Instead of being reactive, I choose to be proactive, and here is the plan:

First, I have to stop the bleeding.  The late fees and insufficient fund fees I paid in 2008 have been shamefully staggering.  This tells me that not only was I broke, but that I need to keep track of my money better.  I need to plan my expenses accordingly, and work from a budget.  This is going to be tricky.  I do not do well with paper, so it will have to be some finance software that is easy to use.  The goal is to have a workable budget so that I will no longer pay any late fees on my utilities by the end of Q1.

Second, I need to raise my income.  With the economy and job market the way they are, this will be hard to do.  In order to be more competitive, I will need to raise my qualifications.  I plan to get a certification in the technical field that interests me, and this will help me get a better position — and better pay, I hope — than what I have now.  The goal is to have passed the certification exam by the end of Q1.

I am keeping it simple enough so that it is achievable.  How about you, what are your financial goals or resolutions for the new year?

As I had mentioned before, there was an order to garnish my wages, and my employer complied with the order and decided to garnish an entire paycheck.  Since we are living paycheck to paycheck as it is, that really put us in a bind.  I couldn’t pay any bills and had to be super creative in feeding my family of four for two weeks.  The family didn’t starve, but the bills still need to be paid.

Since that garnishment I have been a month behind on my car loan payment.  Since this wasn’t the first time in my history with them that I had been late in paying, my account is probably on their Watch List.  Their rep would call every day  at random times.  After I decided to grow a backbone, I answered their call yesterday.  After I said “Hello” there was stunned silence for a few seconds, then a tentative “Lily?  Is this Lily?”  I actually grinned.

She questioned me about when I was going to be able to pay, and I calmly told her that I might be a month behind in payment for a couple of months more due to unforeseen circumstances.  She explained that if I were ever two months late, a motion to repossess the car will be filed.  Great.  Another one of those Top Ten Things A Broke Person is Afraid Of coming to haunt me — a tow truck near my car.  I assured her that I will do my best not to get things to that point.

After we hung up, I actually laughed out loud — from the relief that the call was over, from my amusement of the rep’s stunned silence when I answered the phone, and from the adrenaline rush of just being brave and facing something I had totally dreaded.  This would be totally incomprehensible to someone who has never been hounded by debt collectors, but for those that have, I’m sure they can identify with the feeling of empowerment that I felt.

I will continue to keep answering the phone and keep trying to make my circumstances better to reach the goal of being debt-free.  The next backbone I need to grow is finding the courage to read collecition mail.

Image from FreeDigitalPhotos.Net.