by Hope
Well, it’s been a while since I did a debt update. And while I haven’t made a bunch of progress there have been some tiny steps…so here’s where I’m at as of today.
| Debt Name | Current Balance | Interest Rate | Min. Mo. Pymt | Priority Order | Est. Payoff |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Checking Account | $741 | 0% | $0 | 1 | Nov, 2014 |
| Credit Card - Retail | $3,223 | 25.99% | $99 | 2 | Jul, 2015 |
| Credit Card - Consumer | $5043 | 13.90% | $105 | 3 | Jan, 2016 |
| Student Loan | $32,510 | 2.875% | $0 | 4 | Sept, 2019 |
| Car Loan - Accord | $1,900 | 0% | $0 | 5 | Nov, 2019 |
| Car Loan - NV | $29,404 | 6.79% | $696 | 6 | Oct, 2018 |
Some notes:
- Student loans are in deferment and I’m hoping to get approval to continue that for another 6 months to get me on solid ground with everything else.
- Currently I try to pay about $400 more than the minimum towards debt.
- The Car Loan – Honda will be taken care of with the sale of my house. My dad and I have agreed that he deduct that amount in full from any monies I have coming from the house, but until that is a done deal I will leave it on my list.
- The Car Loan – NV will go away as soon as the car sales. While is has certainly been a blessing to have with this move, I am ready to be out from under that hefty monthly obligation!!! (If it were to be gone in the next month, that would move my final payoff date to July, 2017, how cool would that be!)
These notes are all based on my current budget, but with moving into a smaller, less expensive space I hope to free up some more monies to throw at debt. I just haven’t had time to sit down and look at a new budget yet. It’s going to have to wait until after the move.
Hope is a creative, solutions-focused business manager helping clients grow their business and work more efficiently by leveraging expertise in project management, digital marketing, & tech solutions. She’s recently become an empty nester as her 5 foster/adoptive kids have spread their wings. She lives with her 5 dogs in a small town in NE Georgia and prefers the mountains to the beaches any day. She struggles with the travel bug and is doing her best to help each of her kids as their finish schooling and become independent (but it’s hard!) She has run her own consulting company for almost twenty years! Hope began sharing her journey with the BAD community in the Spring of 2015 and feels like she has finally in a place to really focus on making wise financial decisions.
Do you know what your monthly student loan payment will be after you exit deferment? It’s good to know for planning purposes.
One further question – are you confident that there will be money left after the sale of the house, closing costs and any cash you spend on repairs to get it in selling condition? I don’t want to be a downer, but closing costs can be very expensive.
Yes, I am fairly certain there will be money left over after the sale of the house. I do not know how much of it I will receive (see previous posts on this) but it was my dad’s suggestion that whatever I am to receive will first go to the car payoff (the Accord which I am purchasing from him.) That takes that pressure off me as far as payments goes, so I was happy to agree to his suggestion. Anything I receive from this sale will be a blessing, not to say that I’m not hoping for it, but I am okay with whatever happens.
My student loan payment will be right around $220.
Hope, sorry for not remembering these details – but what is the checking account debt? Or is that a positive balance?
Also, are your deferred student loans subsidized, unsubsidized, or mixed? Will you be accruing interest while they are deferred?
Any thought of trying the balance transfer game on those high interest cards to lower the accumulating interest? Or getting a personal/signature loan from the bank or a loan from something like prosper.com at a lower rate to pay off the cards? These are not normally steps I’d suggest but 25.99% is killer and your repayment schedule is not that fast.
Your debt load is really not crazy, although that big car loan is oppressive. It seems like you could really benefit from trying to increase your income – which I know you’ve explored and tried some things, but I’m wondering if, post-move, you might take another look at your options.
Have you addressed health insurance for your family on this blog? Since you are self-employed with a large family, I’m wondering if you have been able to afford adequate insurance since ACA went into effect. This is a highly personal question – feel free to ignore it if you don’t want to address it on this blog.
If you’ve already answered all these questions in previous posts, I apologize. I’m committed to following the stories, but not committed enough to go searching through previous posts to find all the answers 🙂
If I remember correctly, I think the checking account was an overdraft on a joint account that was made by her ex. Hope closed the account to avoid further overdraft, but this was the debt amount she was stuck with (and the details are fuzzy for me, too…can’t remember if they just ‘halved’ the costs or what the agreement was, but do believe this was where the debt was from).
I was wondering the same thing. That’s a bummer. Glad she’s able to tackle these things on her own now.
I hope you can gain traction soon! I also think you should consider a balance transfer or other refinancing to rid yourself of those high interest rates.
Definitely this. 26% interest is usury. If not a credit union personal loan, then maybe lending club or prosper.
I agree with the others that when you have time after the move, you should look for alternatives to that hefty 25.99% rate on the credit card!
Also, your debt will look SO much better when you have both cars off that list! Car payments are such a drag on finances.
Our car will be paid off next spring, and we will NEVER have another car payment again. We’ve learned that lesson the hard way, and won’t repeat that mistake again.
Hope – you are such an inspiration to me! With the HUGE, LIFE-ALTERING changes you are making in the name of debt-payoff, I think we all need to just suspend any thought of balance transfers at this time. All the estimated payoff dates you have listed are wrong, so wrong. They don’t take into account your new lowered expenses, the monies you’ll (hopefully) be receiving from the sale of the house, and the (hopefully speedy) sale of your car. While things are in a state of upheaval and until all the dust settles and you are able to really see what your new expenses are like (which will likely take a few months), I would not do a balance transfer. I think you’ll be able to pay off your debts with lightening speed once everything settles down. It’s exciting to think what the coming months have in store for your! I see lots of debt-reduction in your future! : )