Net Worth is Euro 500 !! :-)

This is a big positive for me :-)

Have decided to further my education and take on a 2 yr part-time Degree thats related to my work. After tax relief and financial assistance from my employer this Degree is only going to cost me Euro 2,200 at most in total.

I know this must make American students sick as I know college can be very expensive over there and a lot of students graduate deeply in debt.

Yes... I am consciously thanking my lucky stars for living in a country where opportunity presents itself so easily...

Hope everyone has a good start to the week !!

Got approved for a new CC - one that gives Eur 100 free credit when you make your first purchase... I only intend to use for Internet purchases and pay if off immediately so I'll avoid interest. When my current account is in better shape I will close it.

Also came across a thing that one bank offers in Ireland called a Credit Account. Basically you get approved for a certain amount of credit - in my case it would be Eur 13,000. You can drawdown it down via the Internet as it suits you and you can make repayments as it suits you also - you must pay 2 - 4 % every month but are free to make one-off payments as often as you wish.

The cheapest loan on the Market at the moment is 6.8 % - so I've applied for this over 4 years. However this new Credit Account will charge me 8.15% (approx) but I will be free to make additional payments anytime I want... 20 here, 50 there...etc etc. I am very tempted to go for this as it will mean I will have the money paid back in less than 4 years.

The only temptation is that you will keep drawing down money after you have repaid it ( like a CC)... but I am confident I can withstand it. I'm sure I could have it paid off in 3 yrs or less...

Oh.. happy days :-)

What do you think ?

Best place to start ? With the biggest I guess.... the Loan

Got a Loan from my Bank (Bank A) last March for Eur 13400 over 5 years at 7.7%. This, in and of itself, is a very competitive rate on the Irish market.

The Loan was to pay off an old Loan of approx 4-5K and to purchase a 4 yr old car for €8,700 - along with my 11 yr old trade-in. To cut a long story short, my father had to liquidate his company - a consequence of which was he had to sell his car to pay debt... so my family - 2 parents and 2 brothers - had only my old car to travel about in... which was fine for short errands or for me personally... but really being a "family" car meant more trips and longer ones e.g. to the Airport and reliability/up-keep of an 11 yr old car became a factor... to be honest, I also didn't like my mother put-putting about in an old banger and wanted to get something decent & respectable to ferry her about in....so got a Honda Fit as they're known in the US... a super little car.

Anyway I have a current account with Bank A that charges a Eur 9 Fee every month. Most banks have free banking so decided to change. However if I close the Fee-paying account, the loan interest goes up. So, decided to move loan as well.

Got provisional approval for the cheapest loan on the market at 6.8% - €13,000 over 4 years - with no associated fees or charges.

Then discovered a Bank Account (Bank B) that pays 10% Credit Interest on money in your current account up to a maximum balance of Eur 2000. Bank A pays like 0.15% Credit Interest... so applied to Bank B for a current account and in the process of switching... however Bank B has no branch in my home town - nearest is 40 min drive away so will operate another Free Bank account in my town in case I actually need Bank Drafts/Foreign currency etc...

Have succeeded in paying off my CC (yeah !!) and at the moment am paying off two small overdrafts I have with Bank A. Since my Emergency Fund is so low and my current account is in Overdraft, I don't want to get rid of my CC in case of emergency... especially since my parents are worse off financially than me at the mo.... the plan is to have about Eur 1500-2000 saved up in my new Bank B current account (earning 10%) within the next 2-3 years and then close my CC - I reduced my CC limit to Eur 1500. My debit card will replace my CC at that point.

My current CC offers no rewards. In fact very few CCs do as the Irish market is still like a fat little puppy and is quite uncompetitive - very lucrative for the banks... however I applied for the following today:

Bank B's CC - gives once-off Eur 100 spending money when make first purchase.

Tesco CC - earn clubcard points with every purchase... these points are then converted into vouchers to spend in-store or on affiliated companies.

Sony CC - earn points with every purchase that be exchanged for certain Sony products.

