Debt Dumpers - 2017

[Ngwira]

I'm back with renewed vigor after a spendy 2016. New (to me) car, new windows, clothes, shoes, purses... I'm ready to get back on track.

 

[arlinar]

Have my expense book ready to write in. January will be a pretty spendy month. Need to add a phone line to work from home as well as buying a computer desk and a phone/cable set. I found the phone/cable set already for $30 and might wait till the next office liquidation auction to get a desk. It will be good to finally get some income in.

Thankfully Amazon let me return some unused items from prime day and a couple months before which I can use for some office items.

 

[sweetpeama]

Since I messed up on the last pay check and ended up getting us in the hole on the bank account things are so tight right now that only the mortgage and a couple other things are getting paid on this check. I will catch them up some what on the next check and will be waiting till things get busy at DH's work and the checks get larger.
I am debating with myself about applying for a couple of jobs when I am over being sick, but since the last time I applied for one I found out 3 weeks later when I called to see if it was still open that they had hired someone that day. My references were never checked and I will always wonder if it was because of my weight that I did not get the position since the assistant on duty was excited that I wanted to work the hours they needed someone.

 

[Eoywin]

My main goal is to dump a lot of debt in 2017!

Pay off and get rid of 2 credit cards and pay down the rest.

I also have a lot of medical bills I need to get rid of

 

[bababear_50]

First Day of a New Year!
Best wishes to everyone debt dumping and Saving this year!
Hugs Mel

 

[Miss Whimsy]

here we go!

 

[ruadisneyfan2]

Happy New Year everyone!!


We are still chugging along and have made great progress on the Parent Plus loan. If you recall, the interest rate was close to 7% which just the thought of made me sick. So last summer we transferred $8k to dh's Disney visa and the rest to mine. It was 2% BT fee but then 0% until July & Oct.
I've been paying on dh's because his is the July expiration and got it down to $2500. It should be gone by mid February. Can't wait!!

 

[hmack]

Happy New Year, everyone.

I'll report soon with my total cc debt. We'll call it my starting line, but I know that knowledge is power.

 

[amalone1013]

Here we go! Happy New Year to everyone!

2017 starting balances:
Student Loans - $12560 + $2075+ $12685 = $27,320
Car Loans - $22034 + $18100 = $40,134
Net Worth - $21213 +2321 $ = +$23534

2017 goals:

• Pay off two student loans each before our wedding this Fall (we have budgeted to each pay $300 extra per month, then we take any extra income from the month, divide it in half, and add it to that $300)
• Work on eating out less - that's our budget buster
• Save up enough for Wedding/Honeymoon costs, and hopefully come in under budget
• Save $15,000 towards a house
• Increase DF's 401k contribution, and move my old 401k (~$1000) to an IRA (then maybe I'll decrease my 401k contributions in order to max that out...)
• Make a Christmas budget
• Get all financial stuff straightened out after getting married - combine accounts, etc. At least our best efforts... we'll have a few months after until the end of the year.
• Be more active on this thread

2016 recap: http://disboards.com/threads/debt-dumpers-2016.3470092/page-164#post-56872538


These numbers/goals represent me and DF. We use YNAB to keep track of combined finances even though we haven't officially combined accounts. I just updated our car values this morning... Never buying a new car again, seriously. I can give you the stories... I need a new car ASAP... could not find what I wanted in used cars... decided I'd drive the thing forever (it's a Toyota, I'm driving it until it falls apart like a cartoon car)... and let's say DF did not do his research before heading to the dealership... But all of this talk does not make the balances any lower Christmas was a chunk of change, and we didn't have a budget to stick too, but December was a three paycheck month for us both so we did okay.

I already know we'll hit the two student loans each goal, because we should each pay off a loan this week... Thanks to December being six paychecks, and me working most weekends since mid-October. That will take around $100 off of our minimum payments total. The OT trend is going to continue, so we'll have some more extra income. My spreadsheet projected that just making the normal $300 extra we would hit this goal (which we came up with about 6 months ago), so we should come in early. Then we have to decide if we keep paying extra on loans, or switch to a car - we save a bit more staying with loans because they have higher interest rates (it works out to around $1500 total over seven years), but the total payments would be around $200 a month and the cars currently take up $800 a month, so knocking out a car would free up more cash. I know that is what DF leaning towards, and it'll be easier to funnel extra money towards one account once everything is combined. Just have to make sure we can stick with it, since it's a large amount and having to stop part way won't knock down that monthly payment.

