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Saving Smart For The Future- My Story Of Losing Everything

Yesterday it happened. The unthinkable. I lost everything. And I could have easily avoided the loss.

But let me back up a couple of months ago when I was approached by my friends who own the website, Military Family Matters specializing in money matters for military families. They asked if I would write an article for them on the special needs of the military when considering renting vs buying a house.

But I would have done well to follow their advice about saving.

I have quite a few irons in the fire which probably contributed to losing everything yesterday. Anyway, I asked Military Family Matters if they could be patient with me as I freed myself from the projects I was in the middle of.

Then this week I saw some light at the end of the tunnel and began my article for them. (I'll let you know when it's published of course). It was coming together really nicely as I recalled my experiences over the years of working with active military and VA mortgages.

And then... It happened. Argh. I discovered sitting right here at my desk that I'd lost everything.

Now don't you think it's ironic that while I was working on an article for a website on money matters that I took a dive comparable to a bankruptcy?

Well, before I go any further, I confess the loss I sustained yesterday happened when my computer seized during a Microsoft update. And foolish me, I had not saved any of my work.

So my article was gone in a flash. My entire article, every cent word. My day's efforts were bankrupted. I couldn't recover one single dollar sentence.

But as we know, good can spring from bad. I ended up writing a very different article today and in my humble opinion, a much better one. And most of all, I re-learned a valuable lesson.

Save as you write!

Your companion in saving :) Kate Ford

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Posted by Kate Ford Mortgage Translator on 10/29/2009 05:09 PM

Comments (27)

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27 Comments on Saving Smart For The Future- My Story Of Losing Everything

OCT

Kate glad you were able to recover.

Syreeta, actually I re-created. :) Kate

Kate - It's an important lesson most of us have learned at one time or another. I'm just completing work on a book on home buying and, believe me, I'm saving everything, and not just to my computer, to my portable hard drive as well as a memory stick which I keep away from my home in case of fire. I've been bankrupt by the memory loss problem before, and try to keep it from ever happening again.

It really is an ouch. Thanks John for dropping in. Kate

Kate, I can only say "Yup" about the saving business.

Charles, the problem with this kind of bk is that it is not restricted to every 7 years.

Mrs Kate,

That is a sad story. Glad you have recovered so quickly. I once misplaced an acorn and it made me sob till I tripped on it and fell out of the tree.

Nutsy

Nutsy, Please rinse and repeat. Don't stop.

Have been there more times than I care to remember. The loss heard around the world

Kate,

Happens to the best of us. Saving as you go is rather simple, yet so hard to accomplish. Don't know what really makes it so. I'll try to remember your warning.

"By the rude bridge that arched the flood,

Their flag to April's breeze unfurled;

Here once the embattled farmers stood,

And fired the shot heard 'round the world."

James, Ralph was one smart guy talking about computers back in 1837.

Esko, glad to be of service. We could tie ribbons around our wrists to remember. But I doubt I'm forgetting for awhile. :) Kate

I was writing this response to Kate's post and righ

JAY! Did you forget to save?

Kate, I lost the part of yesterday and most of today to my operating system crashing as well. I was a little luckier in that I had all my data backed up, but I'm still in the process of reloading all my programs. What a drag. Sorry to hear it happened to you in the middle of work.

I'm sorry Kate, I was in th

Carbonite.com is a great backup source for your data. Doesn't really do much good if you haven't saved it at least once.

Word hand Excel has an autosave feature. I use it.

But, sometimes I write long responses on here, and when I hit the submit button, without copying the respones, I might add, the computer locks and

Dang, what was that I'd written. Well, never mind!

And popl over to my post after this. I have a dead computer. Fortunately the hard drive is O.K. But I do have a backup system. But you are right. I have learned to save as I go. Wish I had done that with money :)

OCT

Sue, the thought crossed my mind that MS planned this yesterday to "encourage" Windows 7 sales.

Jay, S-A-V-E

Jane, yep. I'll be right over.

Erby, I've lost comments on AR before too. I'll check out Carbonite.com I love Notepad because it's so simple and does not introduce problem characters but if you don't save...

Okay, Kate, I'm sav

OCT

Kate,

When you said you ended up writing a better article; maybe some one was looking after you.

Terry, so you are confirming the existence of the Better-Article-Superior-Being?

Jay, tell your wife to get you Windows 7 for the holidays. MS promises it has NO PROBLEMS.

I heard that too. This could go on an

Now YOU forgot to s

NOV

Kate, That is the most frustrating feeling. I've had it happen a few times and each time I remind myself to save. It really only makes you pause for a second. Thanks - have a great week ahead!

Susan, I keep a few pages saved in Notepad and named after repetitive projects. So I just open the last page, erase the content and start typing whatever I'm doing. Then saving is a one click and does not need naming.

But that is how I lost the article. I didn't have a dedicated page saved and was too impatient to save a new page. But like Terry said, I ended up with a much better article. Kate

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