Debt Dumpers - 2016

[ruadisneyfan2]

LOL....I quit celebrating my birthday a few years ago. I'd do the focus group!

Me too! I once took of work on my birthday to catch up on housework.
I didn't plan for it to happen that way but we had so many obligations every weekend for a while leading up to my birthday, my house actually skeeved me out. It just so happened to be the only available day to take on our work calendar.
Definitely not a fun birthday but very productive. Once the kids left for school, I cranked up the stereo and sang along while scrubbing & mopping.
We usually just go out to dinner for all of our birthdays. Kind of an excuse to not cook.
As long as I didn't have to take off work, I'd do the focus group and put that $100 right on whatever debt you're working on.
$100 for 2.5 hours of your time? That's $40/hour.

I should look into these. Where did you say you found this focus group? Have you done any yet? I think I'd be a little creeped out to just show up at some "meeting place" alone. Can you bring somebody?

 

[ruadisneyfan2]

Checking in. Not too much exciting to report. Paid one Cc off, and about $850 in medical bills that make me cranky to even think about...but at least they're gone. Transferred other CC to zero interest until next April, so as long as I pay a minimum of 310 a month for that time it'll be gone. Stuck a chunk in savings for future big bills. I am working on figuring out handling our next big expenses--braces, times two!! Insurance only pays $1,500 per mouth and that's it. I'm hearing to expect $6,000 so $9,000 out of pocket??? Yikes.

I feel your pain. My kids both went into braces the same day. Our dental ins covered $2000 lifetime max. Braces were $6000 each. This was 3 years ago. Here is what we did and maybe this would work for you too.
Ever since ds15 was 7 he was seeing the orth every 6 months. Finally one May we were told he was ready to start or we could wait until Nov. We delayed slightly getting them on because the down payment was $1500 per child with monthly payments of approx. $90-108 per child each month x 24 months interest free with OrthoBank.
In the meantime our older ds, who used to have perfect teeth, was starting to have teeth shift a lot and it was very noticeable.
So that fall we both signed up for the max deduction on our FSA which is $2500 from my pay and $2500 from dh's. They give us a visa card for qualifying spending and 100% of the funds are available to use beginning Jan 1. They went into braces on MLK day. I had OrthoBank bill our FSA card each month. I can't say it was easy because our paychecks were smaller with both of us deducting the max but:
we didn't pay fed taxes on that income
we didn't have to scrape up the down payment
we didn't have to worry about paying the bill on time. (it's automatic)

Ds19 got his off last spring and ds15 was just told today he can get his off! Yay! Good luck to you!

 

[Dentam]

@Dentam cars are such a friggin' PITA! Glad it seems to be going ok now but smart to still get it checked out when you have the time. As for the focus group, while the $100 would be nice, I wouldn't want to spend 2+ hours of my birthday in one either - unless it was about CAKE I've still ignored getting tires for my car because I'm annoyed about it all. DH says I probably can wait to replace them later in the Spring or summer since the weather is, theoretically, getting better!

It started acting up on the way home from the store today and I had to pull over and turn it off, then restart it. It continued to run horribly the rest of the way home, so I will be taking it in this Friday on my day off. I really hope it is a simple enough fix that I can get another year out of it! It currently has 155k miles so I feel like another year isn't too much to ask of it!

Yeah, I really just don't want to deal with that on my birthday. Politics usually get heated and I try to stay out of the fray most of the time. But yes, if it was about cake I'd be all over it - especially if taste testing was involved!

Hooray for the DL trip!! We will be there next month - can't wait!

 

[Ava]

If anyone wants to be shocked by rent amounts, check out NYC. Thank god our apartment is rent stabilized, which means the housing authority determines the % increase allowed each year. We pay just under $1800/month for a 1400 sq ft 2-bedroom. It's a very large apartment for Brooklyn, and is also considered a good deal at that price. It's really hard to find any decent 2-bedroom for under $2000/month here.