As for the Wedding/Honeymoon (and House) costs, we've got monthly savings goals that get us to our budget, but hopefully we'll come in a little under on the wedding. The honeymoon I'm pretty sure we'll be under on because we put some wedding expenses on credit cards (then paid off with cash) to earn some free hotel nights, plus free flights. I'd like to knock a bit more off though We've also got a quick trip to WDW at the end of January, and are currently below budget... I'm hoping what we saved here will cover if we overspend, since it'll be our first trip to WDW. And we're using Christmas money for souvenirs, which won't count - I'm determined we won't go over the original budget! It will be like practice for the honeymoon...

 

[lemonsours]

I just signed up for the free month trial of YNAB. Now, I am a smart person, (2 Bachelor's degrees, some masters work, and 3 years of software support experience in my long ago life!) but I am just not getting it. I know a lot of you use the program, but a lot of you don't, so I don't want to bog down the board with my questions. Is there a forum somewhere else for YNAB users that might be helpful for me? I'm just not understanding the concept. Credit Card debt, for example. It says to add it as an account, but when I do that, the column makes my budget way negative, and on the monthly budget the monthly payment is green, but I can't figure out how to indicate what has been paid and what hasn't, how to enter the due date, or indicate I paid more. The software says to add transactions, but it just seems like duplicating the work I've already done. Thanks for any help you can give me.

 

[Jen and Ashwin]

I just signed up for the free month trial of YNAB. Now, I am a smart person, (2 Bachelor's degrees, some masters work, and 3 years of software support experience in my long ago life!) but I am just not getting it. I know a lot of you use the program, but a lot of you don't, so I don't want to bog down the board with my questions. Is there a forum somewhere else for YNAB users that might be helpful for me? I'm just not understanding the concept. Credit Card debt, for example. It says to add it as an account, but when I do that, the column makes my budget way negative, and on the monthly budget the monthly payment is green, but I can't figure out how to indicate what has been paid and what hasn't, how to enter the due date, or indicate I paid more. The software says to add transactions, but it just seems like duplicating the work I've already done. Thanks for any help you can give me.

First, I would recommend signing up for some (or all) of the online classes. I found them very helpful when getting started. I also read through the getting started guide.

So you first need to set up your budget and then, as you spend money, you will add your spending transactions in so that you know exactly how much of your budget has been spent and how much money you have remaining. Without entering your transactions, your budget will not be up to date and you won't know how much money you actually have available to spend at any given time. It takes a little time to set up all of your budget categories at first so that they work for you, but once you have done that, it gets to be a lot less work. For me, it takes about 30 seconds to 1 minute at the start of the month to set up our entire budget and allocate our paychecks to each category. For most categories, I have set up funding goals, so I just click on the category and then on the menu on the right side I just click, "Goal Target." It automatically takes money from my "To be budgeted" and puts it into that category.

When you spend money with a credit card and have entered the transactions into your budget, the program removes those funds from your budget category and shifts them into your "available" balance for your credit card. This ensures that you have that money set aside to pay your credit card expenses when you get the next statement.

And when you pay your credit card statement, you will treat that like other transactions and enter it into your budget. Usually, a credit card payment will be a transfer from one account to another, so for example, when I pay my Chase Sapphire credit card, I go into my checking account and put the payee as, "Transfer : Chase Sapphire" then enter the amount that I am paying. This will then remove the funds from my checking account and credit it towards the balance on my credit card, lowering my balance by that much.

It does have a bit of a learning curve at first, but I was able to pick it up really quickly, especially after taking all of the online classes. Keep working at it because this program is extremely powerful and has really allowed us to better control our finances.

 

[lemonsours]

First, I would recommend signing up for some (or all) of the online classes. I found them very helpful when getting started. I also read through the getting started guide.



It does have a bit of a learning curve at first, but I was able to pick it up really quickly, especially after taking all of the online classes. Keep working at it because this program is extremely powerful and has really allowed us to better control our finances.

Thank you for the class suggestion, I will look for those. The getting started guide wasn't helping a whole lot, in part because I wasn't thinking about the transaction part of it the right way. I really want the software to work for us. Right now I finally have a system for keeping track of the bills and getting them paid on time, but we don't have a grasp on long term plans. We are making minimum payments and trying to stay afloat.

