by Ashley
Have you ever heard that the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result?
Welllll, does it count as being insane if you are doing the same thing over again and expecting a different result, but you’ve learned something new throughout the process that hopefully changes the outcome you’re anticipating?
Does this even make sense at all?
I think so. I’ll just think of myself as crazy like a fox.
So here’s the deal (and, please, refrain from the exasperated sighs until I finish)…..
I’m changing up my debt-repayment game plan.
Again?
Yes. Again.
I’ve been calling my car loan repayment my race to 20K (because the loan balance was approximately $20,000 when I began). This was back when I was making $3,500 monthly debt payments (last summer) and thought I could reasonably expect to pay off the car within 6 or 7 months. I soooo had my eye on the prize for a March 2015 payoff.
But, alas, things have changed.
Our income went down. Our debt payments went down. We’re only a few weeks from March and nowhere near paying off the car.
That’s not to mean we haven’t made good progress. When I started the race to 20K back in July the full balance was actually $22,742. As of last month I had just dipped below $16,000 owed (averaging over $1,000/month toward the payment).
BUT….
I need some quick wins. And with a balance that high, there’s not going to be anything “quick” about paying off the car.
That, plus comments many of you have left, have made me reconsider our game plan a bit. So here’s the new debt plan of action:
We’re re-adopting a modified snowball approach (aka: attacking lowest debt first) so we can re-gain some traction and feel a good boost when a debt is conquered. Here’s what’s up on the chopping block:
- License Fees. I made a massive payment on the license fees this month, bringing the total owed to $1344. The goal date to have it eradicated is April 2015.
- Medical Debt #1. Note that I’ve always grouped our medical debts together for ease, but we are actually making 2 separate monthly payments (one for $25/month and one for $50/month). The $50/month payment will be done in 3 more payments, by May 2015. Although this isn’t a huge deal from a goal perspective (this will be gone simply from making our regular $50/month payments, no extra), it will be nice to free up that extra $50/month to apply toward other debts. Plus I still consider it a win to have the debt behind us!
Aaaaaand, that’s as far as I know now. My next smallest loan is for a federal student loan (balance = $4347), which also happens to have one of my largest interest rates (8.25%), but I just can’t let go of my desires to pay off the car. My rationale is that I can increase my student loan payments to keep the balances from growing (since my minimum payments don’t even cover the interest), but by May I could refocus back on the car as my #1 priority. If I do that, I’d have a solid 8 months to work on chipping away at the loan, with a tentative goal of having it paid in full by the end of December 2015. Remember that we bought the car (original balance $30,000) in March of 2013, so I would LOVE LOVE LOVE to have it paid in full in under 3 years from purchase date. It would be so lovely to begin 2016 consumer-debt free, with only student loans (and that one low-payment interest-free medical debt) remaining.
We’ll see. I can’t commit yet to what will be #3 on the chopping block. But I do know that it will feel oh-so-good to get those license fees and the one larger-payment medical bill behind us. Especially with the license fees, having them paid off will feel like the closing of a terrible, long-ago chapter of our lives that has been hanging around for entirely too long (over a decade, but whose counting?).
Only one other teeeeeeeny thing I need to mention that may serve as a competing interest for our debt payment funds. But that will have to wait for another post. (CLIFF HANGER!) Check back on Thursday for the juicy details. ; )
What debt are you currently focused on? What debt(s) motivate you the most?
