Where I Stand, Financially, at Day One

I guess part of this journey is figuring out where I start.


Let's see---savings. Virtually non-existent.

I have probably $100 in a college savings account.

I have nothing saved for retirement, which at age 42 is pretty sad. Luckily, I have one of those jobs that still has a pension plan (for now--both job wise and pension plan wise).

To start saving, I did open an account at a local credit union. I opened a "special savings" that will be my Emergency Fund and a Christmas Club account.



As far as debt goes---that's a harder story. I am in such denial that I tend to ignore the past due notices, etc. (I know, I might as well be shooting myself in the foot!). My plan is to get this list together while I work on funding my baby Emergency Fund ($1000).



At the same time, I am working on a budget and cash-flow system. This is somewhat depressing. I am rounding down on income and rounding up on outgoing items, but I am still about $100 short for January. I also didn't include income from Job#2, since we are off for over a month and thus will not have any pay to speak of from there in January. In addition, I included $150 books. However, I did get gift certs from a regular book store, so maybe my texts will be available that method. If so, I am square.