Debt Dumpers - 2015

[Dentam]

Got my fingers crossed for you as well!!

(though, when I first tried to type that, i got my fingers well and truly crossed, and accidently wrote that I had "my gingers crossed" for you. Not quite sure what those would be, but gave me a bit of a chuckle.)

Ha, ha! Too funny. Thanks!

 

[Dentam]

I've got my fingers crossed for you!

Thanks!

 

[gracie1]

Still plugging away...will have one more card almost paid off by the end of this month! It would be great if I could have it completely paid off but most likely next month! Then will have 2 more. And one of those will only be a couple more months as well. Started the year with 4 cards totaling nearly $9500. Will have almost $4k paid off by the end of June hopefully. It's almost addicting. My FICO score has raised 16 points since I started too! I have always had excellent credit but those credit balances has killed it so it dipped under 700...but now I am back to over 700.

That is fantastic!!! You are doing a great job and should be proud of what you've accomplished!!!!!

 

[Dentam]

Still plugging away...will have one more card almost paid off by the end of this month! It would be great if I could have it completely paid off but most likely next month! Then will have 2 more. And one of those will only be a couple more months as well. Started the year with 4 cards totaling nearly $9500. Will have almost $4k paid off by the end of June hopefully. It's almost addicting. My FICO score has raised 16 points since I started too! I have always had excellent credit but those credit balances has killed it so it dipped under 700...but now I am back to over 700.

Woohoo!! That is great!! My credit score had always been really good also but has recently also dipped under 700. Can't wait to see it inch up as I pay off the cc's! Congrats on your progress!

 

[froggibabey]

A bit late, but I'll join in!

My husband has been out of work since 12/8, and *hopefully* just got another job. I'm a SAHM, and thankfully we haven't put any money on our credit cards, but we didn't pay them off with our tax return as planned, either. Still plugging along and paying off more than the minimums each month, but I can't wait to start snowballing them away!

(And saving for a Universal Trip, hopefully -before- the littlest one is out of a stroller!

 

[gracie1]

A bit late, but I'll join in!

My husband has been out of work since 12/8, and *hopefully* just got another job. I'm a SAHM, and thankfully we haven't put any money on our credit cards, but we didn't pay them off with our tax return as planned, either. Still plugging along and paying off more than the minimums each month, but I can't wait to start snowballing them away!

(And saving for a Universal Trip, hopefully -before- the littlest one is out of a stroller!

Your never too late to join this thread! You should be proud in the fact that you didn't have to accrue any extra debt with your dh being out of work. Sending some pixie dust your way that he gets the job!!

 

[froggibabey]

Your never too late to join this thread! You should be proud in the fact that you didn't have to accrue any extra debt with your dh being out of work. Sending some pixie dust your way that he gets the job!!

Thanks! It was really all kind of a miracle, we were saving for a transmission for his truck.. which he doesn't really need currently, since.. we're not leaving the house

So that's first on the agenda, after paying off at least one or two of the credit cards!

 

[yupikgal]

I don't have the disney visa but the rewards cards I do have I would not loose the rewards. You would need to check though with chase.
As for the transfers - sounds like your not completely sure you could have the cc paid in 12 months. If you don't think you can , I would definitely just do the 18 months - your still dropping your interest in half, no transfer fee so your still saving money plus getting an extra 6 months to pay it off!

Same here. I don't have the Disney Visa (I do want to get one eventually, but not til I pay off the cc I do have. I figure I spend enough doing Disney things it would be worth it) but the rewards program I am in I would keep the points. Every company is probably different, but I would think the odds are strong that you'll keep the rewards. It's not like they aren't getting the money back on the original sale, just that you are now paying interest (or 0% interest) to someone else.

If you can cut your interest rate in half I wouldn't worry at all about $32 in rewards. Not worth keeping the card for that.

Hi everyone, sorry I haven't responded sooner. Our youngest son is here visiting, so we've been preoccupied with him! Lots has changed in the last week. Let me preface this by saying that I know I will probably get some people giving me their opinions on our upcoming trip next month, but what's done is done, we are going regardless. It's our 24th anniversary, and we originally planned it around a Fleetwood Mac concert, (for those of you old enough to know who they are) and the air & concert tickets have long been bought (every year we get companion vouchers with AK Air that cost $160 rt which is a steal).

