be financially independent

I have two major things to pay off:
My mom… who instead of using student loans with interest rates, paid for my college herself and kept a tab. So I owe her, interest-free, and without a payment deadline, about $10k. Not bad.

Visa… for my trip to Costa Rica

So I’m breaking down my income into 4 quarters.
1/4 to mom
1/4 to Visa
1/4 to savings
1/4 to me

Knowing me, I’ll toss everything from the ‘me’ section to Visa as well. But that’s okay. And this is the plan for now. :)

My credit cards are paid off, there’s money in my checking account (not much, but it’s more than a zero balance) and my savings is holding at 1000. Not awesome, but better than where I started.

I checked my credit today, and while I didn’t opt to buy the numerical score, it was good enough to support the 2 credit cards I have, and have a high enough balance on one to cover potential emergencies.

Now I just need to pay back that tab to mom & dad!

My parents have a “tab” from when I was in college. Not terrible, it kept me from ever taking out loans, there’s no interest, it’s less than $9,000, and has no due date. Overall, a deal to kill for. But knowing I owe them is driving me crazy! So when I paid my mom the $25 for my portion of cell phone use this month, I added an extra $50 to go towards the tab. It’s only a little, but it adds up.!