Still in the rowboat

I have started a number of times trying to write about finance. I find it to be really hard. I have felt like I was in the middle of the sea in a row boat with no shores in sight. The thing about that is I know you have to stay the course. Frankly there is no going back to having nearly 40K in debt. I do not want that life. And I don't want to maintain this level of debt either.

I know

1) If I had not started the journey when I did I would have had to declare bankruptcy - especially as many cards are now raising their rates & minimum payments.
2) I want to retire some day and I cannot do that carrying this debt burden.
3) I want my son and daughter to live a debt free life so they can learn healthy attitudes and carry that behavior forward into their own lives..

Knowing and feeling are two different things. Right now I feel despairing that I will ever get out of debt. And I relate (as I often do) to Paid Twice's journey that knowing there is light at the end only seems to invite Murphy to stop by more often. (you can read her post here http://www.paidtwice.com/2009/09/09/the-home-strecth-can-be-as-difficult-as-the-start/)

It is much easier to know what I want... College for my children and a house.

I have about 2.5 years left until my DD comes home from college. So far I have only had to borrow about 4k (Her college is 32K per year so keep it in perspective) I am willing to be in debt for her degree. I want her to have an education. It could have been cheaper, but She is happy.

The house debate within myself continues to rage. There are a lot of factors. I really wanted to take advantage of the 8K house credit. But I think my DH and I were a little ambitious there. It would have been a stretch. And while I think we are a good risk I have no idea if a mortgage lender would see that and grant us a mortgage. And even if they did grant us a mortgage would it be enough for me to get the type of house I would want.

It might be better to wait. I think If we take our time and do it carefully I will get all the things I want but I am the least patient person on the planet. All I can offer myself is that there is hope at the end of the tunnel.

So with Mad money Monday in mind....

So I am turning to the tool...

What's the cost to re-evaluate where I am today.

I have to account for some of the setbacks that I had during August....


Setbacks

Man oh man I know every dollar needs to have a purpose but right now the names all seem to be debt. And I cant even cry misfortune. Lack of planning? maybe, a little hid under a rock definitely, but its time to stand tall, take the hit and get back on the wagon.

Like weight watchers you are more apt to stay on track if you track your progress. Over the summer I have to say time has been fleeting at best and I have often been derailed. The thing is I know I need to get back on track. Right NOW.

So starting today, I logged into many of my different accounts. I have created an outline for My October budget. I will also have to do a where did my money go budget but I cant face that yet. And seriously I will only avoid getting back on track if I have to beat myself up. So today Is no judgment Monday. Just evaluate where you are and what we can do today...

I have to wait till month end to get the true numbers. And I will be receiving a check back from the college to pay back money I was forced to put on a credit card for some of my daughters education because the financing was not lined up. So I charged $2680 to CC#2 (Currently focus of the debt pay down. ) I also charged school supplies and gas because this card was having a promotion I wanted to take advantage of. Time to get back on track...

What's the Cost predicts my debt pay off, given my current standing (which includes the almost 3k in education), to be September 2012. I am sure when I adjust the numbers for the education charges I will come back from that date a bit. More like something around May 2012. Not surprisingly the first card of focus is CC#2.

So we are back to the 3 year plan. Its a long journey to pay down nearly 40K in debt. It looks like I will have paid off most of my credit card debt as my DD graduates college. I can live with that. The only worry I have is that now the minimum payments are larger from certain of my cards how will that effect my schedule. But onward. Row Row Row


I am not a financial professional. If you are looking for financial advise you should seek it elsewhere. If you would like to join me on the journey, walk with me for a while and be my friend......

March Money update

Well I have paid my bills for March. I was Happy with my January progress. I had a really successful pay down of debt. But starting this month the pay off will be much slower! We have started back to work and daycare. It is a big financial commitment to have the baby in daycare. But I do like this place and they seem to care for him which is a good thing. I have committed to DH that I would pay about $500 per month. Feb I paid 675. So I am really shy on a food budget and other things. But I want to celebrate progress for what it is. Last month I was at 34% paid. Now I have achieved 36.85% and I have paid off $14,668 of debt. Amazing as I thought I never would get out of debt. What a wonderful thing.