As far as the current cc we are working on, I haven't transferred it over to Discover yet, but am probably going to do that today. I did end up asking for the Disney rewards to be redeemed, so they will be coming in the mail. I will save it for our eventual Disney trip for our daughter's graduation, which we hope will be after she graduates from college.

My husband is not happy with his job here, it's more than he bargained for, so in this case, the extra $$ is not worth it for him. I've never seen him so miserable. There are several opportunities for him to transfer back to either his old job or his former bosses job, one is happening sooner, but his old bosses job isn't opening up until the end of June. Although it's not GUARANTEED that he will get the job, his old boss called yesterday to encourage him to apply, and apparently his name has been brought up by several other higher ups, which is promising. In AK, if you move to bush AK, you get 38%-50% more than the base salary (centered in ANC) with the state. The flip side to that is it's much more expensive to live out here. Long story short, we may be moving back to our home, which is in Southcentral AK, within the next 3-4 months. We already have a house there, we've been paying rent & utilities here too, which is not cheap. I've already been trying to figure out how this would all work with the remaining 3 cc's to pay off, our daughter's wedding coming up, and our salary almost cut in 1/2, not to mention I would have to find a new job, we'd have to sell a few things here, and move again. We moved here in Sept. 2013. I'm sure it can work, but it will be a bit tricky in the beginning. I am trying to figure out how to pay down as much as possible of the cc that we are currently trying to focus on. 1) I've got to pay our tax bill now (yuck) 2) we go on our trip 3) on the way back, we are meeting with a person from retirement & benefits to ask questions in regards to my husband's upcoming retirement in 5 years 4) continue to pay down bills 5) possibly start packing & reorganizing things for our potential move.

The good thing is, we didn't bring/buy a lot of furniture for this place, the one big piece we sent here was a love seat, and we have a couple little end tables, other than our clothes and belongings. Both beds, sofa, chair, table & chairs, and one set of nightstands belong to our landlords. Even if this might seem stressful to some, and I'm sure it will have it's moments, I'm actually very excited & thrilled at the thought that we will be back with our kids/family again. We have been helping them out in since we've moved here as far as not expecting full rent, our daughter is finishing her degree in the next 1.5 years, and she has been paying it oop for the most part, with help from us occasionally. She's also been paying on her own car. Her fiance is working, just finished school, but is also starting to work part time with his dad, which they are hoping will turn into a full time thing. Our son is working as well, (they all work at the same place) and we just had a talk with him about contributing, especially with the potential changes coming up this summer. They all will be working longer hours this summer, and our daughter won't have school, so they can pay towards the household bills, whether we are moving or not.

The nice thing is, the wedding is going to be inexpensive-since they work at an events store, they will be getting all the rental equipment for free, his aunt is making the cake, another aunt owns a beautiful venue where they will get married, and they've already paid for the reception venue, which is in an old repurposed/refurbished train depot right in the cute little downtown area! They also reserved a DJ to play music, which they got at a discount since he's someone their workplace works with already. We bought her dress, which was extremely reasonable, she ordered it online, and we will be paying for the catering, which will be mexican food from a local place. We are looking forward to it!

I'm keeping an open mind, I decided there is no need to stress about all this, things will fall into place. I will keep going with our pay down plans, and even if things may be tight for a little bit and not be able to pay as much as we have been towards the bills right away, it will all work out. Looking ahead, as soon as I get a job, I am going to devote the majority of my income towards debt paydown & retirement, to get us back on track. I'm hopeful and have nervous excitement all at the same time! Wish us luck!

 

[Angeejoe]

Hi everyone, sorry I haven't responded sooner. Our youngest son is here visiting, so we've been preoccupied with him! Lots has changed in the last week. Let me preface this by saying that I know I will probably get some people giving me their opinions on our upcoming trip next month, but what's done is done, we are going regardless. It's our 24th anniversary, and we originally planned it around a Fleetwood Mac concert, (for those of you old enough to know who they are) and the air & concert tickets have long been bought (every year we get companion vouchers with AK Air that cost $160 rt which is a steal).

As far as the current cc we are working on, I haven't transferred it over to Discover yet, but am probably going to do that today. I did end up asking for the Disney rewards to be redeemed, so they will be coming in the mail. I will save it for our eventual Disney trip for our daughter's graduation, which we hope will be after she graduates from college.

