Adventures in Debt

I just got back from my summer vacation in NYC, which was fabulous! I got to see all the touristy things in Manhattan, and spent some quality time with some friends. We were actually staying in Connecticut, about an hour from NYC, which was great. Here I am in Soho.


The thing I was noticing was that a few of my Canadian friends were withdrawing money all the time from bank machines. While this doesn’t sound like a strange thing, I kept hearing “ka-ching!” in my head each time one of them went to the ATM, because I kept thinking of all the fees they were being charged with each withdrawal. Typically there’s a flat fee for using a machine out of the country, then there’s an exchange fee, and then the fee because the bank wants to charge you a fee. I shudder to think how much those ATM visits were costing them. I had brought a bunch of cash with me, and then was using my credit card for bigger purchases. And I lasted the entire 6 days with the cash I’d brought with me, which I thought was pretty good.

So my travelling tip to you: if possible, always bring some local cash with you, and traveller’s cheques if necessary. Use your credit card when possible, like in restaurants, to keep the cash for situations where plastic isn’t usable (like in a local market). And if you need to use an ATM in a foreign country, be sure you know how much it’s going to cost you, and make sure you’re using a reputable ATM as well, since you don’t want to have the machine eat your card and theyn you’re left stranded. (That’s happened to me before.)

So today I got my bi-annual bonus payment from work. I’ve been at this company for a year and a half, so I’m still impressed that I get a bonus at all. I don’t work in sales, or anything like that, so I’m impressed that I do get one. Hell, the entire company gets one! It’s based on the company’s peformance and your own personal performance, so it’s definitely something that can be affected by what I do, but not entirely. This also means that I have a performance review every 6 months, which is a little nerve wracking. I don’t like reviews, not that I have ever had a bad one, but just the idea of scrutiny from management makes me nervous. And being as I am already a self-introspective kind of gal, this extra review drives me bonkers.

On a happy note to the review, I actually got a promotion and a raise, which is always nice. This will definitely help out with my debt repayment, so that I don’t have to get a part-time job or anything. I could’ve just carried on as I was doing in my repayment, but I’m getting a little tired of having it over my head, you know? So I was contemplating doing a little somethin’ somethin’ on the side to help out. I’m already selling anything & everything I can on eBay, which is netting me some nice pocket change, but not enough to seriously impact my debt repayment. (only about $100 a month or so, which isn’t small change, just not enough to seriously dent the debt, you know?) But an extra $200 per paycheque will definitely help. (that’s about how much more I’m grossing with the raise) Pretty cool.

Upon recalculating my debt repayment schedule with the new salary and the bonus payment, I think I’ll be able to shave a few months off my schedule. So instead of being debt free by Aug. 2007, I should be debt free by May 2007! Yeehaw.

Determining how to pay off debts is one of the favourite topics among all the Reduce Debt gurus. Pay off the one with the highest interest first. Or, pay off the one with the smallest balance first. I’ve waffled back and forth between the two, as I see the merits in doing both, however because I don’t actually see any change in my situation even though I do pay more than the minimums on things, I think I’ll pay off my debt with the lowest balance right now. I’ve got one balance that I can pay off quickly, so I’m going to do that. I feel like I need to see some active movement in larger chunks, rather than just watching the balances go down in small movements, you know? Sometimes a person needs to see that as incentive to carry on.

*sigh* Now it’s back to work after a wonderful long weekend. I went to visit my sister, and we had lots of fun. We spent most of the weekend by her mother-in-law’s pool, working on our tans, which was nice. It’s good to get out of the big city once in a while for a change of scene. I also like visiting with my sister & brother-in-law, as I don’t see them often. They live 3 hours away from me, so we don’t see each other as much as we’d like. But now it’s time to get back into work mode, which is never a good thing. ha ha