DH and I went to look at an open house over the weekend. To my distress I was sad to say we are not ready to buy. We need to get rid of the credit card debt first. So. to that end I am going to cancel my Yahoo space. It will give me back 15 to my debt every month. I am not using it and It is silly to pay for something I am not using. I still want it don't get me wrong its a great thing to have web space where you can post your portfolio and do extra outside work but if its not paying for itself then it is an expense we dont need. And truthfully I never have time any more. Baby just takes up too much of it.

I think the message for today is that the debt snowball works. Yeah hoo!


I am not a financial professional. If you are looking for financial advise you should seek it elsewhere. If you would like to join me on the journey, walk with me for a while and be my friend......

January begins again

January begins again. Thank God that I put my goals on automatic pilot. I have just added up all my payments with the year end and in 2008 I paid down 13,255.42 in debt. I paid off 33.3% of my total debt. Man I rock. I even made progress in December even though I was trying to hold steady at no new debt. I accomplished that and more. I am so proud of myself. I managed to pass through Christmas without getting further into debt. WOW. I did it. Wow. I need to take time to bask in that.

Plans for 2009... The same as this year but at a slower rate. I will not have as much money for bills as I did before. Happy baby boy needs Daycare. I have allocated Some funds to pay off the debt though and I will continue to try.

My credit card #1 is paid off. My credit card #2 is paid down to 68% of the original amount. I will keep chunking away at it. My DH yelled at me to take care of myself. He thinks I need new socks. I think I need to make due with what I have until the debt is paid off. By paying off the debt I am taking care of myself.

I will post more later. For now Lunch is calling.

Lower rate early payoff??

The math way of organizing Credit cards says to pay off the highest interest rate first. I like saving money. Last weekend when CC#2 lowered my rate I stopped and paused. Should I now refocus on another card CC#3 with a rate of 12.9% interest and let the 9.9% ride? But I have decided to keep paying off CC#2. there are two reasons. The savings over 6 months is maybe about $180.00 total. It would have me paying off debt a tiny little earlier. BUT I have a baby coming. If I had to just pay the minimums on all my cards because of additional child care expenses it would be better to have fewer cards then lower interest rates. I don't think the change is focus is worth it. So I am following Dave Ramsey' snowball temporarily until this CC #2 is paid off. I think it should be complete by May of next year. Security is more important then $180.00 in fees. Then I will return to highest interest rate card first. It will really depend on Christmas expenses and how pay checks work while I am on short term disability and maternity leave. It is good to have an emergency fund so I know I can cover one month's expenses. Hopefully after that all the funds will kick in properly and I will be receiving a regular pay check. It will be a fine balance I am sure. My employer while a strong stable company is known for its flubs on payments. So I am a little nervous. One day at a time road traveled. One day at a time.

Fun Friday

I got to work from home today because of a Dr.s appointment. So I am reading and catching up on information I have not had tome to take a look at. One of my Favorite blogs is No Credit Needed. He wrote a post on his Savings account allocation. Wow. I really admire his commitment to not ever using credit again. Currently having diabetes and not having sugar is a tough commitment and sometimes I slip. To plan for the future so you do not have to use a bank. NICE. I really admire his persistence, and planning. So using a little inspiration from his own post I have added new categories to my budget. I have set aside $3500 for a down payment on a home. This is mixed in With my fully funded emergency fund. I have been sweating how to move the money to a money market account at another bank because I was afraid I might touch the money. Or I might confuse what category I was pulling it from because it is sitting in one lump sum in a savings account. The answer is so obvious TRACK IT. Duh! So By creating a break down and tracking the money I spend if I need to I fight the demon to spend from the house down payment. If I need to use money from my emergency fund I have it available. I know exactly what I need to pay back and what is allocated to a Home down payment. This way I am not going to rob my future for some crisis I am having today. I have done that enough in my life I stole yesterday from my today and I am mad that I made those choices. Compassionate with myself but I wish I had looked harder at solving the issues sooner. I don't regret the cards. They have taught me a valuable lesson and It is painful enough I am committed to not using credit cards in the same way again. My goals are along the line of NCN's I want to have enough cash in my bank account that if I need to use it I can. I expect this to take me about 10 years to accomplish given good times. If we have a few Murphy's law moments then It will just take longer. I am realistic and experienced enough to know that Murphy will call back.

