Scored Racing

Runners will recognize the term scored racing. If you finish certain distances under certain times for nine or more races, you can earn yourself a spot in the NY marathon. But then sometimes the marathon has pity on you and if you've tried the lottery four years in a row, you get automatic entry that fourth time. I fall into the persistent vs consistent category. This goes for so many things in my life.

I don't remember when I learned about credit scores. You hear of bad credit but the part about scores was a mystery to me. Remember my Fannie Mae cluelessness? Well, I was even more clueless when it came to my credit report, that I even had one!! You mean someone was keeping tabs on my tabs?? Whoever thought it was a good idea to give college students credit cards without mandatory parental approval or some sort of stringent personal finance education and approval process should drown in debt. Not only did I live on credit cards in college, I lived beyond my means on credit.

Cut to post-college with no job and a hefty (Ivy League) student loan to carry as well, I found myself with five figures worth of debt and a degree in English. Then somewhere between dodging collection calls and putting my loans on deferment, I read Suze Orman's book, The 9 Steps To Financial Freedom ( www.suzeorman.com). It was a long, painful process but I became credit card debt free and refuse to use anything except American Express. I still am paying off my students loans as admittedly that was the lion's share of my debt (one more year to go) but will be paying those off ahead of schedule. In this process I learned about credit reports and how late payments actually DO matter.

I live in NYC, the worst city to try and accumulate personal wealth, where as my friend from LA observed that fast cash from the ATM comes in increments of $100 instead of $20 as it does over there, it's hard not to think that everyone is loaded here. What I fail to remember is that many people still live on credit so I feel fortunate to have learned that lesson in my twenties. Now as I'm in the race for real estate, I am relieved that my credit score is good and I am able to prequalify for a mortgage.

So back to being Done.com, what does all of this have to do with it? Well, being Done.com is a goal of mine as is owning a home. My parting thought(s) will actually be some takeaways for you to read. Then we'll go more into goals and why working often sucks.

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/09/06/opinion/06debotton.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=workers+of+the+world%2C+relax&st=nyt&oref=slogin

http://nymag.com/news/features/24757/