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Hope’s Debt Update – Mid October, 2020

These last couple of months have been tough. Lots of personal stuff going on. And every day seems like a fight to get through the work day, to handle things around the house, to parent 3 teenagers…

While this summer’s debt payments were easy and joyful, it feels like I’ve had to fight for every payment this past month. Needless to say, I was surprised at the progress when I took some time to check everything today.

I’ve paid another $3,262.73 off since the end of August. Not terrible for 6 weeks, I guess, but not where I want to be. Where I’d hoped to be.

Creditor	Original Debt	Last Update	Current Balance	Interest	Min. Payment
Student Loan #1	$17,000.00	$5,982.28	$3,478.45	2.88%	$0
Student Loan #2	$21,750.03	$19,384.56	$19,184.23	2.88%	$0
Honda HRV	$21,200.00	$16,571.43	$16,012.86	3%	$600
Total	$59,950.03	$41,938.27	$38,675.54		$250

Granted, I’ve had some unexpected expenses with the twins moving out and so on. But I’m grateful that even with that, I have not had to touch my EF. But I also haven’t been able to add to it either.

I am still hoping to complete my Christmas shopping by the end of this month. And then buckle down and focus on getting rid of my smaller student loan balance by the end of the year.

Steps to Help Myself

I’ve made a few adjustments to help me stay on track with the holidays coming.

The first thing I did was pre-schedule 6 weeks of debt payments. I haven’t had my student loans on aut0-pay because I had been throwing all my extra every month at them. The auto-pay isn’t enough to pay it off, even if I continued it through the end of the year, but they are an amount I’m comfortable with for a weekly payment. And then as extra income comes in I can schedule that separately.

I’ve reworked my meal plans to make the daily work a bit less labor intensive – more soups and crockpots meals. This was also work on a Christmas present as I will be prepping a bunch of crockpot meals for my parents while I am there at Thanksgiving. I wanted to have some new options and make sure I knew how I could prep, freeze and leave directions for them.

Giving myself some grace and space to just let feelings flow. I was so glad my parents could come last month and stay as long as they did. But it is and it was hard. Watching your parent decline physically and mentally. Realizing that this may be the last time or at least the last time it will be like this with a semblance of normal. Recognizing what is most likely in store for your own future. And remembering…so many memories and so much regret of things your kids will not get to experience.

For someone who is typically a “glass half full” girl and tends to always see the silver lining, it’s been an emotional month. Tears unexpectedly. Not having control. But it has made me all that more grateful for every minute I get to spend with my parents, every new memory we get to make as a family, every picture we take to hold on.

Hope

Hope is a resourceful, solutions-driven online business manager with over two decades of experience helping clients streamline operations, manage projects, and grow their businesses through digital marketing and technology.

But life has a way of rewriting your plans.

A year ago, Hope made the decision to move in with her aging parents full time – a season she wouldn’t trade, even as it came with its own financial and emotional weight. Earlier this year, she lost her mother, and is now walking the tender, disorienting path of grief while learning what “forward” looks like from here.

Hope came to the Blogging Away Debt community in 2015 as a single mom raising five foster and adoptive children. She’s written through job changes, financial setbacks, and the bittersweet transition to an empty nest. Her kids are finding their footing in the world now – and so is she.

Rooted in faith and fueled by the same perseverance she’s brought to every hard season, Hope is ready to face her finances with fresh eyes and an honest pen. She believes that clarity, courage, and community can change the trajectory of anyone’s story including her own.

She lives in Austin, TX with her dad, loves adventures with her dog Addie, and is figuring out, one step at a time, what this next chapter is meant to be.

How’d We Do on Healthcare?

by Beks

It’s the time of year we all step back and look at open enrollment options for healthcare. We made the big decision to flip from a very safe HMO to a somewhat financially risky HSA last year. You can see the post HERE. I also included a helpful video in that post that outlines the basics of an HSA. HSA’s are great but can be potentially risky financially if you have a big health emergency. It’s a high deductible plan and if you don’t have the money, you run the risk of accruing debt. If my family of 6 accumulated more than $3K in healthcare costs, it would come straight from our emergency fund. Fortunately, HSA’s have a maximum out of pocket and we have more in our emergency fund than the maximum out of pocket so we decided it was a risk we were willing to take.

So how much did we accumulate in healthcare costs from the hospital? $200. Yup. That was it. And we cash flowed it. Buuuuuut…we did end up pulling $600 out of the HSA account. Nope, not from a trip to the hospital. Ugh. My dental bills will always be the death of us. I needed a root canal and a crown. We now have roughly $2,400 in our HSA investment account we get to roll to next year.

And did I mention that money is invested and we’re EARNING INTEREST!? Rock on HSA!

My husband and I sat down to look at our medical spending and run the risk analysis again for this year. Our risk is even lower this year with the $2,400 we are rolling forward so it makes the most sense to stick with the HSA for another year.

I know it’s easy to ignore your health insurance options. No one enjoys sifting through boring and somewhat confusing information but I encourage you to look into these choices as a possible way to save money next year. Are you really in the best plan? Could you do better? Take a moment (ugh, or a few hours/days) and research your options.

Beks

Beks is a full-time government employee who enjoys blogging late into the night after her four kids have gone to sleep. She’s been married to Chris, her college sweetheart, for 15 years. In 2017, after 3 long years working the Dave Ramsey Baby Steps, they paid off more than $70K and became debt free. When she’s not working or blogging, she’s exploring the great outdoors.