So I am using the following categories for my savings...

Emerg. Fund $2000.00
Short term goals (Home Down Payment) $15000.00

They were reflected in the side bar on my blog but they were not line items on my budget.
For now I have no long term goals. Really The only other financial goal I want to focus on is paying off the credit cards. All raises and any extra cash will be snowballed to debt. The longest term goals are retirement. I am not ignoring it but I am primarily focused on debt. Once the debt is gone I will put more towards retirement and education. I want the intensity of the goal to work for me and the only way I can stay on track is to stay with it and keep paying on those bloody cards. One at a time. I have kicked one to the curb and I am praying that I will have card #2 done by March.

Sept Review

I like going over my budget numbers and having no surprises. For September I spent a whole lot less then I thought I did. I was still over my budget by about $ 200.00. The reason... I bought maternity clothes. I needed a few new items to make it easier to go to work in. I have so few options and my nesting hormones are in overdrive. I am trying to curb those emotions though. My food budget was decreased significantly by my daughter being away in college and my gas consumption is about half of what it was between teen driving and commuting with a neighbor. I actually did not think commuting would make such a huge difference but it really has. Plus the price of gas being generally down is also a plus. I saved somewhere between $50 to $60. Thats a lot.

On another positive note... We had an offer from a friend of the family for a high chair and a few other baby items. I told her we would be happy to accept any donations she cared to give us. Her baby is only 14 months old so anything she wants to give away is my gain. I didn't want to spend a lot of money on baby gear. They are such warm and wonderful people. I cant imagine any one more giving.

So over all the picture to close September is good. I have a few concerns for October. Car Insurance is due and I really want to purchase a few things for baby. I did pay a little extra to the credit card snowball. I had re budgeted to make it 900 per month because I have been feeling a budget squeeze but I really want to make progress before baby is born so I redirected any savings on food and gas to the credit cards. I want that card balance DOWN! I would be so happy if card #2 could be paid off by the time we need to put baby into Daycare. So Onward we go ...

Progress

Well I am proud to announce progress. My debt total is Under 30K it is 29,976.86 to be exact. I am so tickled. I love it. We are doing well and making progress. I am now turning my intensity to Credit card #2. The next highest interest rate card. I did a balance transfer a long time ago and it sits at 15.99%. Time to get it gone. By the calculations I made on the What's the cost website, I will have paid this sucker off by July of next year. Hoorah! I feel good about making progress. Its not perfect. Its not exactly what I want it to be but I feel confident that I will be doing the right thing. After all 24.69%progress is progress.

Here is my chart....

Renewed focus, Credit Card#2

So After looking at my different side bars I have decided to change the Credit card bar to read Credit card #2. I have paid off about half of what was on Credit card #1 and re financed the rest to lower interest rates. That card is GONE baby! So Credit card #2 is at 15.99% and the Balance in June was $ 4,562.21. I have made the June payment of $ 100.00. I am working on my cards in interest order. Dave Ramsey suggests to make progress with smallest first and then interest But I am tracking the debt pay down as a whole and I want to pay as little as possible to those stupid banks. I can see my progress in my NCN Chart. Interest order will accomplish that. The interest makes a bigger difference if you start with 40K in debt then if you had 10k. Its a lot of interest. As a matter of fact Credit card #2 I have never made a single purchase on. I opened it for the introductory balance. And then I never moved the money. Bad plan. Those were the old days this is the get out of debt world and I am not looking back. According to my debt snowball plan, Credit card #2 will be paid off in May 2009. As long as we keep on track. Whoop Whoop Whoop.

I think it is a sickness. I am actually looking forward to my statements this month so I can log in my progress. I am also looking forward to making my August payments. just so I can track the progress. It really helps to have a fully funded emergency fund. Hooray debt is going down this month.

May wrap up

I am glad to say good by to May. It has been a hectic month as evidenced here in my few posts. I try to post every Monday and I can tell even those days were crazy for me. I also have not been feeling well with morning sickness. Nausea is not fun. Given all the months expenses I was very surprised that we were able to stay on track at all this month. I expected to be writing tales of woe. I have updated my side bar percentages and to date I have paid down 15.37% of my debt. The total.... Drum roll please is.... $6,116.14. Phew. I have never had that much money in my life and yet I give it to the banks. Let that be the lesson DO NOT use credit cards. Save a little, pinch a lot. You can do it.

