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01-16-2008, 08:50 AM
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#1
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Thought I would share my success story....
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Senior Mommysavers Member
Last Online: 04-01-2008 06:27 AM
Join Date: Jan 2008
Posts: 100
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I was a single mom at 19 with my son. I racked up a lot of bad debt and was in way over my head! I met my ex husband and decided before we got married we would file bankruptcy. We did so and kept up with the bills we decided to keep. All was fine and a few years after that we decided to buy a house. We got 80/20 loans at a high interest rate under his name. I was self employed and nothing was under my name. We ended up getting divorced 2 years ago, a year after buying the house. I had everything switched to my name ( I could afford house, he couldnt so he let me have it) except one mortgage. They needed to run my credit yadda yadda yadda. It didnt go through so my ex agreed to let me keep paying it under his name.
That is when I knew I had to do something. About 18 months ago I ran my first credit report. And wowzers. It was bad. Credit score of about 520. I went through every inch of it and realized a few things wrong. And I had all my credit cards charged out now, and a couple loans for house hold stuff.
I put an end to my spending and started pinching pennies everywhere. Cancelled everything magazines, newspaper, etc. Lowered all other bills to minimum, and kept track of how I was doing every month.
This went on for 18 months. Finally in December I decided to run my report again and it was so good. Credit score almost 700. I filed to refinance both mortgages ( 11.75% and 9.75% for 30 years ARM) into one mortgage that is 15 years fixed at 5.75%. I pay now what I was paying back then but for only 15 years. And way lower rate.
I am happy to announce that at 28 I finally have no credit card debt, I just paid my last truck payment Monday, and all personal loans are paid off. The only thing I owe on is the mortgage. :D
Now I can work on my Emergency Fund which is $0 right now, and a savings account ($100 now) which may or may be used for vacation this summer ( unless I can pay cash out of pocket at the time).
I am self employed so things fluctuate from time to time, but I am confident that I can keep it this way for many years to come, and hopefully pass it on to my kids. They already like to help by unplugging things, checking electric meter once a week ( when we started it was once a day) and helping me figure out how much we saved at eating at home instead of out to eat!
Hopefully I can learn some great tips here, and give some advice as well. Thanks for listening!
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Quote:
Welcome to Mommysavers. It sounds like you have a lot you can teach us. This is a great place to learn about all sorts of things. 
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