@DisneyMandC I think you're right about student loan interest. I graduated in 2003 and the interest on my loans was between 2-3%. My total amount was also less than $20K, and my payment was $125/month from the time I graduated until I paid it off at the end of last year. I can't imagine paying over $1000/month in loan payments, especially right after graduation. Yikes!

I should look into these. Where did you say you found this focus group? Have you done any yet? I think I'd be a little creeped out to just show up at some "meeting place" alone. Can you bring somebody?

I've been doing focus groups for years through a few different companies in my area, and its not creepy at all. They are usually held in an office building or conference room at a hotel, and its a group of people all meeting together so you aren't like, alone in a room with the administrator or anything. For the ones I've done, you go to the building, sign in with a receptionist, and they usually have beverages & snacks available for you while you wait. Its all very professional and nothing to be concerned about going to alone.

Back to debt dumping... I think I am going to go ahead and pay off (or at least pay down by half) my last CC. I have most of the money set aside from my property sale, and I was going to just keep that in an account until the 0% interest promotion on the card is up next year and try to pay down the card with regular funds, but I think having that card nearly maxed out is affecting my credit score. I wanted to apply for a new credit card (for a sign-up bonus) so I checked my score with CapitalOne's Credit Tracker tool, and its lower than I thought it was. Its still over 700, so not bad, but I used the feature on the credit tracker to run different scenarios and it estimated that if I pay off that card my score will go up by over 80 points. I liked the idea of keeping that money as a temporary emergency fund while I built up more savings but I have another about $2500 as a true emergency fund. I could also take the $100/month that I pay toward the card and redirect it to the EF. Maybe I will pay off half the balance on the card with the savings and keep half as emergency $. Its so hard to decide, parting with large sums of money (even if it is to pay off debt) makes me nervous.

 

[Dentam]

Me too! I once took of work on my birthday to catch up on housework.
I didn't plan for it to happen that way but we had so many obligations every weekend for a while leading up to my birthday, my house actually skeeved me out. It just so happened to be the only available day to take on our work calendar.
Definitely not a fun birthday but very productive. Once the kids left for school, I cranked up the stereo and sang along while scrubbing & mopping.
We usually just go out to dinner for all of our birthdays. Kind of an excuse to not cook.
As long as I didn't have to take off work, I'd do the focus group and put that $100 right on whatever debt you're working on.
$100 for 2.5 hours of your time? That's $40/hour.

I should look into these. Where did you say you found this focus group? Have you done any yet? I think I'd be a little creeped out to just show up at some "meeting place" alone. Can you bring somebody?

I've already done one focus group and got paid $150 for two hours of my time. I wasn't actually a shoe in for this one - they ask you a series of questions to see if you qualify for fitting into the panel they're looking for. I stopped her after the first question since it was about politics and healthcare. As for the location, it is downtown here in a high rise building with an amazing view of the city and mountains. I have no reservations about going there again and I'm sure it's beautiful at night. The room has windows on two sides and drinks and snacks were provided. I'd do a search for focus groups in your area to see what is available.

 

[Dentam]

If anyone wants to be shocked by rent amounts, check out NYC. Thank god our apartment is rent stabilized, which means the housing authority determines the % increase allowed each year. We pay just under $1800/month for a 1400 sq ft 2-bedroom. It's a very large apartment for Brooklyn, and is also considered a good deal at that price. It's really hard to find any decent 2-bedroom for under $2000/month here.

This is pretty comparable to rents in my area right now. There is a new apt complex a few blocks from me charging $2500/month for a two bedroom! It makes it tough when the cost of living is so high yet pay rates don't increase to keep up. My city was just named the best in the country to live so that's not helping. It's very popular and housing costs are reflecting that.

 

[Ava]

This is pretty comparable to rents in my area right now. There is a new apt complex a few blocks from me charging $2500/month for a two bedroom! It makes it tough when the cost of living is so high yet pay rates don't increase to keep up. My city was just named the best in the country to live so that's not helping. It's very popular and housing costs are reflecting that.

Oh yeah, new luxury high-rise buildings charge $3000+ for a 2-bedroom. And that's in my area, which is not even one of the most expensive areas of Brooklyn. It's insane. Our building is pre-war, and while it's nicely maintained, it's still an 80-year-old building.