I told the fiancée how much debt I had paid off and he was stunned. I am too. Of course some of it is wind falls. Some of it is good luck. Lots of it is hard work tracking all the ins and outs every month.

Despite travel and graduation I was able to ...

I put an extra 88 dollars to my snowball this month.
My current expected date to be out of debt is July 2011. (An entire month sooner then when last calculated!)

I was feeling overwhelmed because of all the expenses we incurred this month. In truth I am making progress. We hosted a celebration party for graduation and I was still able to make my bills. Now vacation next month and daughters new i pod is a different story. Not sure where that is coming from. I have to do the numbers and see how much was really left over and how much I can spend on the vacation. Its going to be tight.



I am not a financial professional. If you are looking for financial advise you should seek it elsewhere. If you would like to join me on the journey, walk with me for a while and be my friend......

Traction and Ideas

I have paid off $5496.21 of my credit card debt. this brings up my total to 13.81% paid off. I am so proud of me. I feel like I am learning to breathe.

There are ways I need to improve though.
I need to build up my savings consistently over the next 9 months. I am pregnant and I will need to pay for my credit cards while I am on maternity leave. I am going to count on dear fiancée to handle rent and some other expenses. Day care scares me and it may be that we have to handle debt repayment differently for a while. We'll see. I have it calculated that I have about 5 weeks of paid leave sick & vacation. I only have to cover another three for an 8 week stay out of work. I'd love 12 but we'll see what happens with fiancees own finances. He and I are talking more about money and I am so proud of him for that.

So Traction...

Given this new information I have set a goal of card #1 to be paid in full by Dec 2008. The current balance left is $3060.41 and I am going to pay $405 today. I will also apply $200 of the economic stimulus to the card and possible 150 left from some travel expenses I had. all together that is a payment of $755.00. Quite impressive. This will leave $2305 to be paid by the rest of the year. I think I can do it. Just the fact that all the minimum payments are all lower now with the different balance transfers I feel more confident that we can swing stuff while I have this baby. Phew. What a difference having a budget has made. I can handle it vs Oh My god this will never end! Big difference - big big difference.

Secondary goal is to continue to build the savings account. I need to put at least $130 into the account each month if not $165.00 Otherwise I am going to have more Murphy surprises that I do not want to handle. This month I did not put that amount aside as I was trying to recover from the March madness. Now however with all the tax refunds and extras that I rc'd this month I feel confident that I can put 165 into savings. That would bring the account balance to 1200
about 1365. So keep on growing little savings. Keep on growing.

March left me $537.81 over budget. In April I gained $580.39 which puts things at a wash +42.58

May is going to be tough with graduation coming up. We have to plan what to get my beautiful daughter for her graduation present. Not sure exactly what its going to be yet. It somewhat depends on her dad and what he gets. It also depends on the budget.

I am applying for college loans. I know what Dave Ramsey says but it is the only way she is going to college and she is going! We have to work with her dad to make sure he can fund his share and then My share will shrink in January because My employer is going to pay a portion for her tuition. So in the spring semester I will be responsible for 2000. and for the fall I think I have to raise about $6,000. I also feel like I can get it paid off before she graduates. So I don't feel too bad about taking out the loans. We'll see though.

Incremental progress. I feel the traction this month so I feel good. One day at a time.

Follow through

One behavior I have learned (by paying stupid tax) is to follow up on a balance payment. For some reason one of the banks I have a card with always messes me up with its payment schedule. I have learned to send the minimum payment even though I just made a balance transfer. This particular card has been a thorn in my side. The Credit Card company raised my rates for no apparent reason. Then they lowered my limit. (I never made a late payment on any of my cards.) So as soon as I could I transferred all my money off those cards and waited. Well Don't cha know within 6 months they offered me a 4.99% transfer rate until the balance is paid. I crunched those numbers and saving $1000.00 is in my interest. I know Dave Ramsey wants me to feel like I am making traction but I am tracking that in the over all total not card by card. (Current paid to date is $4789.57 - see my NCN Chart.) Frankly it feels Awesome to have gone from $ 12,049.90 to $ 2,943.06 even if the progress is in reduced interest not over all amounts.

