Outlaw FinanceEverything You Never Learned In School

While creating a budget is not my idea of a fun Saturday night budgets are an integral part in getting your finances in order.  Before you do anything you need to know how much money you have coming in every month.  All you need for this is your pay stubs.  Also if there is any other monies coming in make sure you account for them as well ( IE child support, alimony, settlement payments, and interest).

Next we need to figure out where our money is going.  To determine where your money is going gather up as much information as you can: bank statements, utility bills, credit card statements, Etc.  You want to gather as much information as possible so that you can get an average of what expenses you are paying out each month.

Make two list of expenditures fixed and variable.  Fixed includes things like mortgage or rent, car payment, minimum credit card payments, utilities etc.  These payments are payments that you have to make every month.  Variable expenses include gas, groceries, entertainment etc.  Variable expenditures are important as this is where your “extra” cash is going to come from.

You have now created a budget and know where your money is coming from and going out.  Hopefully your income is greater than your expenditures this will make getting yourself out of debt a little easier.  If you are spending more than you have coming in you are going to need to drastically change your spending habits if you want to get out of debt.

I joined the Marine Corps more than 13 years ago and right out of high school. I have had steady paychecks on the 1st and 15th ever since. While I have never struggled for money I have never been financially secure either.

While my paychecks were always steady and could always be counted on they were almost always gone by the time the next one came around. I was living paycheck to paycheck and to make matters worse I was also racking up some serious debt on my credit cards.

I was fine with the way I was living my life up until about 2 years ago. I realized that I had been wasting tons of money and that I needed a plan to get out of debt. I have been working on that plan ever since.  At that time I had approximately $50,000 in debt.  Unfortunately I do not know the exact number as I was afraid to actually face it.

In the middle of 2007 I received a re-enlistment bonus for agreeing to another 4 years of service in the Marine Corps.  Of the $28,500 I received $17,100 dollars after taxes and TSP investment.  Although I should have paid more on my debts I did get myself into a more manageable situation.

As of Jan 1st I am left with three outstanding accounts.  1st is my car payment on my 2006 mazda 6 on which I pay $450 a month.  This is slightly more than the payment but it is just easier to budget this way.  The next is my consolidation loan which I owe $13,500 and am paying at the rate of $450 dollars a month as of right now (hoping to raise this amount soon).  This is a student loan that I have from back in 2002 when I went to school for my Microsoft certification.  That loan is just over 3,000 and is paid at a rate of 69 dollars a month.

The focus of effort for me is to get the consolidation loan paid down as quickly as possible for it has the highest interest rate as well as the most impact on my credit score.  As money become available I will add that to the payments I make on that debt.

I hope that I am able to share with you advice and stories so that you do not get yourself stuck like I did myself.