My husband is not happy with his job here, it's more than he bargained for, so in this case, the extra $$ is not worth it for him. I've never seen him so miserable. There are several opportunities for him to transfer back to either his old job or his former bosses job, one is happening sooner, but his old bosses job isn't opening up until the end of June. Although it's not GUARANTEED that he will get the job, his old boss called yesterday to encourage him to apply, and apparently his name has been brought up by several other higher ups, which is promising. In AK, if you move to bush AK, you get 38%-50% more than the base salary (centered in ANC) with the state. The flip side to that is it's much more expensive to live out here. Long story short, we may be moving back to our home, which is in Southcentral AK, within the next 3-4 months. We already have a house there, we've been paying rent & utilities here too, which is not cheap. I've already been trying to figure out how this would all work with the remaining 3 cc's to pay off, our daughter's wedding coming up, and our salary almost cut in 1/2, not to mention I would have to find a new job, we'd have to sell a few things here, and move again. We moved here in Sept. 2013. I'm sure it can work, but it will be a bit tricky in the beginning. I am trying to figure out how to pay down as much as possible of the cc that we are currently trying to focus on. 1) I've got to pay our tax bill now (yuck) 2) we go on our trip 3) on the way back, we are meeting with a person from retirement & benefits to ask questions in regards to my husband's upcoming retirement in 5 years 4) continue to pay down bills 5) possibly start packing & reorganizing things for our potential move.

The good thing is, we didn't bring/buy a lot of furniture for this place, the one big piece we sent here was a love seat, and we have a couple little end tables, other than our clothes and belongings. Both beds, sofa, chair, table & chairs, and one set of nightstands belong to our landlords. Even if this might seem stressful to some, and I'm sure it will have it's moments, I'm actually very excited & thrilled at the thought that we will be back with our kids/family again. We have been helping them out in since we've moved here as far as not expecting full rent, our daughter is finishing her degree in the next 1.5 years, and she has been paying it oop for the most part, with help from us occasionally. She's also been paying on her own car. Her fiance is working, just finished school, but is also starting to work part time with his dad, which they are hoping will turn into a full time thing. Our son is working as well, (they all work at the same place) and we just had a talk with him about contributing, especially with the potential changes coming up this summer. They all will be working longer hours this summer, and our daughter won't have school, so they can pay towards the household bills, whether we are moving or not.

The nice thing is, the wedding is going to be inexpensive-since they work at an events store, they will be getting all the rental equipment for free, his aunt is making the cake, another aunt owns a beautiful venue where they will get married, and they've already paid for the reception venue, which is in an old repurposed/refurbished train depot right in the cute little downtown area! They also reserved a DJ to play music, which they got at a discount since he's someone their workplace works with already. We bought her dress, which was extremely reasonable, she ordered it online, and we will be paying for the catering, which will be mexican food from a local place. We are looking forward to it!

I'm keeping an open mind, I decided there is no need to stress about all this, things will fall into place. I will keep going with our pay down plans, and even if things may be tight for a little bit and not be able to pay as much as we have been towards the bills right away, it will all work out. Looking ahead, as soon as I get a job, I am going to devote the majority of my income towards debt paydown & retirement, to get us back on track. I'm hopeful and have nervous excitement all at the same time! Wish us luck!

This does sound like a lot changes at once, but they sound like a good change to be near family & in an area that's not as expensive to live. No matter what, good or bad, change is stressful! I'm sending you happy thoughts. Things always work themselves out in the end!

 

[gracie1]

Hi everyone, sorry I haven't responded sooner. Our youngest son is here visiting, so we've been preoccupied with him! Lots has changed in the last week. Let me preface this by saying that I know I will probably get some people giving me their opinions on our upcoming trip next month, but what's done is done, we are going regardless. It's our 24th anniversary, and we originally planned it around a Fleetwood Mac concert, (for those of you old enough to know who they are) and the air & concert tickets have long been bought (every year we get companion vouchers with AK Air that cost $160 rt which is a steal).

As far as the current cc we are working on, I haven't transferred it over to Discover yet, but am probably going to do that today. I did end up asking for the Disney rewards to be redeemed, so they will be coming in the mail. I will save it for our eventual Disney trip for our daughter's graduation, which we hope will be after she graduates from college.