So follow through... I double checked the card that was getting the paydown. Monthly payment rc'd - Check. I double checked the card that I was adding the balance to. Balance transferred. Check. Now this card had a $ -83.26 balance. When I transferred a balance from this card previously there was an additional payment that crossed in the mail. I have been waiting to pounce on that negative amount for 4 months. I am quite a program running some actuarial table somewhere that said "nope no change in the rate"... So I waited... "nope dont drop the rate"..... so I waited..... "nope dont drop the rate"... so I waited. Ahhhh then the offer and I pounced. Of course if the rate were to change at any moment I would YANK the balance off this card and move it somewhere else. I hate this card that much. Just so you know I dont recommend this method for everyone. The fees do add up and despite the fact I have just moved two balances recently it is not something I do on a regular basis. I wanted to use that $ -83.26 to pay off my debt. And it did help me. The balance transfer for this card cost.... $ 6.74 ($ 90.00 - $ 83.26 = $ 6.74) Hooray me. I will also make the first payment before 04/22/08 (the closing date on the statement). That way I will be ready to roll when the beginning of the month rolls around again. So the balance on card #7 is $ 3,006.74

Don't panic all you Ramseyites. I am working the debt snowball. I am not putting any new charges on my cards. I just wanted to take advantage of the credit card shuffle to save myself some money. I know just because I finally can move things around does not mean I can spend money. Believe me I get it. I want out of debt as fast as I can git. I am even trying to plan to get a second job and pay down more. On a positive note I also got my State tax refund today. Its staying in the checking account helping to fight back from the deep deep deficit of spending in March.

I am not a financial professional. If you are looking for financial advise you should seek it elsewhere. If you would like to join me on the journey, walk with me for a while and be my friend......

March Wrap up

Well as predicted March was a hard budget to balance. I have some scary new expenses coming and I think I have them covered but phew am I going to be glad when May rolls around because April is going to be TIGHT

Travel for my employer and fronting them the money puts an additional burden on me that I was not planning to have.

I also found out Saturday I am going to have a few more expenses before the end of the year so I am not too certain about getting a second job. BUT I have a plan. First tonight I talk to future hubby about the future. Then we map it out together. He likes plans he can stick to. Sept 2011 feels like a long way away. I am hoping for a second job this summer to ease the transition for no longer having child support. I am not sure that it is going to be possible. Trying to take that slow.

So I recalculated my debt snowball based on this months numbers. It is still Sept 2011 but the final payment is lower. So I am making progress. Currently I have paid down $4789.57 towards my debt. Last month I paid $691.60 to principal. This month will be much slower because of all the travel. The many hits to the "uh oh" fund and car insurance. But still I managed to keep my head above water.

While I was talking with my mom about how I did it there are probably a couple of things she asked me and I thought I should share with you.

Quick emergency cash....

I keep a $100.00 bill in my wallet at all times. Mostly so I don't get stuck in the city if something comes up. I don't want to need to use my credit card for an emergency. Which is also no longer in my wallet.

I also have kept $1000.00 in my checking account as a buffer. It is a condition of free checking. I probably dipped into it this month, we'll see when the fiancée clears the rent check. It will also depend on when I get the child support. Timing of all those things might be tricky. But I will not bounce any checks or run out of money. I currently think I am down to about $600.00 So I have to replenish that money. I will use the expense reimbnursement check that is $350.00 and another pay check. I should have it covered. I didnt have to dip into savings for the car insurance at all! That to me is the most impressive.

I am also trying to build up a $2000.00 emergency fund. Right now the savings account is at $1200. I do put $65.00 in every month for car insurance so I can take it out and save a little on the monthly vs every 6 month payments. So far I have been able to cash flow the insurance when it comes up. I have not needed to dip into savings. I am not sure this month that I will be able to put much aside though. I think I might have to use those funds to replace all the crazy funding I have had to do in March.

All in all, even though I got bitten quite hard in the month of march with expenses I was not expecting to pay, I was still able to recover. And I am ready for whatever April has to bring. I think. I don't want to tempt fate. I really have had enough of those Murphys' and they need to knock on someone else's door.

