Debt Dumpers - 2015

[DisneyMandC]

This isn't necessarily a "debt dumping" question, but I figured one of you might have some ideas. Have any of you filed "married filing separately" on your tax returns? Is it a real pain, or any significant problems? DH and I are going to have to file separately because I have SIGNIFICANT student loan debt that is based on my income. If DH and I were to file together, my monthly student loan payment would more than double and be unsustainable. We can avoid that by filing separately. I know we then don't get some of the benefits of filing jointly, but our incomes our almost identical currently and therefore I don't think we'd really get much of a refund based on that.

 

[Angeejoe]

This isn't necessarily a "debt dumping" question, but I figured one of you might have some ideas. Have any of you filed "married filing separately" on your tax returns? Is it a real pain, or any significant problems? DH and I are going to have to file separately because I have SIGNIFICANT student loan debt that is based on my income. If DH and I were to file together, my monthly student loan payment would more than double and be unsustainable. We can avoid that by filing separately. I know we then don't get some of the benefits of filing jointly, but our incomes our almost identical currently and therefore I don't think we'd really get much of a refund based on that.

We've done both over our 14yrs, but our CPA runs the numbers both ways & tells us which is best that year. If you normally do the taxes yourself, I'd say this year may be the year to see a professional if you think there may be a substantial difference.

 

[DisneyMandC]

We've done both over our 14yrs, but our CPA runs the numbers both ways & tells us which is best that year. If you normally do the taxes yourself, I'd say this year may be the year to see a professional if you think there may be a substantial difference.

Yeah, I'm thinking that might be a good idea as well. I know that I can't deduct student loan interest if we file separately, but the deduction for that wouldn't even come close to touching what I'd pay in student loans. We're hoping to pay DH's car off early next year and maybe knock out his student loan since he just has one small one, and then we could conceivably file jointly and up my payment with the extra cash flow. If (when) I have a new job next year, I'm assuming our salaries will have a greater difference between them in which case it may also be beneficial to file jointly for the following year.

 

[gracie1]

Hi Everyone!
Whew, life has been busy lately.
I am finally done my Christmas shopping except a few stocking stuffers, and I'm happy to say that I saved for it all in advance except around $300 which I funneled from our snowball last week. What a great feeling to be financially prepared for Christmas for once in my life.

Also in the last month I sent Chase a letter requesting to pay our own taxes and insurance instead of having an escrow account. It was approved and they mailed our escrow balance! Yay! Not that it earns a huge amount of interest but at least the little bit it does earn is ours, not theirs. I added another Capital One 360 savings account named Escrow. Once you're a 360 customer, it takes about 5 seconds to add another account online. So now I just transfer to that instead of giving Chase all that extra $. Yay!


We took a little long weekend trip to WDW last week. We haven't been for Christmas since right after 9/11. Ds15 was only 1.5. I couldn't pass it up. Flights were only $60 pp down and $5 to return with SWA points. We snagged the YC through Orbitz so besides Disney's 30% off discount, we got another 15% off by using an Orbitz promo code. So we flew down on Friday the 4th after work, crashed at the Hyatt because of our 11:30pm arrival, then headed onto ME in the morning. Only 3 park days but with hoppers we sure squeezed a lot in. By the 3rd day we were ready to drop. We sure don't have the stamina for park touring like we did when our kids were little! Flew home Tues the 8th in the afternoon. Our 16 yr old niece joined us again and she had only been to WDW once at age 6. We really tried to show her as much as possible in the short time we had. Overall it was a great trip. I really wish we could have had at least 1 pool day. They offer such great activities it's a shame to miss so much of that too and feels good to just relax in the sun. Maybe next time.

Of course Murphy felt he's been away too long and stopped by to visit. Our washer is on life support. It's probably 5-8 yrs old so I guess that's pretty good for modern appliances. I considered getting it fixed because so many people I know complain about their HE-type washers and how they don't use enough water to really clean clothes & how it takes an hour per load. Reviews I was reading on Best Buy & Sears all sounded the same. Meh.
I stumbled onto Speed Queen which gets 5 star reviews on Amazon and everywhere that sells them. So for once I'm excited to do laundry this weekend. We'll see if it's really as wonderful as everyone says. Can't wait for delivery.

What sucks is that this month we get 3 paychecks and since I keep a list of bills for each check, this one has relatively very little I have to set aside for other stuff. I had planned to make a big truck payment but now a good chunk of that will have to pay for the washer. At least I don't have to dip into the emergency fund. Even if I did, I'd still have to replenish it which will take away from future snowballing so either way it has to come from the snowball.
Oh well, stuff happens. At least we're all healthy and doing ok.

