Reality of Numbers

The main cause of my financial ignorance for so long was how overwhelming it all seemed to me.  Cash in hand has always been a simple concept.  I have X amount, I spend Y amount, I now have Z amount.  But once you throw in a card or checks or, Heaven forbid, interest, I'm lost.  Utterly, utterly lost.

So when my husband would discuss our debt situation, it confused and overwhelmed me.  I saw much bigger numbers than I wanted to see and the idea of ever paying them off was so insurmountable to me that I just decided to remain in denial.  Denial was easy and didn't require any figuring of numbers.

But through this journey, I am starting to see the reality of those numbers.  I am seeing them for what they are, and while the math of it all still leaves my heading spinning like a top, I have learned what numbers I need to know to make the process doable.

And it is the little things that make me start to see the reality of debt versus cash.  As I mentioned previously, we are working on selling the few things we have to sell.  Right away, my husband put a handful (I think it was around 18 total) of video games on Ebay.  In a week, he made $200.  Seriously.  Two hundred bucks.  Just by taking a few minutes to sell some games, not even amazing or unique games, just standard games that have been sitting in a box for years and he made $200.

But here's the best part.  When that $200 figure is plugged into one of those snazzy spreadsheets my husband made for me, it showed me that such a tiny amount actually cut down one of our credit cards by a full year of payments.  A couple minutes, a few games gone, and ONE YEAR less of credit card payments.

Are you as blown away as I am?  Interest still doesn't make much sense to me.  I can't really wrap my brain around the percentages and how the whole thing works (I truly am the most financially inept human being you will ever encounter).  But when I see something like that happen right before my eyes, I see that interest is a much, much worse thing than I have ever been taught.

I wish I could put that information on a giant billboard right outside of every school in America.  I feel angry that no one every told me this stuff. 

But I feel overjoyed that I know it now and that something can be done about it.  It is doable.  It is not overwhelming.

Now, it's time to go sell some more stuff...