My husband is not happy with his job here, it's more than he bargained for, so in this case, the extra $$ is not worth it for him. I've never seen him so miserable. There are several opportunities for him to transfer back to either his old job or his former bosses job, one is happening sooner, but his old bosses job isn't opening up until the end of June. Although it's not GUARANTEED that he will get the job, his old boss called yesterday to encourage him to apply, and apparently his name has been brought up by several other higher ups, which is promising. In AK, if you move to bush AK, you get 38%-50% more than the base salary (centered in ANC) with the state. The flip side to that is it's much more expensive to live out here. Long story short, we may be moving back to our home, which is in Southcentral AK, within the next 3-4 months. We already have a house there, we've been paying rent & utilities here too, which is not cheap. I've already been trying to figure out how this would all work with the remaining 3 cc's to pay off, our daughter's wedding coming up, and our salary almost cut in 1/2, not to mention I would have to find a new job, we'd have to sell a few things here, and move again. We moved here in Sept. 2013. I'm sure it can work, but it will be a bit tricky in the beginning. I am trying to figure out how to pay down as much as possible of the cc that we are currently trying to focus on. 1) I've got to pay our tax bill now (yuck) 2) we go on our trip 3) on the way back, we are meeting with a person from retirement & benefits to ask questions in regards to my husband's upcoming retirement in 5 years 4) continue to pay down bills 5) possibly start packing & reorganizing things for our potential move.

The good thing is, we didn't bring/buy a lot of furniture for this place, the one big piece we sent here was a love seat, and we have a couple little end tables, other than our clothes and belongings. Both beds, sofa, chair, table & chairs, and one set of nightstands belong to our landlords. Even if this might seem stressful to some, and I'm sure it will have it's moments, I'm actually very excited & thrilled at the thought that we will be back with our kids/family again. We have been helping them out in since we've moved here as far as not expecting full rent, our daughter is finishing her degree in the next 1.5 years, and she has been paying it oop for the most part, with help from us occasionally. She's also been paying on her own car. Her fiance is working, just finished school, but is also starting to work part time with his dad, which they are hoping will turn into a full time thing. Our son is working as well, (they all work at the same place) and we just had a talk with him about contributing, especially with the potential changes coming up this summer. They all will be working longer hours this summer, and our daughter won't have school, so they can pay towards the household bills, whether we are moving or not.

The nice thing is, the wedding is going to be inexpensive-since they work at an events store, they will be getting all the rental equipment for free, his aunt is making the cake, another aunt owns a beautiful venue where they will get married, and they've already paid for the reception venue, which is in an old repurposed/refurbished train depot right in the cute little downtown area! They also reserved a DJ to play music, which they got at a discount since he's someone their workplace works with already. We bought her dress, which was extremely reasonable, she ordered it online, and we will be paying for the catering, which will be mexican food from a local place. We are looking forward to it!

I'm keeping an open mind, I decided there is no need to stress about all this, things will fall into place. I will keep going with our pay down plans, and even if things may be tight for a little bit and not be able to pay as much as we have been towards the bills right away, it will all work out. Looking ahead, as soon as I get a job, I am going to devote the majority of my income towards debt paydown & retirement, to get us back on track. I'm hopeful and have nervous excitement all at the same time! Wish us luck!

Wow!! You do have a lot going on. If I read everything correctly - you have a house plus your renting a place, right? So when your husband takes the pay cut you will move back to your house and that will drop the rent your paying right now - so that's a plus! Most importantly is that your husband is happy. Working in a place that makes you miserable is absolutely not worth it in my opinion - and I did take a loss of salary and all last April to leave a job that I was miserable in. It's very scary to do and a lot of people wouldn't do it but I think it's the best decision I ever made!! Now at the time I was a wreck for the first 6 months but over came that in time!!
Things will work out and just play around with your budget now basing it on the previous salary.

 

[yupikgal]

This does sound like a lot changes at once, but they sound like a good change to be near family & in an area that's not as expensive to live. No matter what, good or bad, change is stressful! I'm sending you happy thoughts. Things always work themselves out in the end!

