I got back from my trip yesterday, an despite having a sore throat, things went really smooth. I had no flight problems, no major issues coming back and that was nice.

Looking back on my trip, the first half of the week sucked, while the second half of the week went okay. The week went a lot faster than I thought it would and some actually useful information eventually did come out of the meetings. It gave me a new perspective on my workplace and allowed me to focus in on exactly where the issues are coming from. Unfortunately, they are in a place where I have no power to rectify, so in a way its more frustrating, knowing that your job could be better for you and your co-workers, but you cannot do anything about it.

But the highlight of my trip has to be the people that I met. While there were some weirdos, the people in “my group” rocked. I got to know a fellow manager down the street from me, and a great woman named Joy, who lives in New York. Without them joining in on the jokes, and making fun people, the trip would have been horrendous. They truly made it better.

And my final recollection is that of the presentations I previously mentioned. I got my topic and well, I rushed through a power point in class and made a quick outline. I practiced it once in the hotel and it ran a good fifteen minutes, which is about ten minutes too long. So I just crossed through some stuff and went on with my life.

I had a few butterflies in my stomach before the presentation, which of course is no unusual. However, this was tame to how it use to be. I use to be a wreck and public speaking scared me to death! I hated it in college, and avoided it at all costs. However, my current job has really opened me up to doing a little more (albeit in smaller groups usually) and I guess its paid off. Once I got up there it felt natural and I actually enjoyed myself. It really made me feel as if maybe I should go back to school and be a teacher, a previous interest of mine, and something that is now being pushed hard by everyone it seems!

Unbeknownest to me, they choose a top presenter, and despite my lack of preparation, pictures in power point, and general to the basics presentation, I was chosen. I was really shocked, especially since I was filling out a survey and not even paying attention when they announced it. And while its just a piece of paper that means nothing in the real world, I got some type of recognition of presenting and public speaking, and when you come from being horrible and scared of something to actually being recognized, its kinda a big thing. So kudos to me.

I guess I can say in retrospect that the trip turned out okay, meaning at least I got a few things out of it. I also managed to get through a book “No More Mondays” by Dan Miller, which is an incredible read and it also gave me time to start “Seven Habits of Highly Effective People” and “The Question Behind the Question.” A couple of other books that have some really valuable information inside. New friends and a little time to read, things aren’t all that bad.

Ahh the first day of classes, and while I wouldn’t mark up today as fun, it was a heck of a lot better than yesterday. Today’s topics consisted of leadership training (although the definition of a leader and a follower of corporate policies was the same), group projects, a few tours and the assignment of presentation for Friday. It was long, boring, and unsatsifiying, but nothing I couldn’t handle.

The presentation seemed to strike fear in most of my classmates, but I just cannot see how you could advance in a management position and still be afraid of public speaking. While I will never claim that I am the best, or even good at it, it certainly doesn’t bother me anymore.

I really felt out of place in my polo and khakis, since everyone and I mean EVERYONE was in a suit and tie, or at least button up and tie. Unfortunately for them, they didn’t read the business casual part and most them got spoken to about overdressing. That was satisfying.

I’ve gotten the ocassional weird look for hitting up the grocery store, and saving every penny that I can, but it doesn’t really bother me. I spent $30 at the grocery store and I shouldn’t have to buy food for the rest of the week. I’ll be paid $39 a day per diem, so I’m looking to make some money on this trip!

I’m actually excited about tomorrow being that there is an open discussion about what we dislike about the company. It should be interesting.

And on a final side note, if you are ever bought out by a company, don’t ever use the words “bought out” in front of corporate people, they like to call it a merger.

Being a child with divorced parents living in separate states, I rode my fair share of plane trips across the US. Back and forth I went, summers and holidays enjoying the trips for the most part. However, as I grew older, my frustration with the delays, being stranded and so on grew and my patience ran out.

