Wednesday, January 5, 2011

It happened to me

Suze, if you are reading this...you were right! Here I was a school teacher. School teachers always know that they will have a job at least until the end of the school year...right? Wrong!

Ok, I'll back up. I was deeep in debt and thought I was managing things just fine. I had a couple of credit cards at a couple of thousand dollars each, student loans, and a $15,000 line of credit. I was making more than the minimum payment on each card. One day I got a whammy in the mail; visa said they were not renewing my card.

It turned out to be a nation-wide trend of credit card companies closing lines of credit. If you
read my prior posts you know that I struggled with not having that credit. I got serious about getting out of debt and started watching Suze Orman, Gail, and Clark Howard on a routine basis...(I still do.)

Suze screams 8 month emergency fund, then get out of debt. I got myself a solid month of emergency funds and then I started halving what I sliced out of my monthly budget. One half went to the emergency fund and the other to paying off my debt.

I managed to completely eliminate my credit cards and my line of credit. I also built my emergency fund to 3 months. My goal was to get to Suze's 8 month emergency fund even though I didn't think I really needed it. I was a teacher and I was under contract for the next 7 months.

Then it happened...I got sick. I ended up with a medical disability. I don't think I will ever be able to teach again.

At first I felt like climbing under a rock and dying but then I realized how lucky I was that it happened when I had no credit card debt and an actually savings account! I could have been far worse off. Now I had to look at this as an opportunity and somehow benefit from it.

I am well on my way to becoming a profitable independent business owner and I don't have to fear a certain demise all because I had the help of Suze and the gang.

Check out my new teeth whitening business on thumbtack.

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