaver]

When I was a kid I was the king of savings. I used my lawn mowing money to buy my first equities (still have them). I never bought comics or game systems and hated to shop so I went off to college with a nice chunk of change. Then during college I didnt save but I didnt save tons. When I got out I saved big time for my first car.

Where I fell off track was graduate school. I got out of school with $6,000 in credit card debt. Luckily no school debt. So my first big bonus I paid them all off plus my student loans from graduate school.

After that I took a year off so that did not help in my savings. After I moved to California, I started saving here and there but the wake up call was when I got laid off. I luckily had money in the bank plus with unemployement I was fine. But I did have to leave California as I could not wait to find a job anymore (7 months). My cash was starting to run out.

So when I mvoed here I made a concerted effort to start saving more. I neglected my 401K for a couple years so I started putting huge money into that. I can't say I have evern really been down on my luck but watching those balances get lower and lower really says something to you.

now I am just waiting to make my triumphant return to the west coast.

[singinjeannie]

When I realized if I didn't come completely clean with my DH and let him know how horrible our finacnes really were, we were going to end up bankrupt.

Then I had to face the music and get a real job (after 9 years of being a stay-at-home mom) and just stop spending all un-necessary money. I also found Dave Ramsey right about that point and he woke me up quite a bit about all the stupid tax I've been paying.

-Jean

[PrincessPerky]

Dunno what, but sometime end of last year. It was about time thats for sure.

[BCompDude]

Originally Posted by jmjj215

What was the point when you said: "I've had enough!" And you got serious about your finances?

When creditors started calling me and I actually added up how much debt I had accumulated. I know it sounds weird. . .but I actually didn't know how much debt I had!! When the number is 5 TIMES what you think it is. . . .your world changes quite quickly.

[BAGAGT1]

I've always been a saver, but, while working thru a career change, I had time to read "Personal Finances for Dummies" by Eric Tyson. That book changed the way I managed my money. That is when I decided that I should start saving for my retirement and saving for a home. Six years later, I now own a home, and I have a decently sized retirement account. At times, I will carry a credit card balance, but I generally try to find credit card offering introductory 0% interest rate, so I don't pay interest on my balances.

[baselle]

Depends on what you mean about getting serious about my finances. I had several epiphanies.
1. When family pleas for "help" meant that I would be bankrupting myself. Not only did I have to get serious about my finances, I had to have the self-awareness to say no until my finances got stronger.
2. Got a PDA w/ checkbook program. When I did my first calculation, I found to my pleasant surprise that I had a positive net worth. Just that knowledge made me want to reconcile my checkbook.
3. When I paid off my student loan, I calculated my credit card debt. It was exactly the same. All I did was trade good debt for bad debt.

[Bluezy]

My breaking point for finances came the day I found out my little boy was on his way. I had always keep up on financial planning, but had never been motivated to really jump in and plan for the future..

And here we are! All is well with us and we are frugal as ever.

Bluezy

[jmjj215]

Interesting that all of these "breaking points" are unique, but they all drove us to pretty much the same conclusions.

[Snoopy2645]

As a child I was always tight with money!!! I mean me & my brother & sis would get money & they would go blow thier at the game room or on candy & I would go get my savings account book. Then after met dh & learned he was a big spender & I mean big he really likes to live it up & well its too bad he dont make has much as he likes to spend!! SO to say the least we got in debt really fast then when I found out I was having my last DD I had to get serious about our finances or things would just keep getting worse!! So thats what I did I took control again of things. And now things are looking up again!!

[jhd815]

For me it was when I realized that I couldn't afford to pay my monthly bills. At the time I was living from paycheck to paycheck and working two part-time jobs. I hated that I had put myself in such a position financially. The main reasons for my difficulties were that 1) I had no budget (I just spent money willy nilly and hoped to have enough when the bills came later), and 2) I was not living within my means (maxing out credit cards, applying for more cards, paying minimum monthly balances only).

It took me 10 years to get myself on track financially and in a position where I could buy a house, save money, pay my bills, etc.

Earlier this year I paid off the final payment on my credit card balances and got out of credit card debt. I've educated myself about money matters, savings, investments, retirement planning and I've still got a long way to go. At least now I have a plan and I know what steps I need to take to reach my financial goals.

[Tree0164]

I never really had a breaking point. I always tried to watch the money but we ended up with a lot of debt and knew we had to pay it off. That is when we got really serious.

[robex]

I'm a born saver. Dh is a saver although not to the same extent. Early in our marriage, he handed all money matters over to me. When I was pregnant with our first child, I had every intention of returning to a well paying job that I loved, but once ds was born I knew there was no way I could leave him in someone else's care every day. That's when we really cracked down on our finances...eleven years and two more kids later and I wouldn't change our decision for all the money in the world!