 

[Jen and Ashwin]

Thank you for the class suggestion, I will look for those. The getting started guide wasn't helping a whole lot, in part because I wasn't thinking about the transaction part of it the right way. I really want the software to work for us. Right now I finally have a system for keeping track of the bills and getting them paid on time, but we don't have a grasp on long term plans. We are making minimum payments and trying to stay afloat.

You can find the classes here:

https://www.youneedabudget.com/workshops/

They have lots of different topics. Though not all of them were super relevant to us, we still watched them all because we wanted to learn as much as possible. If the transactions don't quite make sense yet, watching the, "Get Started and Prioritize" workshop first should help. The workshops are live and interactive, which is great if you have questions. DH and I watched most of them together and found that helpful.

 

[megveg]

Okay. Im really new here and am just gonna put it out there.

Im a 27 yo female and i currently have 7800 in car loan left, 2 CCs that are maxed around 1000 total, about 400 in old health debt, plus recurring monthly stuff like gas, phone, utilities. im losing my current job in march and will go back to an old job for less money. I want to get lasik and braces/fixed teeth before the end of 2018 and also build my own tiny house and trade my car for a truck to pull it. I have very specific goals of eventually becoming a jan-april FLA resident then april - dec in MA where I live now. eventually ill build a home in MA but I need to crush my debt before anything else happens.

my goals arent too far out of reach but i need to actually focus and work on them rather than know my goals exist but keep buying wine and say "oh yeah ill get to it eventually"

2017 is THE YEAR.

 

[ruadisneyfan2]

Since I messed up on the last pay check and ended up getting us in the hole on the bank account things are so tight right now that only the mortgage and a couple other things are getting paid on this check. I will catch them up some what on the next check and will be waiting till things get busy at DH's work and the checks get larger.
I am debating with myself about applying for a couple of jobs when I am over being sick, but since the last time I applied for one I found out 3 weeks later when I called to see if it was still open that they had hired someone that day. My references were never checked and I will always wonder if it was because of my weight that I did not get the position since the assistant on duty was excited that I wanted to work the hours they needed someone.

Don't give up and keep wondering why you didn't get the job. Keep applying; eventually something will stick.

 

[ruadisneyfan2]

Okay. Im really new here and am just gonna put it out there.

Im a 27 yo female and i currently have 7800 in car loan left, 2 CCs that are maxed around 1000 total, about 400 in old health debt, plus recurring monthly stuff like gas, phone, utilities. im losing my current job in march and will go back to an old job for less money. I want to get lasik and braces/fixed teeth before the end of 2018 and also build my own tiny house and trade my car for a truck to pull it. I have very specific goals of eventually becoming a jan-april FLA resident then april - dec in MA where I live now. eventually ill build a home in MA but I need to crush my debt before anything else happens.

my goals arent too far out of reach but i need to actually focus and work on them rather than know my goals exist but keep buying wine and say "oh yeah ill get to it eventually"

2017 is THE YEAR.

Well, I can only speak for myself but I have done well following Dave Ramsey's snowball method. I didn't buy any of his products. You can google him but here's the quick & dirty version.
First save up $1000 for an emergency fund and keep it in a bank account that is reachable, but not super easy to access (as with an ATM card). This is for when the microwave dies, your pet has an unexpected high vet bill, car battery dies, etc. This will not cover EVERY emergency, and some prefer to make this a higher amount, but it will keep you from reaching for a cc when unexpected expenses arise. Mine is around $900 right now and I'm fine with that.
Second, list all of your debts from smallest to largest, ignore interest rates. If you have a promotional balance transfer or a bill with a very specific deadline to have it paid off in order to avoid some dire financial consequences, I'd put that one at the top.
Otherwise, take the bill with the smallest balance and attack it with all you have. Of course, still keep paying your recurring monthly utilities. Technically, they are not a debt. More like a life sentence. lol.

For all the other debts, keep paying the minimum payment while attacking the one at the top of your list. From your list, that would be the $400 health care bill.
Once it's paid off, apply the funds that you were paying toward it onto debt #2 on your list. Call it cc "A" This payment should now be a higher amount since it's like combining min payment on the health care bill, plus min payment on cc "A", plus any extra you can throw at it.
Once that's paid off, move onto to 3rd debt, cc "B". By then it will be less than $1000 from making min payments. Attack that with the min payment from health care bill, min payment from cc "A", min payment from cc "B" plus anything extra you can throw at it.