A few years back, I was flying from Memphis to Raleigh and like most travel horror stories go, I missed my connection, got stranded and well it just sucked. I swore up and down I was done with airports. I was done with my rights being violated by security, I was done with the fakeness of everyone, I was done with the bad food and my interest in flying was done. I said I wouldn’t step foot on another airplane unless absolutely necessary.

Then this business trip came up. A week in Knoxville, TN, full of boring classes, with no compensation. I struggled to get out of it, but I just didn’t muster up enough balls to flat out say I wasn’t going. Its one of the rare times in my life that I backed down and I regret it today.

So for the past week this trip has been looming over me and I’ve not been the happiest camper around. Hell, I’ve been down right miserable to be around. I don’t like doing things that I don’t want to do. I feel that we have one life to live, and I might as well not go through it doing stuff I don’t want to, when its not necessary.

I made to the airport this morning with plenty of time to spare. The security checkpoint went really quick and I managed to get in some playing time on the PSP while kicking back for an hour. The plane came on time, boarding went well, and everything was dandy until I got on the plane. The dreaded middle seat awaited me, next to a huge dude and some small Asian lady. It was cramped, and United’s seats are definitely on the worst I’ve ever seen list. However, the forty minute flight to DC went pretty smooth, despite the flight team’s shitty attitude.

As I deboarded, I ran into a fellow who was heading to the same training as I. We came around the corner, looking for our gate number, being that we only had about fifty minutes in between flights. We were disappointed to see the big word “CANCELED” pasted on the electronic board, we slowly shook our heads as we went to customer service.

Our flight was indeed canceled and we were sitting ducks until 5:15 PM, a good six hours away. We decided to call up the other person in our group and see if she had arrived from New York yet. She had, and was awaiting at the correct gate for the changeover. we alerted her of the bad news, and took the shuttle that way.

I was lucky, my fellow group members were just as frustrated with our company and irritated with our jobs. We spent the five hours telling stories, blasting the company, piecing together what our week was going to entail and checking out all the discounted McCain/Palin stuff at the America! store and Fox News Store.

Time went by quick enough and we anxiously awaited our next flight. We boarded one of those horrible little puddle jumpers, that had more comfortable seating then our previous 737. The entire plane was boarded and ready to go a good twenty minutes early and it finally seemed like we caught a break. Then the stewardess called for a name out over the intercom and shrugged when no one stood up. Everyone seemed to shift in their seats a bit, as we all kinda rolled our eyes at a further delay. An hour and a half later this woman finally boarded the plane. So why would a plane wait well over its departure time for a passenger? Well the passenger was another stewardess hoping a ride to Knoxville. What freakin bullshit!

So we finally touched down a good seven hours after our scheduled arrival time. We managed to make it to our rental car, stop by a grocery store and finally get to the hotel by 8:45 PM or so. I was excited about the big flatscreen TV, refrigerator and microwave and this snazzy desk that is in here, however, upon opening the door the rancid cigarette smell like a dirty Waffle House rushed into my nostrils. However, there were no yummy Waffles awaiting me.

So far this trip has blown ass. Other than getting a few chapters into “No More Mondays,” there has yet to be something good happen. I’m really hoping to blog back later this week with a changed tune, but right now it doesn’t look like it. The one thing I learned is to trust my instincts and stand up against things I don’t want to do. Man, am I ever paying for it now.

When I started LifeOnMyTerms I was hoping to provide a website with information that I found useful in living the life that I wanted, while simultaneously keeping myself motivated. It seemed like a decent investment in domain space in order to make this happen. And from the beginning, I would say the site has been successful in keeping me on track, however, I do feel that site lacks in being a tool for others.

And honestly, right now, I’m not going to rectify this. Steph and I are charging hard into a new found level of personal responsibility and I do not honestly have the time nor the experience, to try and explain each and every step I’ve done in order to make myself happy and how it could make you. But I do have the time and motivation to explain what I’m doing and how it is effecting my life and that is what I’m here to offer. If you honestly need someone to help put you on track financially, I’ll recommend you over to Dave Ramsey, it just doesn’t get better than that.