I feel have made a lot of progress in my life. (My mom agrees... LOL) Here are the things I have done today:

I checked a balance on line with a credit card company and discovered my credit had improved. So I was able to transfer a balance to another card. This takes one additional month off the debt payment plan. So the new date to be debt free is Aug 2011. I am so so happy. I feel like I am really making inroads on this debt. I have paid off 12% of my debt. This is BIG! At weight watchers when you reach 10% weight loss you get to stand up and cheer. So here is me I have lost 10% of my debt and I am cheering! Hooray!I will save approx $1700 in interest by transferring the balances. Heck yea 1 month earlier and $1700 less in interest. Go baby go. Card # 1 which started at $12,049.90 is down to 6378.06. Less the payment of $435 I made today Less a balance transfer of $3000. SO.... The new balance is $2943.06 . Now that is before interest next month. And the reason I focused so hard on this card is because it is currently 27.99 interest. GAG ME! I updated the Progress bar for card #1 to be 52% although in reality tracking the individual cards when you are transferring the balances is a mis-nomer. The real progress is reflected in the $39,804.12 number. I have paid it down 12% to date and I made the monthly payments today so we'll get new numbers for the end of April. LOL I actually get geeked out about doing my bills now. Its exciting to see the progress. I have become the cheapest mama on the block!

Focus and Trust

I have some time management choices and some financial choices to make. This week I went to an information session about getting a masters degree. I have been thinking about it for a while and I wanted to be sure it was what I wanted to do. My time line was to apply for enrollment for the fall 2009 semester. I had in mind that in Sept. 2008 after my daughter goes to school I will have more time in the evenings and weekends as a result I would be able to get a second job. I would crank on my debt snowball while she is in School and I might be able to pay a large amount off before Sept 2009. The date it is currently set for. As long as I snow flake and keep going the way I have been for the last 3 months I will definitely have it paid before that.

My time line plan was to study for the next few months Take the GMATs in the fall and apply in Jan 2009 for fall of 2009. Here is the bonus... They might wave the GMAT because I have over 10 years of progressive work experience. If they were to wave the test I could probably pull the paperwork together by July and start taking classes this fall. Here is the wrinkle with that... I would not have as much time to get a second job and accelerate the debt snowball.

I read "How to Make the Time for Your Personal Goals" over on Zen Habits. I poured over it because one of my short term goals I have set is to read one hour a day. I mean to read a book for one hour per day. I seem unable to find time to accomplish this. I seem to spend A LOT of time reading blogs and not books. So as soon as I read the title I zoomed over to see if there was some insight into my life I could glean to help myself accomplish this goal. And I was brought up a little short by number one... “One goal at a time”.

It is hard for me to focus on one goal at a time. I have many balls in the air and to keep a balanced home I am always juggling something. I am also been a big fan of Dan Allen GTD. Trust in the system. If you don’t trust the system then you won’t feel confident in your minds ability to keep track of the goals. The gerbil running “gotta go… gotta go” in my head spins and spins.

I keep a running list of goals. I also track a running list of “to do” items. I use the site http://www.netvibes.com/. I make lots of little web notes into a very large list and I cut and paste based on priority. This way the list follows me where ever I go and I can jot things down before I forget them. I have so many things on my “to do” list I could not begin to get the list down to one item. I mean if you have a goal of retiring with a fully funded 401k how does someone accomplish that goal? Break it down into smaller tasks. Okay then what? Do a little bit every day or every month. But then I would have a lot of time left in a month to do other stuff if I only had one focus.

Perhaps it is a matter of while you are doing the one task stay focused on that task until you accomplish it. Don’t start doing the dishes until you have finished the blog entry. That part I can understand. I get so many interruptions per day staying on track for any given project is a real challenge. But then am I robbing myself of accomplishing my goals because I have to multi task or is it a matter of style?

There are two really big items I want to accomplish in the future. The first is getting rid of the debt I have. The second is getting a masters degree. I will not melt if I never start to read a book for one hour per day. But if I never start on the Masters I feel I will be 50 before I am finished. I will not accomplish my goals. I am determined to keep blogging about debt. I am determined to continue on the journey to be debt free. I have made Major strides in working this plan. The question is could I do both?

Ah… wait there is another factor… the cost. I have committed $ 1,000.00 of my monthly budget to pay down the debt. I cannot waiver in this commitment. I do get tuition from my employer for classes.