I found that what worked for me to keep me disciplined and not have it all just swimming around in our checking account and letting it become extra spending money, was to send the extra payment to the bill I am currently attacking at the same time (with the same paycheck) I would have paid those funds to its original bill.
For example, my Amazon cc bill was $75 minimum, paid each month with the paycheck on the 1st Thursday of the month. Once the Amazon bill was paid off, I was paying down dh's truck. Even though the truck payment was $500 taken from the 2nd Thursday of the month, I still paid the $75 Amazon money toward the truck on the 1st Thurs. Then the 2nd Thurs I would make the regular payment. The only thing that changed was who gets that $75. This allowed me to really "see" online how much extra was going toward the truck and where it's coming from.
I hope I'm making sense. This is all easy to do if you pay your bills online. If I had to mail in a check with the tear away coupon, I'd never have gotten so much accomplished. Even if I have $5 or 10 leftover the day before payday, I throw that extra bit toward whatever bill I'm attacking.

So as more & more bills get paid off, your monthly debt payment gets larger & larger, hence the name snowball method.

All the while, the same amount of money comes in and goes out, just the names have changed. By the time you get to the bill with the highest balance, let's say your car payment, your snowball is pretty big and takes some big bites out of that largest debt.

It may seem to make more sense to begin with the highest interest rate first. The reason Dave Ramsey suggests starting with the smallest bill first is that those are usually not huge and relatively easy to knock out. Mentally, this gives us a quick win, keeping us motivated to stay in the game & not give up. Back before I found this thread, I would send a little extra to each bill & still feeling like I was making no progress at all.

Don't let any setbacks keep you down. Hop right back in the saddle and keep moving forward. I found that in the beginning, even after paying off a couple bills, I had to lower my snowball amount. Sending too much $ toward debt (in my excitement) was leaving me too lean in other areas so there's a learning curve to what is the "just right" amount to put toward debt.

Good luck!!

 

[s3058]

Day 2 of 2017 and I have already hit a snag My sister have very very generously offered to pay 500 towards me going to NYC with her later this year. I had not budgeted or planned for this trip though and I'll need to get about 1100 to cover flights, hotel and an event ticket. We're planning 6 days so my aim is to get about 1500 between now and June, the trip will be in October so I'll still have time to build up savings between June and then, I just want to have it all paid off (she's already booked it and paid so the debt is to her) and have at least the 400 spending money which is the minimum I would feel comfortable with.

As well as that she has also booked us 2 nights in DLP for March (I'm starting to think she wants me to be broke this year! ) She paid for me but I'm going to pay her back even though she says she doesn't want it. We got free full board and we have airport transfers prepaid so the only money I'll need is emergency and souvenir money. I have nearly 100 in Swagbucks I'm going to cash our for paypal and 60 in my change jar that will cover most of this and I already have paid my travel insurance for the year too so all future trips are covered under that. I am an eu citizen so in France I'm already covered for medical expenses so there wouldn't be a panic there anyway.

So starting balances:
NYC Trip: 1500
Paris Trip: 400

Total Debt: €1900

I started this year with no debt and 2 days later have nearly 2000! Its all for good things though!

 

[fifthdimensiondweller]

Don't let any setbacks keep you down.

THIS! Really great advice to keep in mind as we get started! I know for me, It's so easy to let a surprise car repair or unexpected vet bill knock me off track, making me feel like all the progress I made is "gone", but if we can keep on track no matter what it will be a great year!!

 

[fifthdimensiondweller]

Its all for good things though!

Absolutely! DLP and New York will be so much fun! Well worth it and a great incentive to keep on track with other areas of your budget!

 

[Miss Whimsy]

Its all for good things though!

yeah those trips sound awesome!

last night the BF and I decided to go on a proper vacation this year, since we didn't last year. (we had one planned for 2016, but we canceled it to devote the funds to keeping our beloved pet alive for a few more months). we went to a friend's wedding and turned it into a long weekend, which was fun, but I want a proper, week+, long vacation. so we're tentatively planning for August (the month we both tend to be able to take time off). our current thought is to do the drive up/down the West coast that we had wanted to do last year. starting or ending at Disneyland!

I suggested this to my budget this morning and YNAB was kind of like "really?" but I think we can make it work.