I previously mentioned Dave Ramsey a few blog posts back, and I must say, the man has changed my life. It’s well.. incredible and totally unlike me. I usually don’t get wrapped up into much of anything, but the financial plan and the idea of having financial peace seems more of a possibility now, then a dream. And this is where we begin.

Dave Ramsey’s philosophy on money is simple.. it’s what your grandparent did. You don’t spend more than you make, you don’t buy stuff you can’t afford, and you don’t EVER use credit. The last part is usually what makes people’s eyes bug out.

It almost seems too simple, but when you really sit down and think about it, it works. If you make $500 a week, and spend $600 a week, things don’t even out at the end of month. Credit cards pick up the slack usually and next thing you know you’re in the hole.

So Steph and are restarting our financial plan in order to follow Dave Ramsey’s seven baby steps. We have been doing a kinda watered down version over the past year, but now we’ve pulled the belt tight and are focused on doing it his way. So here is what we have to do.

1. $1,000 to start an Emergency Fund
2. Pay off all debt using the Debt Snowball
3. 3 to 6 months of expenses in savings
4. Invest 15% of household income into Roth IRAs and pre-tax retirement
5. College funding for children
6. Pay off home early
7. Build wealth and give! Invest in mutual funds and real estate

A very simple system that does not seem unreasonable and has no promise of having fast returns. Its great hearing someone offer a solution that isn’t a scam.

So right now we are on Baby Step 1… build up a $1,000 emergency fund. As of right now we have $600. But by the end of November, we hope to be able to accomplish this step and move onto Baby Step 2.

I got a little flack for putting out my debt to all of the world, but why should I care? It shows irresponsible spending, and if the statistics are right, 80% of anyone who stumbles upon this site is in worst condition than I am. I have no shame in my debt, I was naive and stupid, when taking out the loans that I did, but I didn’t know any better. Now I do… so you can bet your ass I won’t be doing it again!

So our first personal loan we will attacked first with anger and furious vengence! Each month we will put every single extra dime towards it and for once we are able to succesfully do it. Why? Well, we finally have a productive budget.

We set ourselves on a budget and off a budget for a while. The problem is I tend to round up and we never assigned each dollar a place to go. I’d have our income, subtract some figures, pay the bills and everything else would fall to the side. I ended up using the Gazella Budget software on Dave Ramsey’s site and found that I have alot more money leftover each month than I thought. You just never know how much those Wal-Mart trips end up costing you in the long run.

So we got on board, and set up a new budget that puts each dollar in its place. We have categories for all the bills, gas, groceries, dry cleaning, Wal-Mart trips, Farmer Market trips, Dog supplies, etc. Every dollar has a spot and at the bottom of the budget we are left with zero. By putting each dollar in its place, we don’t run the risk of over spending in one category or spending more ‘blow money’ then we should.

From there, we utilitze the envelope system. Basically, we have an envelope with the name of each category and we fill it with cash. Once the envelope is empty, we are out of money to spend on that particular item. So far the system has been great, and it feels so liberating not to swipe a card.We use online BillPay, so we don’t have to worry about sending out checks or any of that mess, we just deal with our bills online and cash for any in person transactions.

I won’t be diving into the other baby steps for a while, since right now all of our focus is on the debt snowball. If my crude estimations and correct, and we luck out with no major spells of bad luck, we should have our first personal loan paid off by the end of January 2009 and the second one by March 2009. After that, our attention will be onto Steph’s car and that could be paid off by this time next year. Granted, these are estimations and things could change, but we are keeping our fingers cross everything goes well.

Just sitting here, thinking that this time next year, I could be looking at only paying on my car thrills me. The amount of wealth we could accure without the mountain of bills is simply breathtaking.