 

[Dentam]

Oh yeah, new luxury high-rise buildings charge $3000+ for a 2-bedroom. And that's in my area, which is not even one of the most expensive areas of Brooklyn. It's insane. Our building is pre-war, and while it's nicely maintained, it's still an 80-year-old building.

Yeah, I live close to downtown and the house I'm living in is over 100 years old. I love all of the old homes in this neighborhood but the rent averages $2400/month for them and they definitely have issues that come with that age. I'm just renting half the house (the downstairs) which is all I can afford. I was very lucky to get it - the landlords had 60 applications for it! The competition is crazy here.

 

[Jen and Ashwin]

I feel your pain. My kids both went into braces the same day. Our dental ins covered $2000 lifetime max. Braces were $6000 each. This was 3 years ago. Here is what we did and maybe this would work for you too.
Ever since ds15 was 7 he was seeing the orth every 6 months. Finally one May we were told he was ready to start or we could wait until Nov. We delayed slightly getting them on because the down payment was $1500 per child with monthly payments of approx. $90-108 per child each month x 24 months interest free with OrthoBank.
In the meantime our older ds, who used to have perfect teeth, was starting to have teeth shift a lot and it was very noticeable.
So that fall we both signed up for the max deduction on our FSA which is $2500 from my pay and $2500 from dh's. They give us a visa card for qualifying spending and 100% of the funds are available to use beginning Jan 1. They went into braces on MLK day. I had OrthoBank bill our FSA card each month. I can't say it was easy because our paychecks were smaller with both of us deducting the max but:
we didn't pay fed taxes on that income
we didn't have to scrape up the down payment
we didn't have to worry about paying the bill on time. (it's automatic)

Ds19 got his off last spring and ds15 was just told today he can get his off! Yay! Good luck to you!

Make sure they wear their retainers! Teeth will shift back over time without it. I had braces in middle/high school but wasn't great about wearing my retainer after about 6 months. My teeth shifted terribly by the time I was 25. When I got my first decent paying job, I used an FSA to fund a new set of braces for myself. Now I wear a retainer every single night and plan to for the rest of my life. I am not going to let my teeth shift again.

 

[Gena001]

Checking in. Not too much exciting to report. Paid one Cc off, and about $850 in medical bills that make me cranky to even think about...but at least they're gone. Transferred other CC to zero interest until next April, so as long as I pay a minimum of 310 a month for that time it'll be gone. Stuck a chunk in savings for future big bills. I am working on figuring out handling our next big expenses--braces, times two!! Insurance only pays $1,500 per mouth and that's it. I'm hearing to expect $6,000 so $9,000 out of pocket??? Yikes.

My DD16 got braces when she was 12 (? I can't recall! ). I priced 3 different providers. One was $4250, another was $4600 and the third was $5300. The most expensive guy had a fancy office with satellite TVs built in at each chair. Heck, the kid is only there 5 minutes for the majority of the visits. He was nuts and I'd be nuttier to pay it! (My dad used to say "Do they think I'm mad at my money? ")

Anyway, the cheapest guy also had a deal: $3600, BUT you had to do your appointment between 8 a.m. - 1:30 p.m. That meant pulling the kiddo out of school. It wasn't a big deal as we were able to usually have her miss an elective. Works for me! And, don't forget if you have an FSA, use it!

 

[Ava]

My DD16 got braces when she was 12 (? I can't recall! ). I priced 3 different providers. One was $4250, another was $4600 and the third was $5300. The most expensive guy had a fancy office with satellite TVs built in at each chair. Heck, the kid is only there 5 minutes for the majority of the visits. He was nuts and I'd be nuttier to pay it! (My dad used to say "Do they think I'm mad at my money? ")

Anyway, the cheapest guy also had a deal: $3600, BUT you had to do your appointment between 8 a.m. - 1:30 p.m. That meant pulling the kiddo out of school. It wasn't a big deal as we were able to usually have her miss an elective. Works for me! And, don't forget if you have an FSA, use it!