Ideally, I will get Bank B's CC, spend the Eur 100 they give me...on flights for holiday with my mother in September - flights cost 170 so I'll get them for 70 :-) Then close Bank B's CC and get Tesco's CC so I can start earning Vouchers....

wow... what a proper little frugalist I am becoming...lol .... on a related note, my mindset has totally shifted into "how can I make best use of these financial companies and make them work for me". I used to afford them too much respect and feel happy when they accepted my applications.... my eyes have been opened to the almost "war" that's going on between these companies and me- and we're both fighting over who says where my paychecks go.....

Nite All

The moment is here.... I AM CC DEBT-FREE !!

Well actually I've paid Eur 43 too much when paying off my CC so the CC company owes me money !!

This is a very serious situation but because I'm a friendly person I'll do the following:

Not charge any interest for 6 months....
Charge 10 % from 6 - 12 months....
Charge 20 % from 12- 18 months....
Charge 30 % from 18 - 24 months...

And if they dare miss a payment, I will of course charge a Eur 100 missed payment fee, add it onto the balance and increase the overall interest rate to 35 %....

that's just the kind of helpful guy I am....hehe

After about 5 years of always having a CC balance in the thousands, it is currently at Eur 42 !! Will be paid off in full by next Friday all going as planned :-)

Anyways, the big 3-oh next May - have been thinking about making a memorable trip to celebrate the cutting loose of the boy Shane and the welcoming of the man.

What I have planned is as follows:

Take approx 3 weeks off work end of April/start of May 2009.

Fly Dublin to New York - spend 2/3 nights there visiting family and friends.

Fly New York to Lima/Cusco in Peru.

Spend 3/4 days trekking on Peruvian horses (luv horses !! ) getting down n dirty in the Peruvian countryside - trying to breathe in as much beauty as possible.

Wanted to visit the famous Machu Picchu site - but then I have read on the net that it is being damaged by tourism so might not visit for that reason- jury is out at mo.

3/4 days white-water rafting - never done this before.

Then rent an apartment in Lima for 6/7 nights to enjoy the city culture and nightlife.

Then back to Ireland.

I want to have all flights, horse trekking, white-water rafting and Lima apartment paid for before I leave...without borrowing in any way. I also plan to have all spending money saved b4 I go.

How to do this ? Well, I have a savings account with Eur 270 in it for overpaying my Personal Loan (I got a Loan of 13,400 last March over 5 years at 270 a month - my plan was to save 270 a month so that I pay it off in 2.5 years). However when I listed out my monthly outgoings, looked at my spending diary since April 1st and looked at my normal salary income... my outgoings are actually higher than my income !! It must be the overtime I've being doing at work that is keeping things pretty balanced.

Anyway, no room for further savings. So basically I've decided to change the Loan Overpayment savings to the Peru savings.

For spending money, I am going to buy $150 dollars every payday ( every 2 weeks) so I'll have $3,300 spending money when I leave... which will be LOADS n LOADS..

This will mean spending Eur 200 more per month than I currently am so I'll have to look into where I'll get this.... it's just occured to me that I won't be paying approx Eur 45 CC interest anymore :-) so that'll help.... more Overtime I guess... if it's going.

Details aside, I really feel I will get a lot from this trip on a personal level... so I consider the saving effort worthwhile and a positive thing as I can focus on improving the things in my life that money can't buy....

Would love to hear from any of you that have been to Peru/ South America with any hints/tips....

Guess I'll have to dig out the Do-it-self Learn Spanish tapes !! lol

btw... I'm also interested in learning to dance the Salsa in the near future... does anybody know if the Salsa is big in Peru ??

Got paid last night and paid €300 off CC. Was only intending to pay €150 off but I reckon I entered an instruction to pay €150 twice in error on my Internet Banking.

Ah well... better spent there than elsewhere... :-)

Sent letter to my Savings Account Provider today to close my Regular Savings Account on its 1st anniversary (3rd May). I'll be putting all that money (approx €1900) towards my CC.

Soooo... should have CC paid off by this time next month !!