How to Get Yourself Out of Dumb Debt... I Hope

Confession: I am still a bit swamped in my dumb debt. I have not gotten myself out of it yet, but here I am, proclaiming to the world that I have been an idiot with my finances in the past (and present) and it is high time I gave myself a public shaming.

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It would probably make sense if I first explained what I consider to be "dumb debt". I'll start by explaining what I consider to be debt that is (usually) reasonable (there are exceptions to every rule): student loans, car payments, medical bills, and your mortgage. Dumb debt is most everything else.

What Is My "Dumb Debt"?
For me, most of my dumb debt is still related to my early years of "independence" when I got my first credit cards and thought I could get away with paying for most everything with them, including occasional trips across the country with no real purpose. Other forms I've incurred are the "I thought I could afford to pay just that much more extra on this bill, but turns out I can't do math" debt that actually puts you further in the hole than you started. The shit that turns into a truly vicious circle.

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Balancing Life and Work... Harder When You Actually Like Your Job!

Ignoring the fact that I even had a job!

I've never really had trouble separating my work and home lives. When I'm at work, I do my job... whatever it is... and when my hours are up or I'm off the clock, I just sort of forget about it all.

That's what I've done historically at least. But I think it's beginning to change, and there is a simple reason for it - I actually like my job now! When I head home after a day's work, I keep thinking about what I'm working on and sometimes even break out my laptop later in the day to continue my work. I'm writing, editing, and developing content (not to mention posting on and monitoring our Facebook page) for a living now. Not my dream job yet, but it's on the road!

(For those who are wondering, my ultimate dream job is to work as a full-time writer for HowStuffWorks.com. That would be AMAZING. Just sayin'.)


The best part about it is that I am happy to keep thinking about work and doing my job beyond the typical 8 hours.

Ah! You see the paradox too, didn't you? If I like my job and am willing (and happy) to take my work home with me, how does my regular life fit into the equation?

Moving Life into Hi-Def

In the not too distant past, there was no point in using the words "Standard Definition" to describe the quality of pretty much all televisions and the shows and movies we had available to watch on them. It was just the norm for us. We didn't realize what kinds of details were missed until the (now typical) HD options came out.

Most people can remember the first time they watched an old favorite in HD and realized what a difference it made. Suddenly, the trees and bushes had defined leaves, the outlines of the characters' faces were clear cut.

Today, I experienced, for the second time in my life, a transition from Standard Def to HD - I got my first ever pair of glasses!

Trying to be More Active... How I'm Not Suceeding

The funny thing about making an effort to be more active is that when you miss just one opportunity to stay active, you lose almost all the motivation you've been building up. At least, that's how it works with me. I probably shouldn't admit this, but every now and then when I'm dedicated to some physical activity, I'll come up with some excuse to ditch it at the last minute so I can instead stay at home and watch a movie, TV show, or just sit around doing nothing. Perhaps recognizing this failing in myself is what will help motivate me to stop doing it.

There are two things in particular that I don't want to slack off on - yoga and soccer. I'm not going to lie, I'm not particularly flexible and I'm pretty crap at soccer. I'm the worst player on our team. Last game, I scored a goal for the first time. The problem is, it was against us by an accident of my foot being in just the wrong place at the wrong time. But it still happened.

Despite the fact that I really enjoy both soccer and yoga and feel the physical benefits of them afterwards, why is it that I have trouble motivating myself to go there in the first place when it's time to start? Even though I know how much better I feel physically, mentally, and even emotionally after engaging in these activities, I don't always go. And I don't always have a good reason for skipping the activity.

A Recurring Theme

I know I've done this before, but I always seem to come back to it. I think it has something to do with the fact that things never seem to get resolved. Or maybe I just can't seem to exhibit enough patience to allow for a real resolution to come about.

Most likely, there is just no such thing as a "resolution" to the way my life works. You see, I can't help but be preoccupied with the status of my love life, if you will. This is not to say that I feel the need to jump into anything. I just feel like it would be nice to get back on the horse and have some kind of legitimate... something. I'm not entirely certain. I'm not ready for anything serious, but I'm getting tired of being so lonely and, when I'm not totally lonely, I feel like my options are, to say the least, limited. Not always in a good way. In fact, usually not.

I went so far as to spend months thinking to myself that, while my options seemed many and varied, my actual possibilities were few and far between. Overall, a pretty cynical outlook. I like to think I've gotten a bit more optimistic (though I admit, it hasn't been much of an improvement).

Things You've Always Wanted to Know About Me

I posted this on Facebook as well, but wanted to put it here to get the full spectrum of ideas and topics to discuss:

In an effort to write more in my personal blog, I'd love to hear some questions or topics that my friends would like to hear me talk about (even though I'll actually be writing and you'll be reading, you get the point, right?). So if there's anything you'd like to find out my opinion on, any stories you'd like me to tell, or just curiosities about me you always wondered about... now is the time! Let me know and I should get to it at some point!

Who Knew Avoiding Mediocrity Could Be So Inspiring?

I've decided I would like to write updates here more often. Part of what has caused this determination is a nifty little website called 101in365. This is an interesting new take on the "to-do" and "goal" list idea. The brain child of a very interesting young woman named Jenn, 101in365 doesn't just offer the chance to set goals to accomplish, but it provides healthy challenges for all of us.

The first challenge is to come up with a full list of 101 things that you would like to accomplish in the next 365 days. I bet you were like me when I first read approximately the same sentence, "101 items on a to-do list? That seems easy enough!" Boy are you mistaken (as was I)! The 12th item on my list is "Come up with 101 goals" because I could already tell that this was going to be something worthy of marking off.

This first challenge is actually a kind of double-trouble situation.