I would've done the same thing! Missing an hour or so of school however often they have to go in (its been so long since I had braces I forget!) is worth saving $650. I always loved getting to leave school early to go to the doctor/dentist when I was a kid, made me feel special, lol.

 

[DisneyMandC]

I started my grad class today!!! Yay!!?? :-/

I don't even really want to think about the student loan and interest rates. I don't have the final paperwork in front of me, but my memory seems to say that the current interest rate is in the 6% range. I also seem to remember that after the disbursement is made, I should receive information on how to pay the interest monthly to prevent it from rolling over into principal. That is my plan.

You would definitely be smart to pay the interest down! Most of mine are 6.4-6.8%, a few outliers are 7.9% Good luck with your grad class! I know mine were worth it, I just hate those dang loans!

 

[DnA2010]

@Dentam
So since we've been pretty smart (mostly lol) with the inheritance I have received so far (debt gone, mortgage lump sum paid, retirement fund contributed to, savings/kids savings contributed too) I feel like our tax refund could either (a) go to savings or (b) be spent on something FUN sooo.....we are going back to Disneyland to celebrate the 60th for a second time! We are actually only going to the parks one day. We will also go to Universal Studios for another day and the third will be up in the air. We're going to stay at HOJO so that hotel has a great waterpark so I forsee lots of pool time. I suppose I should feel guilty about planning this considering we have a week in Maui in May and our second cruise next January....but I don't! Finally we are in the black, staying there come hell or high water, and if this trip is paid entire with our tax refund only then........ hey at least we don't need to get any souveniers and we can take our mickey ears from our last trip

That's awesome! You have been mega responsible- a little get away at the end of summer would be great and I bet your kids will have an awesome time at Hojo- although I've never been, I helped a new to Disney friend plan a few days at the beginning of March, and we booked Hojo for her and her 5 year old had a BLAST there!

 

[bcwife76]

@DnA2010 I'm excited to try HOJO! Since we're planning on more downtime this trip I wanted a hotel that would keep my kids busy and this one certainly fits the bill!

 

[Eureka]

Make sure they wear their retainers! Teeth will shift back over time without it. I had braces in middle/high school but wasn't great about wearing my retainer after about 6 months. My teeth shifted terribly by the time I was 25. When I got my first decent paying job, I used an FSA to fund a new set of braces for myself. Now I wear a retainer every single night and plan to for the rest of my life. I am not going to let my teeth shift again.

My 15 yr old has been done with braces for almost two years and I think he quit wearing his removable retainers after a year but he has permanent ones too. It's basically a wire glued to the inside of the front of his teeth (does that make sense?) Now, if he breaks them, and doesn't notice like he did once, it won't help, but I'm hoping they will prevent a lot of shifting. We keep waiting for the dentist to say the 13 yr old is ready but he is smaller for his age than his brother was, and only just finished losing baby teeth.

 

[Jen and Ashwin]

My 15 yr old has been done with braces for almost two years and I think he quit wearing his removable retainers after a year but he has permanent ones too. It's basically a wire glued to the inside of the front of his teeth (does that make sense?) Now, if he breaks them, and doesn't notice like he did once, it won't help, but I'm hoping they will prevent a lot of shifting. We keep waiting for the dentist to say the 13 yr old is ready but he is smaller for his age than his brother was, and only just finished losing baby teeth.

When I was a kid they didn't do the permanent retainers. And I had that option when I got mine completed a few years ago, but I didn't really like the idea of something permanent in my mouth, so I got the removable ones. But I have the discipline to wear them every night. Teenagers might not.

 

[DnA2010]

When I was a kid they didn't do the permanent retainers. And I had that option when I got mine completed a few years ago, but I didn't really like the idea of something permanent in my mouth, so I got the removable ones. But I have the discipline to wear them every night. Teenagers might not.

I have a permanent one on my bottom front teeth- I never notice it...it's been there almost 20 years now. I would remember to wear a removable myself, so well done!