But things won’t be easy.. our lifestyle is changing even more and sacrifices will be made. For example, I’m giving up soft drinks over the next month or so. I just finished up all my twelve packs of yummy Diet Wild Cherry Pepsi, but I’ll be cutting back to a two-liter a week for a bit. I tend to get headaches with the lack of caffeine. So once my body adjusts to that, I’ll stop altogether. Not only for my health, but also for that fact that a rought estimate of my expense on soft drinks a year, comes in at over $1,000!!! Yes, I do drink that much. It’s insane, unhealthy and pointless. Decaf, Sweet-N-Low sweetened tea will be my beverage of choice from here on out.

Also my video gaming buying will be altered. I will take a more cautious approach at buying games, and will attempt to buy games that will have a longer shelf life then one play through. I will also continue selling games after I beat them in order to purchase the next, that way I’m not out $60 everytime I buy a game.

Our already drastically reduced eating out schedule will be cut even more severely. As of right now we have a $50 a month eating out budget, so thats what we will be sticking with for right now.

We have stopped purchasing books (unless they are super cheap at the used book store) and have started utilitzing the public library. Here in Wake County, you can reseve books online and even renew online. Heck, you can even check yourself out at the library! The library will transfer books from branch to branch based on your demand and it makes things easy. Why were we so stupid not to use this in the first place?

We have also cut out on buying DVDs, after our last HUGE sell off. We got a $8.99 NetFlix plan that includes unlimited streaming movies and tv shows. We use a program caled PlayOn to stream them to the PlayStation 3 to watch on the flat screen in near DVD quality. It’s the best $9 bucks you can spend.

I have also canceled several online service, such as IGN’s Insider and extras on GoDaddy.com.

I could honestly go on and on about the things we are changing, but I won’t. My point is, in order to make your budget work, in order to cut down your debt, you have to get creative and make sacrafices. For example, cut off your cable and get NetFlix or cut off your landline and use your cell phone. Do anything you can to squeeze that dollar.

Only time will tell if we stick with it and make this happen, but the determination that both Steph and I have, accompanied with the hard headedness, I really don’t see failure as an option.

I didn’t vote this year. Heck, I didn’t even register to vote.

I’m going to keep this short, and without a ton of details, cause Lord knows you’ll find a ton of those online already. I love the fact that I have the right to vote, or not to vote. And until a candidate comes along worth voting for, I will not vote. Neither McCain nor Obama were worth voting for.

I have a major issue with the whole “two party system” and find it disgusting that in a free country we are essentially given two choices and that is all. You can try and feed that third party shit all day long, but the truth of the matter is, most states make it hard to even get on the ballot. There is federal guidelines and it is not fair. Even the media refuses third party requests to be part of the debates. That is equally as disgusting.

In 2004 I was a die hard Democrat. I went to rallys, wore my Kerry/Edwards shirt, put up signs in my yard (that were eventually torched and rehung) and just went all out. I got caught up in the “anybody but Bush” mentality, and looking back I was freakin nuts.

Last night, this country elected a new president. However, if you look at CNN, Fox News or any of the other big news outlets, you’ll see something else, “This Country Elected a New BLACK President.” It’s funny, cause when you put it like that, it sounds a like a gimmick more than an honor.

Don’t get me wrong, I have no problem with a black president, Latino president, or anyone else… I just have a hard time thinking a man who has two years experience in the Senate and has written NO bills, but TWO memoirs is the right man for the job. And while I believe in some of Obama’s views such as abortion and gay rights, I disagree with his views on censorship and taxing the rich in order to give to the poor. I can’t stand anyone who stands around and asks what the country can give to them, when they do nothing.

I’m going to go out on a limb here, and while I’m not a doomsayer usually, but I think America has just made a HUGE mistake. I really think this is worst than Bush.

