Broke, Budgeted, Baller – Classification of Your Financial Status

I personally believe that all of us fall into one of these classes, but aren't permanently limited to just one of them. You may be broke now, but later on you could be wiping your ass with $100 bills. Or you could have millions of dollars in your bank account, but lose it all in an instant due to unforeseen circumstances. Our financial situation can change at any moment, and it’s up to you to be aware on how you will cope up with it.

Here's my journey so far…

Let’s time travel back to 2008. Freshly graduated from Technical College, I was relieved, motivated, proud, and oh yes...Broke. Student loan, multiple credit card debts, I owed friends and family money, and my checking account was in the negative. Talk about a bittersweet moment.

Nonetheless, my morale was high since I believed that having my college diploma, I would go places and get my career going. And I did, I landed a job which utilized what I went to school for and did my thing. I could finally take care of business and go from Broke to Baller!

Boy was I in for a surprise...and this next statement isn’t far from how I felt back then...

“...It's like the more money we come across, the more problems we see...”

– Mo Money Mo Problems – Notorious B.I.G.

After landing the job I wanted, I was extravagantly getting new things; new car, new clothes, new phone, new computer, and yep you guessed it…new debt. I was able to pay off my student loan after a few months, I started to pay down my credit card debts, and my friends and family know this...I was cautiously paying them back by taking them out or buying them small things. I use the word cautiously because (I’m not going to lie because my nose will grow) I was pretty selfish with my money due to the fact that I was more concerned about paying off all these new debts and bills than spending it on what mattered. I was frugal, cheap, and still Broke.

Fast forward to January 2011, New Year, new beginning, new hope. The year before (2010, for those not following) was a pretty rough year for me; personally and financially. But as I like to call 2010, “Blessing in Disguise Year” If you’re a close enough friend of mine, you would know every detail of what happened to me in 2010. Moving on to the “Blessing in Disguise”, 2010 was an experience to be had in order for me to be where I am today; a stronger individual mentally and financially. The first two months of 2011, I was applying what I knew about budgeting. I was paying my debts off quicker by sacrificing and selling a few of my things. I was able to pay off a few things, but to what expense? I was letting go of things that I considered valuable and fun, like going out with my friends, vacations, my camera lenses, gadgets, etc. I was paying off my debts, but I was miserable.

A few weeks ago, I ran into a website, www.iwillteachyoutoberich.com, a financial blog ran by Ramit Sethi. At first I was skeptical, I mean come on, his website is “I Will Teach You To Be Rich”, no offense Ramit, my first impressions were, “This is a scam!” and “What’s the catch?” But I looked into it further and started reading post after post until I eventually signed up to his newsletter via email and finally bought his book, and immediately put it to work.

And the result is...*Drum Roll*... 4 months in 2011, my financial situation is now is Budgeted; bills are paid on time, I have multiple savings accounts, I have investments and my debts are slowly but surely on their way to being paid off. Oh and did I mention I’m left a little (a few hundred dollars) extra to spend on what I want, guilt free! Thanks to the great information on Ramit Sethi's website and book, I was able to organize and manage my finances in a simple yet effective method. This moment of my life is called Budgeted.

As far as moving up in class to Baller...well we’ll get to that. I’m working on a little project to move up in class, so...Stay Tuned!

So, what about you? Which class are you in, at this very moment? If you’re Broke, what are you doing to help yourself become Budgeted? If you’re Budgeted, what are you doing to maintain it or to move up to being a Baller? If you’re a Baller, what did you do to get there and to stay there?

Share the story of your journey and success to inspire us all!

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