Thank you so much! Happy thoughts and calm thoughts are what are needed for sure. Yes, lots of changes, but doable. It will be good to have one payment for lodging & utilities again instead of two. I will keep this thead updated as much as possible~especially in regards to our potential move. It will help me to be able to release stress, worry, and since my DH doesn't want me telling any of my family (we only told our son so far) it will help relieve pressure that I would normally release by talking it over with family & friends. My current coworkers are going to be shocked & probably a bit sad if it happens, and vice versa, we will have mixed feelings as well. This is a small town with friendly people/ close knit community. Some of the other advantages are the commuting time for me is 2 minutes to work & same home for lunch, and my husband walks to work since we live right behind it! It's also pretty peaceful here, and there is some beautiful terrain/landscape, we live right near the Bering Sea, sort of like an ocean with a beach and waves rolling in. Lots of wildlife too! Well like I said, it will be bittersweet.

Thanks for listening again! Have a great weekend everyone!

 

[yupikgal]

Wow!! You do have a lot going on. If I read everything correctly - you have a house plus your renting a place, right? So when your husband takes the pay cut you will move back to your house and that will drop the rent your paying right now - so that's a plus! Most importantly is that your husband is happy. Working in a place that makes you miserable is absolutely not worth it in my opinion - and I did take a loss of salary and all last April to leave a job that I was miserable in. It's very scary to do and a lot of people wouldn't do it but I think it's the best decision I ever made!! Now at the time I was a wreck for the first 6 months but over came that in time!! Things will work out and just play around with your budget now basing it on the previous salary.

Yes I will agree we do have a lot going on! I don't recommend it for everyone for sure! Luckily we don't have little kids to move back & forth, it's just us. Yes, you are correct, we have a house there & we have been paying rent here, and they are both the same monthly amount each, ironically, although this place is tiny & 2 bedrooms/1 bath, and our house is 4 bedrooms/3 bath and almost twice the square footage. I miss my old kitchen terribly! This oven has electric top (off kilter & not easy to heat things) and the fridge is smaller & hard to fit things. At home we have a big side by side fridge and gas stove/oven.

He already seems happier just knowing there are other options out there. The change in salary will be hard at first, but honestly, we were used to it (lived in our home area for 9 years before moving here) and with the lower cost of living, that will help tremendously. Example~gallon of milk here? $6. There, $3. 1/2 the cost! Funny you mention playing with the budget, I've already created a new spreadsheet with fixed & variable costs. Hopefully the stars will align and we can get rid of our "toys" here (side by side) because that's the one thing we don't need, but enjoy having here because it's cheap on gas and is our getaway on weekends in the summer. We even drive it on the beach!

Thanks for your support, I really appreciate it!

 

[gracie1]

Yes I will agree we do have a lot going on! I don't recommend it for everyone for sure! Luckily we don't have little kids to move back & forth, it's just us. Yes, you are correct, we have a house there & we have been paying rent here, and they are both the same monthly amount each, ironically, although this place is tiny & 2 bedrooms/1 bath, and our house is 4 bedrooms/3 bath and almost twice the square footage. I miss my old kitchen terribly! This oven has electric top (off kilter & not easy to heat things) and the fridge is smaller & hard to fit things. At home we have a big side by side fridge and gas stove/oven.

He already seems happier just knowing there are other options out there. The change in salary will be hard at first, but honestly, we were used to it (lived in our home area for 9 years before moving here) and with the lower cost of living, that will help tremendously. Example~gallon of milk here? $6. There, $3. 1/2 the cost! Funny you mention playing with the budget, I've already created a new spreadsheet with fixed & variable costs. Hopefully the stars will align and we can get rid of our "toys" here (side by side) because that's the one thing we don't need, but enjoy having here because it's cheap on gas and is our getaway on weekends in the summer. We even drive it on the beach!

Thanks for your support, I really appreciate it!

Things will work out in the end! Could you go back to your old job? Glad to hear that your dh already sounds happy knowing he can go back to a different position - and you will get back closer to your family. There really is no place like home!! Feel free to vent away here!!!

 

[ruadisneyfan2]

Things will work out in the end! Could you go back to your old job? Glad to hear that your dh already sounds happy knowing he can go back to a different position - and you will get back closer to your family. There really is no place like home!! Feel free to vent away here!!!

I agree. An 8 hour shift is 1/3 of our day. If he hates it, it will make most of his waking hours miserable. Just take one day at time.

 

[yupikgal]

Things will work out in the end! Could you go back to your old job? Glad to hear that your dh already sounds happy knowing he can go back to a different position - and you will get back closer to your family. There really is no place like home!! Feel free to vent away here!!!