I'll have to recalculate our payoff dates but before the washer died we would have had the truck paid off by St. Patty's Day and our 0% vacation card paid off in May. That leaves us with just a mortgage! yay!
(Well, and ds18's Parent Plus loans for college which we're paying for now but hopefully not forever.) So I guess, still not technically debt-free but as close as we've ever been.

One last thing. Our HS kids are required by the state to take a semester class called Financial Literacy. Ds18 took it in 10th grade. From what he explained it seemed mostly about investing & compounding interest (earning it and paying it through debt). Later, he said he regretted taking it so young and wished he took it his senior year; he would have appreciated it more. So for graduation I got him this.
http://www.amazon.com/Didnt-They-Teach-This-School/dp/1481027565/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1450236953&sr=1-1&keywords=why+didn't+they+teach+me+this+in+school
He still hasn't read it.

Just keep swimming!

Wow!! You have been busy!! Last year when my washer died I got the he and I have no problems with the clothes getting clean - but I completely agree that it takes about 60 minutes to wash a load on regular settings. There is a speed wash that I sometimes use on towels but it definitely seems to take longer than my old one!! Glad you had a great time in disney - and just think that even if you have to push things back a couple months that by mid next year you will only have a mortgage!!
That's also another reason I stopped the escrow because I can earn my little 2 cents a month interest instead of letting the bank get it!

 

[gracie1]

Thank you! I actually had some good news right after I posted this. I got a call from a company I submitted my resume to! The owner said they were having a meeting soon to discuss the possibility of hiring new people, so he said he'll give me a call after Christmas to let me know what they decide. So here's hoping I get some good news from that!

That is awesome!! Hoping that you hear from them after Christmas! That would be a great Christmas gift!!

 

[gracie1]

I've never gone to see the Osborne Lights & now I'm sad that I'll never get to see them. On my December 2013 trip, I had hoped to, DHS was our 1st park on arrival day, my nephew fell asleep during Fantasmic & my sister didn't have a stroller, so she needed help back to WL. I kept thinking I'd go back on my own one night when he went to bed early since I had an AP, it never happened. I really regret it now. Was it so awesome?

If you don't mind me asking why do you think you will never get to see them? I didn't know if it was just because you have no wdw plans in sight or have no one to travel with and won't travel by yourself? It's my dream to go to wdw in December to see everything. And there is a possibility that it may happen next year! who knows!!

 

[DisneyMandC]

Wow!! You have been busy!! Last year when my washer died I got the he and I have no problems with the clothes getting clean - but I completely agree that it takes about 60 minutes to wash a load on regular settings. There is a speed wash that I sometimes use on towels but it definitely seems to take longer than my old one!! Glad you had a great time in disney - and just think that even if you have to push things back a couple months that by mid next year you will only have a mortgage!!
That's also another reason I stopped the escrow because I can earn my little 2 cents a month interest instead of letting the bank get it!

So we just moved to our new house and they left their washer and dryer for us. I don't know that it's technically "HE" but it is much newer than my old one. You have to put all the clothes in, dry, with the detergent, and then once you close the lid it locks and starts putting water in. It seems so weird to me putting pods or detergent on dry clothes, but I don't see any other way to make it work. Is this how the new washers work? And it DEFINITELY takes longer.

 

[PrincessKymm]

Hi guys,

Little update. I feel like I've lived a year in the last two weeks, yeesh. I have not resigned from my job yet- I feel like I've failed you all after saying I was! After a lot of careful consideration, tears, and some anti-anxiety meds, I'm going to try to tough it out a little bit longer. I've had a lot of contacts take my resume, and I'm just hoping something pulls through before too long. My coworker revealed to me that he has been facing the same type of abuse from my boss, which is awful, but at least now I really feel like it's not just me, it's definitely my boss. It is tough to come here everyday, but I am taking steps to remind myself of what I'm working for (mainly my horses and another Disney vacation, which is shockingly motivating). In the meantime, DH and I have decided we're going to get serious about the title of this thread and dump as much of our debt as possible in case something does hit the fan. I'm going to get serious, sit down with You Need a Budget, and start by throwing everything we've got at DH's car payment. It's not the Dave Ramsey method of tackling the smallest payment first, but it's the one that hurts our bank account the most and the main one of substantial concern to me. Our other debts are student loans.

So here goes nothing goes, I'm going to try to really "adult" here and hopefully I'm going to have some good progress for the 2016 portion of this thread and knock out that debt.

Good luck!!!!!!

 

[DisneyMandC]

Good luck!!!!!!

Thanks! I'm still so excited for you and your new job and you're little break you're getting!

