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I'm sure mostly all of you have heard the phrase, "If I had known then what I know now". This phrase can be applied to many areas of your life but being that this is a personal finance blog, I am only talking about how it applies to your money.

While sitting in traffic the other day, I had plenty of time to think about this. What would my financial life look like had I made better financial decisions in my past? I know you can't change the past but you can certainly change the future.

I thought about all of the bad financial decisions I'd made in my past and thought it would be a good idea to make a list.

Some of the decisions I've made in my past that I regret are:

• Student Loans. There is no doubt that I would not have been able to attend college without taking out student loans. The government was very generous when it came to giving me money for college. They not only gave me money for tuition and books but they also gave me money to live on. I wish that I had not taken the maximum amount of aid that I was given and maybe I would not owe a small fortune in student loans right now. I did not put the extra money to good use and can't even remember how much I spent on "liquid" entertainment.


• Cars. I had to have a new car. I bought my first new car my senior year in college and then bought a new one every two years after that. I never put any money down and rolled in the negative equity into my next purchase. I bought my last new car in 2006 and paid it off in full this year. I plan to keep this car until the wheels fall off. If I do buy a car prior to the wheels falling off, I plan to save and pay cash. I've gotten a taste of what it's like to not have a car payment and I don't want to be chained to an automobile finance company again.


• Credit Cards. If I could only get back 10% of the finance charges I've paid to the credit card companies, I could probably payoff my student loans. Now that I've finally paid them off, any purchases made on my credit cards is promptly paid in full the next month.


• Keeping up with the Joneses. If I had not tried to keep up with everyone else, I probably would not have taken on as much debt as I did. I was trying to live like people who were in a much better financial position than me. Alot of my friends in college were living off of Daddy's money. I didn't have that so I was living off of Citibank's money.

I can't change the past but I am certainly changing the future. If I had known then what I know now, my financial picture would be much, much better. My net worth would probably be over six figures.

If you are just starting out in your finances, don't make the same financial mistakes I made. Don't try and live like the Joneses. Your self worth is not determined by "things". I can't remember where I heard the saying but someone once said, "Once you have self worth, you can have net worth".

Yesterday's Thursday Talkback question was whether your finances were worse, better or about the same as this time last year. One of my readers, Kara, asked me the same question. I knew that my finances had improved over the last year but I had not sat down and actually looked at the numbers in detail. I pulled out the records for April 2007 and compared the numbers with April 2008 and here's what happened. The numbers have been rounded off for clarity.

Assets:

• April 2007 - $446,694
• April 2008 - $449,543
• Result: Increased $2,849 or 0.64%

Liabilities (including Mortgages):

• April 2007 - $399,711
• April 2008 - $376,591
• Result: Reduced $23,120 or 5.78%

Liabilities (not inc Mortgages):

• April 2007 - $62,990
• April 2008 - $45,652
• Result: Reduced $17,338 or 27.53%

Net Worth:

• April 2007 - $46,982
• April 2008 - $72,953
• Result: Increased $25,971 or 55.28%

Doing this exercise was surprising to say the least. I was a little upset that my Assets didn't break the 1% mark but I was ecstatic to realize that realize my Net Worth had increased over 50%. I was also happy to see that my non-mortgage debt decreased by almost a third. I think part of the reason I did not have a bigger increase in the assets category was due to losses in my retirement and brokerage accounts. Considering some of the financial pains some people are going through, I certainly cannot complain.

What have I done to improve my finances?

• Used a budget to manage my outflows and spent less than I earned.
• I paid off my lingering credit card debt. I no longer pay any credit card interest because I only charge what I can afford to pay in full when the bill comes.
• I saved as much money as I could.
• I planned for Emergencies by saving money in a separate account.
• I planned for irregular expenses by adding up the total amount and dividing by 12. I then saved that money each month in a separate account.

I can't wait to do this again next year to see how things have changed.

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I share alot here at SingleGuyMoney. I've found that it is so much easier to share all of my financial details anonymously instead of telling a friend or family member about my debts or how much money I earn. Since I share so much of financial details here, I thought I'd share a little about my childhood and how it influences my financial decisions today.

I grew up in a small town. By small, I mean one traffic light small. I never knew my father. He was killed in a car accident before I was even born. He did not have any type of insurance so the financial burden fell heavily on my mother. My mother did not finish high school and was working at a minimum wage job. Growing up, I remember not having alot. We were poor - very poor. I would get hand-me-down clothes from my cousins. I remember my mother receiving food stamps and walking in shoes with holes in them just so she could provide food for us. We lived in a rented house and the where the bathroom barely worked. The tub didn't work so we took baths in the sink. The toilet did not work so we had to flush it by filling up a pail and pouring it in the toilet. I guess since we paid very little rent, the landlord didn't really bother to fix anything.

