Lame? Maybe a little, but as of today I achieved what I thought was impossible… and want to thank the community for such diverse contributions that not only helped me get through some pretty bad times financially, but sparked in me a passion for taking control of every aspect of my finances and being able to help others with theirs.
I discovered Fatwallet in 2003 as a freshman in college, Hot Deals forum of course. Immaturity and being hyper extroverted led me to maxxing out as many credit cards as I could get my hands on. Looking back, I can’t believe I signed up for a credit card whose signup bonus was a stupid T-Shirt.
Anyways, that all caught up with me about a year after graduating. Couldn’t pay all my bills and rent, couldn’t get any more cards even though I was fully wised-up by this point, got tangled up in payday loans from various sources, and had no choice but to default almost $30K of CC debt. My FICO was about 540. I even signed up for two of those “free debt counseling services” that were actually just high APR consolidation loans. Luckily I backed out when I realized this.
I never posted a whole lot… but even through just reading other peoples’ stories, FWF helped me find solutions for paying my bills, and especially the solution of getting a secured credit card from a credit union to start to rebuild my credit. I still have my nRewards Secured Visa with a $500 CL out of principle (although they automatically made it unsecured at some point). By the way, PYBDB was well well received because you guys delivered that message perfectly.
So now within 10 years of living mostly “the FWF way” and carrying no CC balances… I “own” a house, track my finances and budgets, and have learned the art of churning to take advantage of many CC signup bonuses – like “mini AORs” for some guilty pleasures and travel. Furthermore, I’ve learned to max out my 401(k) and Roth IRA every year and think we’re right on track for a nice “on-time” retirement.
So yeah I just wanted to say thanks, especially for everyone’s passion to keep the community alive by migrating here and continuing the discussion. Please keep contributing to the personal finance, rental property, budgeting, and retirement stuff in particular.
Now… time to put it to use.