Another honest blog about my finances.
There was a point in the recent past – VERY recent – that I refused to answer the phone. If your number was not programed into my phone I would not answer. I was AFRAID to answer it because I knew it was someone looking for money that I owed them.
How I got into this situation is another story that I’ll tell later.
I cannot explain the feeling of dread and fear every time the phone rang. The worst was the time a guy with a badge showed up at my door to serve me papers because I was being sued by a credit card company. O_O For the last few years of my life I’ve had constant anxiety over my finances. That large weight in the pit of my stomach that never went away was a financial one.
We live in Houston, TX. Usually if you live in Houston you are in Medicine, Space, or Energy. My husband is in energy. The company he works for makes and sells cables for oil exploration. Since the recent recession not a lot of people are exploring for oil so his company is taking a hit. This scared the *you know what* out of me adding to the big ball of anxiety I carried around in my gut.
So, as I neared the awesome age of 50, I also started to worry about what would happen to us when we retired. Honestly I had no clue how we would live. My house isn’t scheduled to be paid off until I reach 77. (That’s living outside of the Dave Ramsey plan) I’m a thinker and all I could think about was eating cat food and living in a box under I-45. (not being funny, I thought about it a lot)
ENOUGH WAS ENOUGH so I started the baby steps. Now when my phone rings I answer it and 10 times out of 10 it is not a creditor asking me where their money is. Usually it is someone wanting to sell me an extended warranty on my car or cheaper insurance. *sigh*
I’m not out of debt yet. My house is not paid off yet. Our retirement is not huge yet. But there is NOT a large ball of anxiety in the pit of my stomach and that feels awesome!.