I asked a question today that no one could give me a straight answer on… what is Obama going to do? What has he said he was going to do other than tax the rich? Nothing. He has said nothing. It was a bunch of smoke and mirrors and now we have the leader of the free world raising taxes and cutting back on the military. I’m sure he’ll try to take credit for bringing “some” troops home, but the truth is, Bush already started doing that.

I think Obama will be ball less and will be extremely unprepared to deal with any military threats. I see him pushing pointless issues such as video game censorship and removing horror movie ads from prime time, instead of focusing on getting our country in a better position in the world.

Then again, I’m just one of a billion bloggers either praising or bitching on the net right now. All I know is we put the Democrats in control of Congress four years ago with the promise of removing troops from Iraq and instead, we got a $700 BILLION dollar debt increase and nothing else to show for it.

It’s going to be a really long four years.

I hate corporate America. No, I’m not a tree hugging hippie that hates the big bad machine, I just don’t fit in the corporate world. I can fake it all day long, but at the end of the day, I go home, shaking my head, holding my tongue and contemplating whether or not the job is worth it. This is something I’ve expierenced over and over as the years have gone by and it never seems to get any better.

Part of it may be me. I feel like I could run a business ten times better than most. I feel that the bigger the corporation, the more wrong people are in the wrong positions. I feel as if profit comes before the customer service and in return, hurts the profit. I just don’t like it, I don’t like it at all. I don’t like being a suit, I don’t like emails with Tony Robbin quotes, I don’t like the stupid inter-office games and I really don’t like so called quality control experts.

And while I won’t go as far as to say, “This is what’s wrong with America.” Because lets be honest, there is nothing wrong with America. But I do say, you get what you pay for. If you hire people at a low wage, and have high expectations, you usually wind up with a failure. A failure that was brought on by you, once again, by placing the wrong people in the wrong positions. Hire in at a low wage, have low expectations and get what you pay for. Don’t try to make a turtle run a marathon and get pissed off when he finishes last. Hire the turtle to work at his own pace, and pay a higher qualified hare, to win the race for you. It’s simple logic that for some reason businesses don’t get.

These sensitivity training classes, fun workplace seminars and casual Fridays, do nothing but encourage everyone to act as a drone, but with the facade of being fun. Big companies, want everyone to look the same, talk the same, act the same, feel the same, and have that fake smile permanently attached to their face. When you fail to step in line, you are replaced with another zombie who won’t buck the system and so the day goes on.

Of course, this type of mentality could be traced back to our education system, but thats another topic for another time. I just find it frustrating work in an environment that does not encourage creativity and is quick to punish, but slow to compliment. I just find it to be shitty business and I’m getting sick and tired of it.

So what’s a anti-corporate American to do? Well, start your own business! It’s something that I’ve been interested in the past several years and it doesn’t seem like a month passes that I don’t engulf myself into books and websites regarding the subject. I learn a little here, and a little there and I’m hoping down the road all this research will pay off for me.

What kinda of business am I hoping to run? Well, I have a few ideas, but I haven’t really settle on a single one. I think thats why I know now is not the time to pursue this, becuase I really haven’t had a specific business jump out at me. I guess to quote John Cusack in “Say Anything,” “I am looking for a dare to be great situation.”

And while I wait for my “dare to be great situation,” I slowly grit my teeth and hold my tongue and collect a paycheck. The greatest source of wealth is your income and right now the income is decent.

When you first set out to research getting your finances in order, you’ll run across two types of websites. Sixty percent of them are get rich quick schemes, and the other forty percent are a mash up of all sorts of advice. Some take from Suze Ormon, others from Dave Ramsey, some from their parents, and others from Rich Dad, Poor Dad. However, when I first began to sift through these sites, the on personal finance figure head that stood out to me was Dave Ramsey.

