by Hope
My car debt…GONE!
My collection debt…GONE! Called, negotiated and paid yesterday!
I am officially down to my very last two debts…
- Credit card
- Student loans
And my credit card has a target much larger than this on it in my head!!!
I know I have to keep focus on rebuilding my EF and saving for a car down the road BUT guys, I am so close. So close. This credit card debt is going to be gone this year…mark my words. I will be down to one, single solitary debt.
Holy cow.
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.
Congratulations! That’s an amazing feeling!
You’ve got to figure out your priority to achieve this Hope. Is it travel? Is it making sure Princess and you have a car? Or is it getting rid of this debt? The reality is the last budget you floated will not get rid of credit card debt by year end. Your last debt update had you at $2500 on the card. You need to pay at least $310 towards principal on that card for the next 8 months to make it go away. Look hard at your number and ask yourself where the.money is going to come from. We all want things. It’s just a matter of prioritizing your wants.
Great points by cwaltz. How much credit card debt do you have right now? While you currently have no car debt, that would change if you were to finance a replacement car. Is the $800/month in case savings so that you can buy a cheap used car ASAP or to save up a $2-3,000 down payment for a new car?
Good job. If you put as much towards debt as you do towards travel, you could knock out the remaining debts a lot sooner. As cwaltz says above, you need to figure out your priorities. I still think $6k towards travels is outrageous, but I know priorities differ.
Yes, not to be a downer, but I think everyone would be even more excited about the end of the car debt if the car wasn’t gone as well. :/
I will personally be most excited after your credit card debt is gone. It’s mind boggling to me how this one has persisted despite years of comments from myself and others that you need to focus on it because of the high interest rate. The amount of interest you’ve paid on it over the years definitely could have paid for several sessions of summer camp, volleyball, etc.
Having said that, I do think that you will finally be able to retire it in the near future. So that will be a terrific achievement. With any luck, during that time you can also figure out a way to also efficiently save for a future vehicle. I would suggest looking into increasing your billing rate; if you are actually working 55 hrs per week as you indicated a couple posts ago, I worry if that is sustainable and also feel you should be able to bring in more income.
Congrats! I’m glad to hear you’re re-thinking your approach to the credit card debt. I went back and looked, it’s 17% interest!! Eek! That $2,500 debt should be what you knock out. A car loan, with your improved credit, will likely be about 5%, or less. Take that car savings amount for a few months, and the travel budget, and just get rid of this debt.
I’m glad you’ve finally knocked out that collections debt and that you’re being sensible about not getting another car right away. Good for you.
I’d really strongly urge you not to put $800/month (!) in a savings account but instead to pay off the credit card, FINALLY. I shudder to think how much interest you’ve paid on that thing. Just *do* it. If you have to, put $300 a month in savings, but put the rest of that towards paying off that card.
A real debt update that shows the current balances would be nice too….
If I could give up my car to be completely debt free, I’d do it in a heartbeat. I know Hope isn’t totally free, but I’m just saying. It would be an easy trade. I’d just go for walk and start applying for jobs within a mile radius. Everything happens for a reason.
For those of you new to the blog, it is my understanding that Hope’s mother in Texas is very ill, and these visits are important now! Let’s cut Hope some slack on these visits and help her with advice in the other areas of her life. ‘Just my two cents …
I don’t think anyone is criticizing her going, just questioning the budget for them. It seems like a lot for 3 driving trips/year. Even if $1000 of that travel budget is for plane tickets for her son, it still seems high.
I was one who said the travel budget was high, and that is exactly what I was getting at. I completely agree the trips are important but for driving and staying with family (no hotel) that number seemed very high.
There was absolutely no judgement meant by my post. My point was to remind Hope that her revised budget had a line item of $62 a month to her credit card. If her goal is to pay off the $2500 credit card by year end she’ll need to revisit the numbers she has. Unfortunately the two largest line items that she could potentially pull from are a) the car savings($800) and b) the travel budget($500). I really believe most of us are sympathetic to Hope. Many of us have struggled with balancing priorities with a budget and we want to see her succeed.
Hope, you are ROCKIN’ IT!!! Congratulations!