Free Financial Planning Contest to Win $5K to pay off your Holiday Bills!
We’re pre-announcing Mint’s first (probably annual) Holiday Spending Hangover contest to our blog readers. We hope you’ll submit your own story, in video or text, about your 2007 holiday shopping experiences. The best video and text submissions will each win up to $5,000 (and some free financial planning).
Click here to check out some sample videos and full contest details. We’ll start accepting entries on January 31, 2008, so get your creative juices flowing now!
Fortunately (though unfortunately for this contest) I didn’t spend an exorbitant amount over the holidays.
I thought the goal of Mint was to budget effectively, not blow yourself into debt! Mint.com helped me to manage my holiday budget online- I had enough saved for the holidays to get me through. I think you should have a contest for responsible savers!
One year after my wife and I got married we bought our first house. I quit my job for a month to cash in my 401K to payoff my credit card debt to get approved for a home loan. Unfortunately, the only good thing that came out of this was I got my job back. The payoff credit cards still reflected as a blemish on my credit report. I didn’t qualify for the home loan. And I got hit with a 20 or 30 percent penalty on the withdrawal and hit again on the following tax year. Fast forward seven years. After losing the job I got back, I was unemployed for over a year. We sold the first house just short of foreclosure. We still have that blemish also. The new job paid half of my old salary. So we moved in with in-laws and a housemate. At this point, manhood is starting to waver. I continue to slowly climb the corporate ladder. In 4 years, I have only moved up $15,000. I’ve still got another $15,00 to get back to where I was. I now have a more expensive house than the first but with a better interest rate. Since my wife stays home with our youngest son, all the bills fall on me. She has two credit cards that I was trying to pay on with the mortgage, two student loans, and ever rising gas prices. My car finally broke down after a year and a half of vibrating my way to work. And I found out recently that my mortgage payments are going to increase about $150 in a few months. As if I needed anything more to justify my financial crisis, one of my student loans is now 2 months past due. I guess since I just found all of this out three weeks ago, that’s my late Christmas present.
I am 24 and I made bad choices in college. I used credit cards though I worked all four years from the first month I got there until today. Actually, I’d be interested even if the free financial counseling was the only reward. As I mentioned I worked my whole time in college and that prevented me from having a good time, going to evening lectures, having dinner with my roommates. I missed some pretty great times because of my 5:30-9:30 3-4 times a week job. Fast forward to 2008 I’ve consolidated these credit cards leaving me with a bad credit report though I’ve tried to be “responsible” and attempt to work to pay that and my student loans and my “life (rent, utilities, GAS, food, etc.)” bills and I’m drowning. I’m willing to pay it all as I consider it all part of my “college loans” back but I hate it that I cant pay myself or enjoy any part of this time after college. Its an ugly flashback and I just want a way out. The 5K would give me a breather…so I can believe that it can get better and I can have a second chance. I will make it better on my own, but a kick in the right direction would be appreciated. Oh, and the holiday tie-in is that this Christmas was the first where I actually felt defeated because not only was I not able to buy my family presents but I also had to get money from my dad for my transportation home from the airport. I felt like a deadbeat…I dont want it to be like that any more.
It’s like women are the holiday directors at home - if I don’t get the cards, address sign and send them, go shopping for groceries, decorate the house, and cook the meal - then there is no holiday.
I took off this year. I didn’t send anyone gift baskets. We didn’t buy each other gifts. We sat at home in front of the warm glow of the tv not calling anyone while stuffing Papa John’s in our faces.
It was the best Christmas ever.
Every year I vow to not spend more than I have saved for my children’s and family’s Christmas gifts, and every year I go over… WAY over… then I am stuck paying on credit card bills! Before I even pay off last Christmas, guess what.. it’s Christmas again! I am a single mother with 2 wonderful children and like every parent, I want to give them the best childhood I can. As my kids get older, they are now more understanding about the meaning of the almighty dollar, and I am able to tell them that this coming Christmas will not be like the past ones. I am going to let them each decide on three things (around $50.00 or less), or one big thing (around $150.00 or less), and that is what they will get. They are already checking things out! I noticed that before, they would circle 30 things in a catalog, but now they are being more selective and even crossing things out that they REALLY don’t want. I think they are having a lot more fun than just expecting everything on their list! Best wishes!
Laurie