What was your turning point?

**khosta** · 03-01-2011, 05:50 AM

I'de say my turning point was yesterday actually... I'm new at learning to save. I basically live paycheck to paycheck and when I found out I had to register my car and buy more car insurance (an exspense I was not ready for - my dad always took care of my car issues and now I'm "growing up" I guess!) I had a break down and cried to my boyfriend. We talked about everything - my spending, unexpected bills and how I need to save - and now I am starting a new life of "saving money." I never want to feel like I can't afford something in a last minute situation again!

**littleroc02us** · 03-01-2011, 06:13 AM

I was in my late 20's still immature by most standards, I was near getting my truck repossessed and was afraid to open my mail box because of all the cc companies looking for payment. That was true reality and wasn't going away. I busted my butt for 5 years and paid off 50k of debt. I don't use credit for anything now, except a single Discover card and that's only used for gas. We pay it off each month and use our Visa Check card and cash for everything. Those times were life altering.

**troyw** · 03-01-2011, 06:29 AM

Our turning point came one night after several years of marriage. My wife and I were walking one evening (great venue for discussing money, btw) and we started talking about our food allowance for each month. At the time, we had a monthly grocery budget of $400. We were spending all of that plus an additional $200 dining out each month. That was a total of $600 per month for food for only two people! It was then that went to the envelope system and have since stuck to our $400 per month grocery allowance.

**97guns** · 03-01-2011, 06:52 AM

i was in my late 20's also doing my own landscaping business for 5+ years money was good but too seasonal and i was just spinning wheels. my turning point came the day i started work at home depot, my first corporate america job.

**DanielB** · 03-01-2011, 07:05 AM

My turning point was about a month ago. Realized I need to make changes to build true wealth. Not in financial trouble, but much like 97guns I was just spinning my wheels, so to speak. Already made great progress but have an enormous climb ahead of me! Should be an interesting journey.

**newlyfrugal** · 03-01-2011, 07:31 AM

My husband and I have had many turning points over the years, but our latest one was just before Christmas. I looked at DH and said, I don't know how we are going to afford Christmas this year. He wondered what I meant by that and I told him we didn't have any money saved this year due to some unexpected expenses during the year. His suggestion was to "just put it on the cards", except we were within $300 of our limit on both of our credit cards! He was shocked and I was frustrated that he didn't care enough about our finances to even know we were drowning. Well, we scaled WAY back on our usual Christmas spending and then jumped into cutting spending and sticking to a budget with both feet. Since December we have saved a $1k baby EF, paid off $2k to our credit cards and not relied on overdraft protection once. We are headed the right direction and finally able to see some small victories.

Sara

**AshleyB** · 03-01-2011, 08:31 AM

I've never been in real financial trouble, I've always been a saver. But I really caught onto the idea of building wealth when I became a stay at home mom. Our income was cut significantly when I quit my job and I realized we would have a lot more breathing room in our budget if we had less bills! Seems obvious, but we hadn't been short before so I never felt the pinch.

Before that I thought I was doing great if I could pay the bills and put some in savings every month... which IS good, but paying off debt and investing is better.

**readytorock** · 03-01-2011, 11:09 AM

My turning point came when Sallie Mae decided to sue me for unpaid student loans. I wasn't just being lazy, I didn't have the money to pay them! So, I decided to learn everything I could about earning more money and better budgeting the money I did have. I left my teaching position after starting my own business and I now make over $100k per year from that business. Before that day, the Sallie Mae lawsuit day, I thought I didn't make enough to save. Not realizing I could have saved everything I was spending on music, movies, eating out and other useless items. Dave Ramsey got me out of the hole, websites like this then taught me how to actually gain some real ground in saving and investing.

**cypher1** · 03-01-2011, 11:29 AM

I've always been decent with paying myself first, and not having debt or a balance. But I'd have to say purchasing a mortgage (2years ago) was the biggest eyeopener. That allowed me to find this site which I'm still trying to improve my spending habits.

**Hector** · 03-01-2011, 02:32 PM

Not too long ago I started my career working as a consultant. Compare to my student job, I saw big paycheck coming working full time and I decided not to think much about savings. I was spending in stupid things. As my contract got over, I had to look for new contract in not so great economy (early 2009). That time was scary. Thank God I got another contract after six weeks. Since then, I kept my want at minimal.

**herdjohnson** · 03-02-2011, 04:10 AM

Been lurking for a while... first time poster.

Mine was probably a few months ago when I found that my roommate who has made less than me for quite some time had a huge amount saved back, whereas I had basically nothing. In the last 2.5 months I've paid off 4k credit card debt, and am in the beginning stages of an EF. I have a spending system set up (cash) and seem to have everything under control!

**kork13** · 03-02-2011, 05:53 AM

I wouldn't call it a "turning point", since I grew up being taught to be careful with money, and was never really in any sort of financial trouble...

But my Commander back in Oct '06 (when I was 20y/o) sat down and talked to a bunch of us about how to make smart decisions about money, investing, saving, and so on. That's when I got serious about saving. I took about half of the cash that I had saved up in the previous 2 years (a whopping $2k-$3k or something) and started a Roth IRA that month. It's been an upward climb since then.

I've learned alot (in part from these forums), but I still definitely have alot more to keep learning.

What was your turning point?