I am sure everything will work itself out. No, my old job is not available anymore, and truthfully, there is one particular person there that I had to work closely with before that I would not want to work with again, although I enjoyed the rest of the job. Yes DH has hope again which is something I haven't seen for a while. Family is so important! I guess it's the isolation here that can really get to me sometimes too. We are very excited to go on our trip and get away from the cold for a while too, just a little over 2 weeks! Vegas is getting hot now too, in the 80's! yikes! Time to bust out the sandals and shorts. As far as venting, I will definitely need to blow off steam in the next few months, I'm sure, because there is a lot happening and I already have sleep issues as it is. Thanks for listening!!

I agree. An 8 hour shift is 1/3 of our day. If he hates it, it will make most of his waking hours miserable. Just take one day at time.

He is good at hiding his emotions normally, but it doesn't excite him to go to work anymore. Thank goodness he has such respect within his division, and that others are rooting for him to get that job. On one hand, I'm kind of glad it's not until June that his ex boss is leaving, to give us more time to earn the higher wages, but also I would like him to hurry & apply & see what happens just to know what our future holds.

I've also been trying to imagine life here continuing as usual, in the event he doesn't get the job. I just need to keep remembering, nothing is promised. It's hard for a planner like me to do, I'm sure a lot of you can relate? I just prefer knowing what's coming around the corner! I've been trying to think that if it doesn't pan out, at least I know we can continue to put $$ towards our debt at the same pace that we have been, therefore to me it's a win-win both ways. We have also been planning a graduation trip once our daughter graduates from college, and guess where she wants to go? So lots to look forward to either way!

 

[Angeejoe]

I always put DH's change from his pockets into a jar that I find when I do laundry & roll it it prior to vacations. I honestly think I didn't do it on our cruise in Oct, I just took out lots of quarters for toll roads. Well today it was so full, I couldn't put more in, so I rolled it tonight! $120.50 !!! Woohoo! Plus I got $100 for my bday on Friday. I plan to put both in our savings this week due to the hit we took on paying taxes, I need to get the emergency fund stocked again.

 

[chabs]

I am joining in on the debt dumping for this year as well. I haven't had time to read through all of this thread, but I was wondering how close together are people closing out cards that they no longer need? I have about 6-8 smaller store cards that I've paid off over the last few months and I want to close them forever. Most of them I just opened for some type of discount, but I decided to just get down to one Visa card and use it for airline miles. I don't want to ding my credit too much-do you think closing one per month is too much? Like close one the first of every month until they are all gone or is that too close together?

 

[AlohaNow]

Welcome!

As long as you are not planning on taking out an auto loan, mortgage, etc. anytime in the near future, the little dings to your credit score will not make a huge difference. I would go with one a month. Store cards tend to not have huge credit limits, so your available credit to debt ratio would not change too much. And good on you for utilizing the airline card for everything. Yeah, use it for absolutely everything you can!

 

[ruadisneyfan2]

I am joining in on the debt dumping for this year as well. I haven't had time to read through all of this thread, but I was wondering how close together are people closing out cards that they no longer need? I have about 6-8 smaller store cards that I've paid off over the last few months and I want to close them forever. Most of them I just opened for some type of discount, but I decided to just get down to one Visa card and use it for airline miles. I don't want to ding my credit too much-do you think closing one per month is too much? Like close one the first of every month until they are all gone or is that too close together?

Personally, i don't plan to close any CCs until all of them are paid off. By this time next year we should have them all paid off with just around 3 months left to pay off dh's truck. Once we have just our mortgage I will slowly close the rest out, maybe one every 3-4 months, except the one we use for airlines points. Jmho.

 

[chabs]

Personally, i don't plan to close any CCs until all of them are paid off. By this time next year we should have them all paid off with just around 3 months left to pay off dh's truck. Once we have just our mortgage I will slowly close the rest out, maybe one every 3-4 months, except the one we use for airlines points. Jmho.

I thought about that but with all the fraud going on these days, I thought I might be better off getting rid of them sooner rather than later. Plus it will be less for me to try to manage (some cards I forgot that I even had because I haven't used them in years). Also, it will keep me from the temptation to use the cards again. I just didn't want to ding up my credit because I may need a car within a year or two.