 

[gracie1]

So we just moved to our new house and they left their washer and dryer for us. I don't know that it's technically "HE" but it is much newer than my old one. You have to put all the clothes in, dry, with the detergent, and then once you close the lid it locks and starts putting water in. It seems so weird to me putting pods or detergent on dry clothes, but I don't see any other way to make it work. Is this how the new washers work? And it DEFINITELY takes longer.

I have no idea about that. Mine when you turn it on the water comes out with the lid open like normal.

 

[dayvewc]

If you don't mind me asking why do you think you will never get to see them? I didn't know if it was just because you have no wdw plans in sight or have no one to travel with and won't travel by yourself? It's my dream to go to wdw in December to see everything. And there is a possibility that it may happen next year! who knows!!

This is the last year for the Osbourne Lights. They kind of snuck it in right before they opened them that the 20th anniversary would be the last. And that's this year.

 

[ruadisneyfan2]

Wasn't directed at me, but YES IT WAS!!!

I think what I told some other people was that they should sell their kids on the black market and use the money to go see the Osbourne Lights. They can always have more kids, but the lights are worth seeing.

I've been searching for Frontier's $15 flights ever since we returned.
I'd love to go Sat am til Sun pm just to see the lights. Dh thinks I'm nuts.
The kicker is that dh and ds15 were tired of walking & hopping so they went back to the room by 8pm and I went just with our niece.
Oh well. It's an excuse to go back next year.
They say this is the last year but my friend was told it would be moved to Epcot next year. We'll see.

 

[gracie1]

This is the last year for the Osbourne Lights. They kind of snuck it in right before they opened them that the 20th anniversary would be the last. And that's this year.

Really? I didn't know that. What a bummer!! So what will they do next? I'm surprised that they would stop it since it attracts so many people.

 

[Angeejoe]

If you don't mind me asking why do you think you will never get to see them? I didn't know if it was just because you have no wdw plans in sight or have no one to travel with and won't travel by yourself? It's my dream to go to wdw in December to see everything. And there is a possibility that it may happen next year! who knows!!

This is the last year for the Osborne Lights!!!

 

[Angeejoe]

Really? I didn't know that. What a bummer!! So what will they do next? I'm surprised that they would stop it since it attracts so many people.

I bet it's because of all the construction that's going on over there & there's been rumors that the Streets of America may be removed, who really knows.

 

[DisneyMandC]

I'm getting ready to jump on the YNAB bandwagon after hearing so many great things. Once I buy and download the software, is there a way to share it with another computer? DH is going to download it on his computer, but I'd like to have it on mine as well.

 

[Alexle2007]

So we just moved to our new house and they left their washer and dryer for us. I don't know that it's technically "HE" but it is much newer than my old one. You have to put all the clothes in, dry, with the detergent, and then once you close the lid it locks and starts putting water in. It seems so weird to me putting pods or detergent on dry clothes, but I don't see any other way to make it work. Is this how the new washers work? And it DEFINITELY takes longer.

Yes, you are supposed to toss the pod in with the clothes, shut the door and start the washer on the front-load HE washers. Mine will not start if the door is ajar. And if I forgot something and need to toss it in, I have to wait for the click to open the door. I think it depends on the washer. mine has lots of different settings and they vary in time. The one I typically use takes 47 minutes but there are at least 2 other settings that take much less time.

 

[momtosam]

OT, but I've got to say I am SO excited to go see Star Wars tomorrow night! I don't even feel guilty about the splurge because we bought the tickets way before DH got laid off. Now I'm trying to avoid social media for any spoilers... Anyone else going tomorrow night?

 

[gracie1]

OT, but I've got to say I am SO excited to go see Star Wars tomorrow night! I don't even feel guilty about the splurge because we bought the tickets way before DH got laid off. Now I'm trying to avoid social media for any spoilers... Anyone else going tomorrow night?

i hope you have a great time!! I have to admit I've never really watched Star Wars. I did try but just couldn't get into it! But I love watching the people that are!!!

 

[dayvewc]

They say this is the last year but my friend was told it would be moved to Epcot next year. We'll see.

Really? I didn't know that. What a bummer!! So what will they do next? I'm surprised that they would stop it since it attracts so many people.

This is the last year for the Osborne Lights!!!

I bet it's because of all the construction that's going on over there & there's been rumors that the Streets of America may be removed, who really knows.

I certainly hope it gets moved somewhere. Even if they partition it out to several different places and resorts instead of just one big attraction. I don't think it would be quite as stunning that way, but it would definitely still be worth seeing.

And yeah, the rumors I've read on a couple of the Disney sites are saying that it is due to the expected construction for Star Wars land and there not being any guarantee for Streets of America remaining. Which I think would be another big loss.