My finance savior

When I was young, I really had no concept of money, debt, credit, etc. I didn't grow up rich, by any stretch of the imagination. We were very much a working class family. However I never wanted for anything. My parents, especially my mother, made sure I had everything I needed. When I went to college, she paid my credit card and phone bills. I had a combination of grants and loans to pay for tuition, but a side hustle of typing papers for cash. When I graduated, I was a little slow to find a full-time job, but very quick to spend money. I had a store credit card and a Discover card. Oh, and back then was the pioneer days of the Internet. AOL was king and charging $4.95 per hour for access, and that was on top of the phone bill for the dedicated phone line you would need to get on the Internet. And yes. I was one of the fools that was on there all day, every day. Next thing I knew my Discover card was over the limit. No problem, I just got another card and got online with that. Until that one was over the limit. By this time I found a full-time job so I figured I had money coming in, I could handle it. However around that very same time, my student loans needed to be paid pack.

Long story short, I had collectors calling the house, I ignored bills because I didn't want to deal with the problem I was having. Eventually my mother sat me down. She noticed that all these people were calling the house, and I was getting a bunch of bills. I told her my situation and it was she who got me on track, not by paying any of my bills, but by first, facing up to my obligations, and second, showing me step-by-step how to prioritize my bills to pay them off. After about two years, I paid off all my credit cards AND my student loans. After that I was able to build up an emergency fund that kept me afloat for nine months when I got laid off suddenly.

Since then I fell back into debt with my credit card, but with the lessons she taught me, I knew exactly what to do to get myself right out. For that reason, my mom is my finance savior. :)