End of financial tax year is a good time to reflect on finances. I wrote this blog post on my wealth worries when I had 14K in credit card debt. I was concerned about the impacts of that debt on my mental health. Even though my salary has grown since then I’ve had a few hiccups and my credit card debt got worse before it got better.
The $77,527.00 taxable income was lower than I expected but I didn’t work for around 2 months of the year recovering from my broken ankle and being in between jobs. I got a decent Tax return because I’m getting better at keeping track of receipts for professional development purposes. I attended a few conferences in that year, my previous company couldn’t afford to help me get to one and it was all out of pocket expenses.
35K Credit Card Debt
My credit card debt grew to a max amount of $35,000 AUD before I started getting on top of it. Why did it grow from $14K when I blogged about it last? At the time I had just been approved for a $20,000 credit card and was going to do a 0% interest credit debt transfer. I was going to cancel all of my other cards. I was just about to cancel the big 12K card when I had a family member ask for a loan. Then I went on holiday. Then I paid for weight loss surgery on that $12K card. My application to use my super to pay for the weight loss surgery was declined. The surgery cost me around $7K and I couldn’t really put a value on extending the quality of my life in the future.
Personal loan
In March last year I took out a personal for $35,000 to pay off my credit card debt. I cancelled all of those pesky credit cards. I’m now down to about $27K owing on that personal loan. I’ve had a few hiccups, the broken ankle didn’t help but now I’m settling into a new role I’m looking forward to clearing out most of that debt next year. I have a monthly budget that I’m constantly looking at:
Goals for this financial year
I want to get better at keeping track of expenses. I’m trying to get better at taking photos of receipts and collecting them at the end of the month. I’m still terrible at this (this has taken me years to build up the discipline to care enough to try it). I don’t know why this is so hard but it is.
What are your financial goals? How are you going to achieve them?
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