Besides having some extra money to spend, there are some other reasons why I need to improve my financial status as soon as possible.
1. Children and/or Marriage
In the next few years I plan to move forward with having a child. I would prefer to have children with a husband, but it doesn't look like that's going to happen for me. I can't wait around forever, so if I'm not married soon I'm going to start looking at sperm donors (seriously) and raise a baby on my own. I realize that parenting is a huge financial strain, whether raising a child with help or alone. Therefore I need to free up my resources so that I can save some money to help support myself and a kid(s).
And if I do happen to meet someone to marry within the next couple years, I'd prefer to enter a marriage without bringing a bunch of debt into it. Likewise, I'd prefer if my (hypothetical) husband had his finances in decent condition. I don't want to help take on someone else's thousands in student loans and credit card debt. Marriage is stressful enough (i hear) without the burden of unnecessary financial obligations from the beginning.
2. Relief for Cosigners
When I was in college, I took out a couple student loans to pay for my educational expenses. Of course I didn't have any credit when I was that young and my parents cosigned the loans for me so that I could go to school.
Fast forward to today. Like most college graduates, I'm still paying on those loans from 12 years ago. When I'm late on a payment, my parents get a notice. They are not rich and have financial struggles, themselves. When they get warning notices like this, it stresses them out because they know that if I drop the ball and decide not to pay, they are screwed.
I want to finally pay this off so that my parents can have some peace in knowing that they are not on the hook for several thousands that they can't afford.
3. Sense of Security
One thing that scares me about my current financial condition is that I am just "out there" if anything goes wrong. If my roof suddenly springs a leak, if the radiator in my car dies again, even if I needed to buy a few outfits for an event I wouldn't have any available credit or savings to take care of any of those things.
I do have some money in a savings account that I do not touch under any circumstances! But it's not safe to be helpless if something unexpected were to come up. It really does scare me because I don't have a credit card to fall back on.
4. I Need a New Car!
I know this sounds pretty trivial and counterproductive but I really want a new car. I've had my car for 10 years and it is still in good shape. However, it started having some problems a couple years ago and I resent having to put hundreds of dollars into random repairs. Every time I go to have the oil changed, it seems I get a new list of issues to be dealt with.
This time around, I don't want to finance a car. I don't want a car payment at all. I want to save the total amount, pay the dealer and move on with my life.
But before I can do any of these things, I need to slash my credit card debt.
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