JC's DIREy

JayCollins

Unfortunately I'm back. I've not been on the forum for over 7 years and things in that time have been up and down. I came back across this forum having started thinking properly about money, and resurrected my old account. It was fascinating (in a weird way) to read my single thread from back then. In a stream of semi-coherent waffle, here goes...

A lot has happened over the last few months - paying for a wedding, leaving a job, the wedding itself, a honeymoon, a new job and essentially 2 weeks of money to pay two month's worth of bills on top. This has brought to the surface the possibility that things might be on track to getting silly again. I've taken my bills seriously, just not seriously enough. I'm back to improve my financial situation, to draw on advice and experience from more-intelligent-people-than-me, and to just clear my chest and make a solid difference.

I've never really been in what I'd consider a "good" financial position. At its best during my adult life, I've had 3 digit savings for single digit months of time, I've had CCs, I've paid off CCs, I've had Loans, I've paid off Loans etc. At it's worst, I've had nearly £20,000 of debt across nearly 10 lines of credit, jobless and suicidal (not necessarily down to finances alone), a DRO... Ups and downs. I'm currently somewhere in the middle. Long term I'd like to change it for the better, I'd like to have 4 or even 5 digit savings for actual years, minimal debt and a shining credit history. Some day I really hope to purchase a property for my new wife and I to move into, something to call our own and be proud of, and somewhere to live that means not throwing away nearly £600 every month.

This weekend I spent a few hours doing some numbers, actually putting pen to paper, and came up with a provisional overview of the situation. Included in these actions were using Barclaycard's CC repayment calculator, speaking to Money Wellness, and clearing a 0% BT CC that was taken out and used solely for the 0% benefit. In the next few days I'll be posting an SOA and to ask for peoples' advice on the best way to hit my debt. I may be asking the same questions I've already had answers to, I may even answer my own questions before I've asked them (I am a bit "challenged" sometimes!), but psychologically the idea of actively engaging in discussion helps me.

Ideally I would like to be debt free no later than Dec 2025, and I believe this may be possible even based on a worst case scenario (note, a scenario in which I'm in full time work and able to service all household bills and debts - obviously jobless and no income is worst case). My current credit report repayment history from Aug 2021 is spotless, and Clearscore says I've made one or two good improvements to my "credit score". It's all encouraging armour... OK I'm waffling now, I said I would!

Thanks for having me back. I'll have some more dirt on me very soon  

J.