by Claire
This is going to sound crazy. As I was leaving the office today, I received an email with a comment from a reader. I took a look at the brief comment and it was suggesting I visit www.debtinfocus.org. From memory, the comment said they weren’t sure if the website had been mentioned before and it was helpful to set out a plan of attack. Before I left the parking garage, I quickly visited the site on my phone and it looked very user friendly on its opening page. I drove home and after a few hours I sat down to explore the site further. Here’s the crazy part—I could not and cannot find the comment from the reader! Maybe this is user error as it IS Friday and I am fatigued but there was no email, no comment on the blog itself and then no comment on the site I access the blog through! I felt like I was and feel like I am losing my mind! Thankfully, I had accessed the site on my phone so I was able to find the website address again.
I want to know who gave me this tip so I can thank you! OR if another reader locates the comment let me know where! I can hardly contain my excitement with this fabulous find of a debt payoff website. I’m sure many of you have seen similar ones but for this rookie debt reducer, this is awesome! Now…it wasn’t without pain as I had to input ALL of the information on ALL of my debt. Honestly, that’s like poking myself in the eye with a stick (and I know some of you will say “IT SHOULD HURT…WE HOPE IT DID HURT…YOU IRRESPONSIBLE MESS OF A BLOGGER!”) to go through all of those numbers again. BUT what a great exercise that yielded results for me to get my mathematically challenged brain around! It will generate all sorts of reports for you to consider for your approach to paying things off. It has the standard “minimum payment until well after you are dead” plan…the “pay the highest interest card first” plan…the “pay the lowest balance first” plan…AND then you can input what extra dollar amount you can put toward debt each month to see the impact of your efforts. It will also provide a printable 12-month payment plan telling you exactly what amount to pay to each debt. Now, maybe this is what some of you are already doing on your own by creating your own spreadsheets (my husband was very interested in discussing what went into creating the program to make all of that information come out in the end….soooooo not my thing to know the details behind it…) but I am amazed! I now have several scenarios to consider and chew on. I KNOW this will relieve many of you as even without a direct mention for a few days, I “hear” many of you shaking your computers and yelling “CLAIRE! WHAT IS THE PLAN?!” I will figure out how to post a payment plan once I learn for sure what that April raise nets us.
Which reminds me…no announcement on the promotion. It has been 8 weeks now since the interview process began. I think we are all beyond obsessing about it and will almost be surprised when they do announce it b/c we’ve all put it on the back burner just to get through our regular work duties!
So, thank you Mystery Commenter! That little tip was a goldmine for this weary brain. I feel energized and motivated by what I saw on the timeline. If it goes according to plan, I will have my debt paid off before I am looking at nursing homes to check into for my golden years.
😉
I’ve taken some advice from other comments and have come up with some possible additional sources of income. It will take some sacrifices of time but nothing so detrimental that we can’t cope. That’s one of the few perks to divorce…we are kid free every other weekend so we have time we can use to increase income. I’ll fill you in on those things soon!
Have a great weekend!!!
UPDATE: I just found it! Thank you Lys. Although the info is not showing up on your comment under “Perspectives” but I found it in my email! 🙂 Forgot to mention this website is sponsored by the Credit Union Association. You don’t have to input any personal info and help is offered, but not pushed. Totally anonymous! And yes, we do bank at a Credit Union. Love my credit union!