For those who don’t know, Dave Ramsey hosts a three hour radio show daily, on personal finance and also has a tv show and a TON of books. He was a self made millionaire by the age of twenty-six, but ended up losing it all when the government passed The Tax Reform Act of 1986 and forced him to file bankruptcy. Over the next several years, with the support of his wife and his reliance on God, Dave pulled himself from depression and poverty to being what many consider, the figurehead when it comes to personal finance. He has four million listeners, has written fourteen books. He’s as knowledgeable as they come, yet something really caused me to back away, and that was his faith.
Dave has no qualms about being a Christian and frequently uses the Bible to make references in both his books and shows. This made me skeptical and although, his Baby Steps caused me to cut up our credit cards, I just couldn’t jump on his bandwagon.

I ended up listening to a few of his shows, and enjoyed his frank and simple solutions, but again, I let my own frustrations hold me back. So I moved on learning what I could and have been ever since.
But whenever I sit down and do some research Dave’s name consistantly comes up. He believes in not having credit cards, paying for everything in cash, and isn’t afraid to tell people to sell their homes or cars if that is what it takes to get back on track. I LOVE that no non-sense personality, and while you can almost see a preacher in him, I find his advice too solid and sound to ignore. So the past few weeks I’ve been listening to his show and Steph snagged me the The Total Money Makeover from the library.

Now, The Total Money Makeover is a Bible for getting on track, that’s for sure, but the stage we are right now, we have kinda passed most of Dave’s advice up. We actually based our budgetting on his Baby Steps and The Total Money Makeover is essentially an explanation of those, with a few inspirational stories and Bible quotes thrown in.

But since I’ve jumped on the Dave Ramsey bandwagon, what I’ve found is his show keeps me on edge. It keeps me having money on the mind. It makes me second guess every dollar I spend and as a whole, keeps me focused. That I love. And I also love to hear that my debt is NO WHERE near as bad as most!

I recently found a link giving me a thirty day free trial to his MyMoneyMakeover.com, which has some great forums and some good budgeting software and forms. Also everyday you can download his radio show, commercial free and that is almost worth what he charges alone. If you’re interested, shoot me an email I’ll mail you the link.

Dave’s role in “Maxed Out” a great documentary on credit, inspired me to cut up my credit cards in the living room in front of my wife. I did however, end up getting a replacement during an emergency situation and that only made things worst.

So what’s wrong with Dave? Well, his overbearing personality could irritate people, so could his conservative views. However, there is so much more good in Dave than bad and I highly recommend checking him out, if you are any wait interested in getting some peace financially. Hell, he even runs a program called Financial Peace University. His books and shows, tend to cry self-help atmosphere, but its not nearly as cheesy as it may seem at first. There is a lot of good advice in everything he does.

The reason for the article, is I plan on sharing some Dave Ramsey advice and such over the next week or so, and just wanted you to see where it is coming from.

Today is a small victory for us in our quest to be debt free, but instead of going out and blowing money, we are focusing on what we have left to tackle. So, let’s take a look:

Personal Loan 1: $2,211.96

Personal Loan 2: $2,012.34

Steph’s Car:        $7,384.74

Brandon’s Car:    $8,582.33

Total:                 $20,191.37

So naturally in our debt snowball one of the personal loans will be the next that we tackle, and of course it will be the lowest one. So, we’ve got $2,012.34 to take care of!

I’ve been toying with the idea of selling one of the cars and buying some cheaper, but as of right out, our combined payment is around $400 for both cars. So that’s not too bad. The loans run us around $125 a month and thats with paying nothing extra. From here on out, we’ll be placing a more substantial sum toward these loans.

I think back to the moments on both occasions that I took out the personal loans, and well, I wish I would have been stronger and more mature about it. I realize it is too late now, but I could have avoided a great deal of stress had I just maned up and took care of everything the best that I could, at least on the first loan.

But now is not a time for regrets, instead, its time to recharge, enjoy the feeling of not having a credit card debt and continue preparing for a debt free future!

As of today, October 29th, 2008, I am officially credit card debt free!

