Waiting For Interest to Work In My Favour

My annual mortgage statement came in the mail last night. I'm glad, I was beginning to wonder where it had gotten off to. That was right about where the glad part ended. There is something rather unfortunate about paying almost $17,000 onto a loan and only seeing the balance improve by about $4,500. It's like having one of those payday loans, only it has a nicer name.

Hey you, yeah you Interest, I've got something to say to you: Bite Me.

I have the sudden urge to empty my wallet into my lump sum payment jar right now. In fact, I'll probably do that as soon as I'm done typing here.

The envelope wasn't entirely filled with suck though. Apparently my mortgage provider is starting a website where I can go to check my balance, review my statements, change my payment frequency or amount, or make lump sum payments. That last one makes me happy, it will make the process much easier come the end of the year.

Home sweet home. One day you'll be all mine.

The Best and Worst of 2010

I don't have nearly enough blog posts to warrant writing a "Best Of 2010" with a list of links, I only started writing in October. What I do have, however, is a bunch of financial decisions I've made in the last year. Some were good, some were bad, others were downright stupid. Maybe you'll recognize yourself in some of them. That's okay, because the whole point of this is to figure out where the issues are, and then solve them. The only direction I intend on going from here on out is up!

Worst Decisions of 2010

• Putting a new iPhone, expensive clothes, dinners out and renovation supplies on credit
• Letting myself be talked into purchases I wasn't sure about
• Taking 3 unpaid weeks off work to volunteer at Whistler (I don't regret the experience, just the financial implications)
• Paying other people's way because I felt I was able to do so (I wasn't)
• Undertaking more renovations than I should have all at once.
• Not opening my mail and taking a good hard look at it (was paying online)
• NOT KEEPING A BUDGET

So.... yeah. Not really proud of that, but now that it's sitting right in front of me staring me in the face I know I have to do something about it. It took me a year to dig myself in, and it will take me more than a year to dig myself back out. It's not all bad however, I did make some good decisions as well:

Best Decisions of 2010

• Shutting down my "leaks": Subscriptions to services I was paying for but not using (Consumer Reports, Gyms, etc...)
• Putting my credit card on ice
• Tracking my financial progress to see whether I was saving or going further into debt.
• Starting a blog to keep myself accountable

The positives aren't as blatant as the negatives, but they are there. They give me a starting point to grow from. Onwards and upwards.

What were some of your best and worst financial decisions of 2010? Give me a shout :)