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| Testimony by Rosie Cantave |
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Moving from Debt to Assets Graduation at 1199SEIU May 19, 2009 Do any of you here know someone who used to go to the river and kept trying to get water in a basket? I used to be that person, because of the way I spent the money I worked hard for. Can you believe that every week on my day off, regardless of all the bills I have to pay monthly, I spent my money like crazy? I would go to the ATM machine, took out $200. Before the end of the day, it was all gone. Do you know how? If I ran into a friend or a family member and they asked me for some money, I just gave it away without even thinking about myself. Sometimes I went to the ATM and got some more money if the $200 was not enough, and, to tell you the truth, I was always behind on some of my bills. Last year when my daughter turned ten, I spent $4,500 on her birthday just to please the society. Do you know what happened now? I can tell you that I become a new person since March of 2009. I took that class “Moving from Debt to Assets”. This class makes me feel proud of myself. Now I get control over my spending habits. On my day off I don’t go out with my ATM card. So every week I only keep $20 in my purse and I save $180 every week. This year on my daughter’s 11th birthday, I didn’t have any party for her. I just took her to a Chinese buffet with her little brother, her cousin and two other friends. I only spent $95.10 all together. I saved this year $4,404.10 on her birthday. So now when I go to the river, I go with a pan, not with a basket, and I’m packing up water for my future. You know when I said “water” I meant “money”. I’m saving money in the bank for my future. Now I urge you to follow my steps. If I have control over my spending now, I know that you, you, and you in particular can do better than that. So you’ve got to move forward with your life by having control over spending. |