financial aid and rants and raves

Taking advantage of trends has proven difficult for me. Even when I know something would happen prior to the event, I've either been unable or unwilling to move. The financial collapse of 2007 is a good starting point. I knew in my heart that the Congress and Bush were too statist to allow the system to collapse fully. Moreover, since politicians and bankers are in bed together like they were living in a free-love commune, I knew there would be an insane, no-strings-attached bailout as well. Secure in that knowledge, I could have invested my money in any number of profitable ways. So why didn't I?


I could begin with any number of reasons: fear (um... OK, a little), lack of ways to invest (partially true, and this saved me a small fortune on Borders stock), lack of investing savvy (a weak excuse; the info was out there for the asking), laziness (sure, I was a slacker before slacking was trendy, just ask my teachers in grammar school), but more than anything, I was broke.

You'd think with my prior posts on debt and how I've been rapidly eliminating said obligations, I'd cover one of the main reasons I've successful in my efforts: no German chick. Back in 2007 to 2008, I was one of Anya's main sources of support, not to mention entertainment. Needless to say, this German beauty had expensive tastes. Before I continue, let me remind readers that this was not a sugar daddy arraignment. I may have been daddy, but there was no sugar. Absent a true accounting of how much I spent, I can only remark that my finances improved dramatically once we parted ways. We were both willing participants in our platonic enmeshment, so I don't write this to blame her for my past financial predicaments.

So one of the reasons I was living paycheck to paycheck was a stunning 5'7" blond with amazing blue eyes, sweet smile, infectious laughter, legs to die for, incredible ra..., personality, where was I? Oh yeah, why I was so broke. Pardon me while I compose myself; Anya was not the only reason I was unable to take advantage of the government actions I knew were coming. The other, and the main reason I'm writing this post, was debt.

Most of my short-term debt was generated to support my wasteful lifestyle, but I'd be lying if I said this was the only reason. As my credit was shit, I could only get credit cards that had really high interest rates, and this was also the case for my car loan and mortgage. I did refinance some of these other debts, and some of the other loans were intended for that purpose, but when the money came in, I didn't always use it for its original reason. Thankfully, and as mentioned in a prior post, my credit is much better, and come June of this year, will be spotless. Ironically, I don't need to borrow money.

The reason I took took the loans from my 401(A) was that they couldn't say no, had a low rate, and directly debited my checking account. I tried to get them to charge my debit card to earn airline miles, but they said no. Essentially, I was living like I'm making the salary I presently have, but 7 years before I actually had it. The worst (best?) part of the retirement loans was that are term-limited. Unlike credit cards, where you can pay the minimum in perpetuity, the payments were steep. At one point in the not too distant past, I was paying 626 per month on these notes, in addition to credit cards, my rent/mortgage, car, and student loans and it fucking sucked.

So being forced to repay all of this debt, combined with a fairly extravagant lifestyle, has cost me me something omnipresent, yet nearly impossible to measure: lost opportunity. 2007 was one example, but certainly not the only one. Now that things are changing, so what do I now? Well, that's the topic of my next post.