My mother did save enough money to buy us a home. Granted, it had wheels and was already ten years old but it was our home. I remember every time we had a storm, we had to leave and go down the street to the neighbors house because mobile homes aren't a real safe place to be during a storm. Growing up, I was embarrassed to have my friends come over because of where I lived. I didn't want them to talk about me or not like me because I did not have what they had.

I vividly remember one night I had a dream that I woke up one day and I had my own computer. When I woke up the next morning, I cried so hard and for so long because the dream seemed so real. Of course, computers were not nearly as affordable as they are now.

As soon as I was old enough to work, I started working at a fast food restaurant so I help my mother pay the bills. I remember my mother crying when I offered her money to get our electricity turned back on. As much as she did not want to take the money, she did because she did not have any other choice. I was determined I did not want to live like this and I was determined to better my life.

I put myself through college by working and taking out student loans. In my sophomore and junior year, I worked two jobs to make ends meet. This was my first experience with credit cards and I started to pile on the debt trying to make up for "things" I did not have when I was growing up and trying to look like I had as much money as my peers.

Fast forward to the present. I still have debt but I am slowly working to pay it off. I know that I don't have to be like or live like my neighbors and my friends. If people are judging me by what I have then they aren't really friends. My self worth is not based on what I have or the balance in my bank account.

I know most of you look at my savings balance and wonder why I keep so much cash when I have higher rate debt. I know that I am losing money. I know it makes no financial sense but it provides me with a little piece of mind. Growing up like I grew up, I'm so scared of being broke. Psychologically, it makes me feel better to keep a large stash of cash in the bank. You have to do what helps you to sleep well at night.

If you made it this far in the story; thanks for reading. I hope I didn't bore you too much. I just wanted to share a little more about me.

Image Credit: Editor B

It's so hard getting back to work after having so much time off for the holidays. For the last few weeks, I've only been working 2-3 days a week due to the holidays or being on vacation. Tomorrow will be my first full work week of 2008. I'm sure many of you are going back to work for your first full week too.

As you prepare to start your week, take a look at some of these great articles I've enjoyed around the web.

From the M-Network:

• Being Frugal hosted The 2nd Carnival of Financial Goals. Lynnae (and Sam) did a great job hosting the carnival. Sam (Lynnae's son) took us on an interesting walk through their town.
• Cash Money Life reviewed the book - You're Broke Because You Want to Be by Larry Winget. Larry is the host of Big Spender on A&E.
  
• Gather Little by Little posted 6 Ways to kick off your personal finance New Year the right way.
  
• Paid Twice says It's Always Good to Have a Backup Plan. This is where I made so many mistakes in the past. I never had a "Plan B" and relied on my credit cards.
  
• My Two Dollars lists the Top Three Legal Documents Every Person Should Have. I need to act on this because I don't have any of those.
  
• Plonkee Money posted about Where did my money go last year?
  
• The Dough Roller posted A Helpful 401k and IRA Rollover Chart.
  

And from my blogroll:

• Dimples Divine Domain posted a helpful way to organize her goodies.
  
• My Open Wallet is working on her 2008 Budget.
  
• My Dollar Plan has an ongoing debate with DebtFreeRevolution on Credit Cards.

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Other Posts You Might Enjoy:
Mistakes and Corrections - Detailed post on how my debt was accumulated.
When I get out of debt I want to... - My list of things I want to do once the debt is gone.
MidYear Debt Review - How did my debt numbers look six months ago? Look at this article.

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I just happened to realize today that my 6 month blogaversary is coming up real soon. Technically, my six month anniversary is December 23rd but due to the holidays, I'll probably be too busy to celebrate.

I've made some big changes to my finances in only a short time. It will be interesting to see how things look a year from now.

Here are some of my prior posts with an update.

• I'm starting to do it right.... - I posted about starting to save for those irregular expenses instead of paying for them with a credit card. I've saved enough to cover about 75% of my irregular expenses for a year. I should be able to fully fund that account over the next 2-3 months.
• Official Debt Tracker - I posted a debt tracker on the sidebar to keep track of my debt reduction progress. I started the year with over $66k in debt. I've since reduced this to a little over $47k.
• SingleGuyMoney is Mad - My cousin called me to "borrow" a thousand dollars and got very upset when I didn't loan it to him. He still hasn't gotten the money and WILL NOT get it from me.
• "I want to be rich like you" - My cousin (not the one that wanted to borrow money) thought that because I have a nice home and car, I am rich. I had to sit him down and explain a few things. He knows now that appearances are not always what they seem.
• $70 Error - I made a big mistake when changing bank accounts and learned an expensive lesson.
• Real Life Example of the Sucky Housing Market - Two of my friends were trying to sale their homes. They STILL have not sold them.

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