This morning we were awoken by the knocks of the maintenance men, coming to work on our heater, since we’ve been without heat the last couple days and here in North Carolina it has taken to being chilly. So with that fresh coat of sleep over our eyes, I headed to brush my teeth first, while Steph headed to check her email.

We had a small, unrelated, notice from our credit union in my email, so she headed over to our credit union’s website to see what was going on. Next to our credit card balance only a small $4.77 remained.

Of course, we instantly paid it and as of then and there, we have no credit card debt!! And believe me, its a great feeling!

So what’s next? Well, we are still awaiting our new card and once it gets here, we’ll be locking it up in a secure place, for an emergency. However, THIS IS NOT OUR EMERGENCY FUND, and nor should it be yours. We have $550 sat aside for our emergency fund and until the new year, we will be working on building that up to a more respectable $1,000. THEN, we’ll concentrate on placing any additional cash towards our personal loans.

And after doing some math, and looking at the pay schedules through next year, if everything goes pretty good, we should be looking to be debt free, with exception of our cars by this time next year. Oh what a wonderful day that would be.

So a quick recap….

-In July, I started my debt snowball to take our the credit card

-In August, a decision was made to half my emergency fund in order to pay on the card faster

-On October 1st, a publicly announced we had set up a goal to be credit card debt free by Jan. 1st, 2009

-On October 14th, I explained how we sold a bunch of stuff in order to pay the card down even more

-On October 18th, I freakin realized that I got an extra paycheck this month and it would be possible to pay off that credit card a lot sooner

-On October 24th, I realized some fraudulent charges were made the day we were suppose to pay off the card

-Then today, FREEDOM!

Well since my last post was filled with expletives and was pure emotion, I figure I’ll do some updating and actually add a little substance to this one.

It seems I’ve been a victim of credit card fraud, which is most commonly grouped in with identity theft now. For a recap, I went to pay off the remaining balance of my credit card only to find the balance had increased ten times over. Shocked, I noticed the charge was from a telecom place in Florida. I haven’t been in Florida in well over ten years, nor did I order any cell phones. I immediately disputed the charge online, freaked out a bit, cussed a lot and managed to vent via text messaging with my good friend Erin.
So after I regained my composure I called my credit union and got someone on the line. Apparently several other large charges were attempted on my card but did not go through. The $928 did however. So my card was canceled and I am being reissued a new card while the investigation into the first card continues.

From what I’ve researched, by disputing the charge and being that other fraudulent charges were attempted, I will most likely not be held responsible. I may be responsible for $50, but that would be the max, and that I can handle. Of course, once cleared, the card balance will be at zero and I will rejoice.

I went ahead and pulled one of my free annual credit reports at (http://www.annualcreditreport.com). I usually pull one every third of the year, so I figured this would be a good time as ever to check one out. Everything was clear and looking fine, and it seems this is just a credit card issue.

So where did I go wrong? What could I done to prevent this? Well… nothing much really. Shit happens and there will always be thieves in this world and I just was one of the unforunate to get hit by it. However, I could have been better prepared.

First, I should have kept a closer track on the transactions. I don’t usually look at my credit card, because I don’t use it. I should have been checking everytime I logged in, but I didn’t. I could have noticed this six day ago, had I paid better attention.

Secondly, I should have set a limit on how much could be charged at one time. I could have had this denied a week ago, when something over say, a reasonable $300 limit was transacted. I did not, have a limit in place and I paid for it.

I’m extremely disappointed and aggravated by this, but there is no use dwelling on it. Hopefully Mastercard will do their thing and deny this and I can go on with eliminated my total credit card debt. I learned a lesson today about using the free security precautions that are out there and I intend on enacting them as soon as my new card is set up. Then I can lock up said card and hopefully never touch it again.

Microsoft has a great little page set up with quick information on being a victim of fraud, I recommend a good once over just for precautionary reasons.

Credit Card Fraud and Online Scam Resources