1 Year Later...

Wow! Ok! It's been a little over a year since I last made a post here!
There's so much to catch up on!!

Job:
I'm still doing the photography gig- very boring, but stable and almost zero stress. I was working as a coffee barista for about 10 months while doing the photo thing! This was actually a lot of fun and one of my favorite jobs ever, but it didn't pay nearly enough and the coffee was actually pretty bad. Blegh! But I learned a lot and I'm hoping to do this kind of work again one day!

Business:
I started my jewelry business in early December but only managed to make about 3 sales in 3 months! Boo! Things were starting to pick up but I had an unexpected hiccup in my living arrangements and had to put my business on hold until further notice...

Living:
My boyfriend and I moved out of our crummy apartment in Harlem to move to a pretty decent place in Brooklyn! We really liked the place, even though our commute was kinda long, but our roommate didn't love us so much and we were asked to leave after a year of living there!
Now, we are living with my boyfriend's mother and little sister in Queens (rent-free!) for the next 3-7 months so we can save money and find a great place of our very own! It's been a little tough adjusting but it will be worth it to get a jump start paying off my debt! I'm looking at this as a blessing in disguise!

Debt:
It's been a little disappointing this year, as most of my money ended up going into my jewelry business, which is now on hold, and not my debt. Also, instead of getting a much needed tax refund, I ended up owing the state almost $500!! I wanted to cry let me tell ya! But now that we are living rent-free, I'm going to get another weekend job at the end of July and by the time we move out of my bf's mom's place this December, I'm hoping to have almost 60% of my debt paid off!! In fact, I'm paying off my EVIL CHASE credit card this very month! Woo-hoo! And since I started this blog, I have brought my total debt down to $26,620 from $33K!

Running:
I started the Couch25K program last May and now I usually end up running an average of 3 miles in 33 minutes! And I run 3-5 times a week!! Can you believe it?! I actually achieved my goal of running 1 mile and exceeded it! More than that, I ENJOY running!

Weight-Loss:
This has been a topsy-turvy year for my weight loss journey. I joined a FREE and completely awesome website called SparkPeople.com and, combined with my running program, managed to loose almost 20 pounds in 6 months! Of course, in November, I stopped going to the gym so I could focus on starting my business and ended up gaining back about 8 pounds. However, I started working out again in February and I've lost about 6 of those 8 pounds! All said and done, I've lost 16 pounds and I'm about half-way to my goal weight!

Of course, this is just the tip of the iceberg folks! There's so much more to tell you, so many new goals (and setbacks)! I can't wait to share it all with you and to start blogging again!

Money Matters

All this talk about running and weight-loss and creams and I haven't even touched base with my main reason for doing all of this!
Money.
I have decided to become a millionaire.

It started a few months ago when I was going through the latest in a long list of financial crisis. A friend of mine decided to quit her job and trade stocks on her own dime and time. There were times she would make $2000 a week. To me, making $450 a week after taxes, this seemed as magical as winning the lottery. But lots of people make money through stocks, so why not me? So I headed out to the library to see if I could find a book to teach me about trading stocks.  I walked away with many books, but the one that had the most impact was a book called The Millionaire Maker. Now, I have to say this book really makes it seem easy and totally plausible to quit your job tomorrow, start a business, that will obviously be an immediate success, bringing you extra money, which you can then invest and save, making more money which you then use to re-invest in rental properties that will bring you additional income, etc... etc... that will generate this whole money-making cycle. Making you a millionaire in just 3-5 years. Provided you're not in debt. 
Yeah...
All of this sounds completely possible and these seem to be sound business practices to reach your millionaire goal. In theory. However, most of the examples in this book, even the examples of people deeply in debt, had some kind of assets to work with. 401K plans, savings, work history, houses or cars. Some kind of assets to trade, cash out, refinance, or borrow against. But I was very inspired. I wanted to quit my job immediately, start a business and jump in feet first. So I started to take a good hard  look at my life, financially, and realised... I have none of these things.
No savings, no disposable income to speak of, sometimes I have less than $5 in my account at the end of the week and its a struggle just to buy milk, no car (as I live in NYC), also no house or apartment. I rent a room on a week to week basis (that's probably not entirely legal) in what is easily the crappiest apartment I have ever lived in. (Another entry in and of itself.) I cashed out the $700 I had in 401K the last time I was laid off, so no valuables to speak of with which to sell, and I work 10-13 hours a day, 6 days a week, which leaves no time to work a second job since finding time to do laundry or buy groceries is a challenge, and since I changed careers a little over a year ago, I have very few skills and experience to pull from. Also, I have a mountain of debt, around $33,000.
So. How does someone with almost nothing become a millionaire?
For one thing, I have decided to start this blog. Partly to keep me focused on my goals, partly to inspire others in my situation and, in turn, be inspired by my readers, and, yes, partly to receive extra money from ads posted here. That's right my little sweater-monkeys, I fully intend to use all of you as part of my springboard to success. Muuah-hahahahahaha. ha. In an ethical, honest, up-front kind of way, of course!
According to The Millionaire Maker book there are many steps to becoming a millionaire and what step you start with depends on your current financial status. At the moment my only assets are my limited skill set and my job. Ideally, I will use these assets to make a money making machine (i.e.- business). My goal is to get some kind of passive income (i.e.- investments where my money works for me instead of me working for money), get out of debt, and build some kind of savings.
So first of all, I called all my credit cards and negotiated with them to lower my APR's, allowing me to make more than just the minimum payments and pay off my credit cards faster. Now, I know you can also get credit unions and debt consolidators to do this for you but so many of them are just shady con-men, out to get your money. And why pay someone else to do what you are perfectly capable of doing yourself?! My most ambitious success was when I negotiated the biggest credit card with the highest debt and APR from $260/month to $210/month. I know this doesn't seem like much, but they also lowered my APR from close to 35% (outrageous by the way) to 5% (Amen, Hallelujah)! Meaning that almost all of that $210 was now going towards paying off my balance instead of paying off my banks' salaries. They also closed my account, but the hit to my credit was a small price to pay considering I would be out from under this ginormous debt in as little as 5 years!
Unfortunately, my next highest balance refused to go lower since they were already pretty low at 9%. And my last credit card also refused to go lower. Although I don't know why. And while it was not my highest balance, it is still my highest APR at 16%. And this has earned them a place in my sights. They are now at the top of my list to pay off. I also have subsidized government student loans at the tune of $14,000 but I got very lucky and locked in an APR of 2%. And since student loans are not considered 'bad debt', I'm not too worried about this one.
BankRate.com, that will compare rates from all kinds of banks and all kinds of accounts- very helpful. I would also  suggest reading a book called, Young, Broke, and Fabulous, by Suze Orman to teach you the basics of managing your money. It's very easy to read and understandable.
Now my next step is to start some kind of cash machine (i.e.- easy money), some kind of business with a low start up and overhead, using skills I already have, which will give me money to put towards following my bigger passions and goals and starting my dream business. To do all of this though I will need to find a different job that will give me less hours and the same or equal pay to what I'm making now. Spending more time on a money making business!
So away we go my little money-makers!
And just to prove that my life is not a total crap-fest, I will share with you a song I first heard only a few short weeks after I decided to become a millionaire. I took it as a sign and I hope that all of you will enjoy it as much as I do... 
I Wanna Be a Billionaire