Evaluating the cost…

		Employer	$5,250	Me	Credits
Fall 2008	3630	$1,620			6	2
Spring 2009	3630	$1,620			6	2
Summer 2009	1815	($195)			3	1
Fall 2009	3630	($3,825)		$3,825	6	2
Spring 2010	3630	$1,620			6	2
Summer 2010	1815	($195)			3	1
Fall 2010	3630	($3,825)		$3,825	6	2
Spring 2011	3630	$1,620			6	2
Summer 2011	1815	($195)			3	1
Fall 2011	3630	($3,825)		$3,825	6	2
Spring 2012	3630	$1,620			6	2
Summer 2012	1815	($195)			3	1
Fall 2012	3630	($3,825)		$3,825	6	2
Spring 2013	1815	$3,435			3	1
Fall 2013	1815	$1,620			3	1
				$ 15,300	72	24

When I become Debt free the cost of $4000.00 per year is very manageable. It will cost over $16,000 to get the degree. BUT the average salary of someone after they complete this degree is double my salary. Getting the MBA makes it easily worth the investment of money. I would earn back the cost of school in one year.

The Challenge...

Start grad school this year? Or work for 1 year to pay off debt and then have enough progress on the snowball that would allow me to go to school.

Trust….

I trust the math. I believe in the numbers. I believe I will be debt free on or before Sept 2011. If I postpone my start of school I will be MUCH better off than if I were to start now. I came across a budget I created in 2000 to pay off a credit card. The payments were unrealistic and I remember not doing it at all. After much debate today I have come to the conclusion that I should maintain focus on debt and the degree will come next. It is the price I must pay for the poor money choices I have made in the past. And what is a year really? Time for fiancée and I to enjoy one another alone. Not a bad choice at all. Maybe if I got a job at the gym they would give me a discount. Hmmm… It is food for thought.

So In conclusion. I think short bursts of focus are good. But you have to keep balance and the big picture in mind. Of course I travel a road less traveled and so maybe my choices are not for everyone. But that has made all the difference in my life. It has made me the person who I am today.

Debt snowball choices

Having a greater focus on when I will be debt free is very comforting. October 2011. I have a plan. So when I received a letter from a card which has no money on it to transfer a balance I said why bother? I am on track. I have a date. I can get out of debt without them. Then I thought about the debt snowball. I thought about being out of debt sooner. 4.99% is much better then 27.99%. How much of a difference would it really make? Well, Having just used the debt snowball tool, I decided to run it again. I wanted to see if I transferred $2000.00 to another card would I get out of debt any faster?

Here is the breakdown....

Without a balance transfer I will pay $7,173.00 in interest. And I will be debt free in October 2011.
If I do transfer the money... I will pay $6,181.00 in interest. And I will be debt free in September 2011.

$7173.00
$6181.00
_______
$ 992.00

BUT don't forget the balance transfer fee. For 2000.00 It should be $60.00 or 3% of the transaction. So I actually gain $932.00 Is it worth making 6 payments instead of 5? Oh yes, for me it is. I am able to be debt free a whole month sooner. And In truth I will be cutting that time shorter and shorter because I did pay just a little extra to a few cards because I like round numbers in my payments $100 vs $94 is $6.00 that I don't have to pay interest on. I also intend to snowflake any reimbursed expenses I receive from work to the debt. I will also be applying some of my tax return towards the debt. While that does not make a huge time difference I think over the next few years it will. I have also started a what have I paid down already. My highest level of debt grew to $39,804.12. I have paid off $4097.97 as of the end of Feb. That is fantastic. I am on my way. I have also funded 50% of my emergency fund. And this month it was not a struggle to put money in there. Hooo rah. I am on the journey. I actually look forward to tallying the numbers. I no longer get the sick feeling in my stomach that something is horribly horribly wrong.

Today I have to complete my taxes so that I can apply for financial aid at my daughters school. That should be a trip. so I will be getting my refund sooner then I was expecting. And we will also be getting the financial incentive in May? That money will be applied towards the debt. I am on my way..

I am not a financial professional. If you are looking for financial advise you should seek it elsewhere. If you would like to join me on the journey, walk with me for a while and be my friend......