 

[ruadisneyfan2]

Make sure they wear their retainers! Teeth will shift back over time without it. I had braces in middle/high school but wasn't great about wearing my retainer after about 6 months. My teeth shifted terribly by the time I was 25. When I got my first decent paying job, I used an FSA to fund a new set of braces for myself. Now I wear a retainer every single night and plan to for the rest of my life. I am not going to let my teeth shift again.

I've never worn braces but most of my coworkers have and they all said the same thing. They either get braces again as an adult or just live with their shifted teeth and regret that they didn't follow advice given to them. The only one who continued to wear her retainer 20+ years later is the one who grew up poor and couldn't get braces until she could pay for them herself. She was the first one to tell me that it's a lifetime of effort and once you quit, they will shift.

Ds19 has a permanent retainer on the inner part of lower teeth and a removable top retainer. His braces have been off for a year and he has a retainer-check appointment with the orthodontist next week to see how it's going. We'll see.

If anyone wants to be shocked by rent amounts, check out NYC. Thank god our apartment is rent stabilized, which means the housing authority determines the % increase allowed each year. We pay just under $1800/month for a 1400 sq ft 2-bedroom. It's a very large apartment for Brooklyn, and is also considered a good deal at that price. It's really hard to find any decent 2-bedroom for under $2000/month here.

@DisneyMandC I think you're right about student loan interest. I graduated in 2003 and the interest on my loans was between 2-3%. My total amount was also less than $20K, and my payment was $125/month from the time I graduated until I paid it off at the end of last year. I can't imagine paying over $1000/month in loan payments, especially right after graduation. Yikes!


I've been doing focus groups for years through a few different companies in my area, and its not creepy at all. They are usually held in an office building or conference room at a hotel, and its a group of people all meeting together so you aren't like, alone in a room with the administrator or anything. For the ones I've done, you go to the building, sign in with a receptionist, and they usually have beverages & snacks available for you while you wait. Its all very professional and nothing to be concerned about going to alone.

Back to debt dumping... I think I am going to go ahead and pay off (or at least pay down by half) my last CC. I have most of the money set aside from my property sale, and I was going to just keep that in an account until the 0% interest promotion on the card is up next year and try to pay down the card with regular funds, but I think having that card nearly maxed out is affecting my credit score. I wanted to apply for a new credit card (for a sign-up bonus) so I checked my score with CapitalOne's Credit Tracker tool, and its lower than I thought it was. Its still over 700, so not bad, but I used the feature on the credit tracker to run different scenarios and it estimated that if I pay off that card my score will go up by over 80 points. I liked the idea of keeping that money as a temporary emergency fund while I built up more savings but I have another about $2500 as a true emergency fund. I could also take the $100/month that I pay toward the card and redirect it to the EF. Maybe I will pay off half the balance on the card with the savings and keep half as emergency $. Its so hard to decide, parting with large sums of money (even if it is to pay off debt) makes me nervous.

I've already done one focus group and got paid $150 for two hours of my time. I wasn't actually a shoe in for this one - they ask you a series of questions to see if you qualify for fitting into the panel they're looking for. I stopped her after the first question since it was about politics and healthcare. As for the location, it is downtown here in a high rise building with an amazing view of the city and mountains. I have no reservations about going there again and I'm sure it's beautiful at night. The room has windows on two sides and drinks and snacks were provided. I'd do a search for focus groups in your area to see what is available.

Thanks for the focus group info. Once we get our house finished from the tree damage and can move back home, I'll look into it.

 

[DnA2010]

If anyone wants to be shocked by rent amounts, check out NYC. Thank god our apartment is rent stabilized, which means the housing authority determines the % increase allowed each year. We pay just under $1800/month for a 1400 sq ft 2-bedroom. It's a very large apartment for Brooklyn, and is also considered a good deal at that price. It's really hard to find any decent 2-bedroom for under $2000/month here.

@DisneyMandC

That actually doesn't seem much more than my average western coast Canadian city of 80,000- I think you'd pay around $1500-1600 for 1400sq feet around here.


On the Savings Front:
I got the LAST tax form!!! Yay! Will organize everything tonight so it can get dropped off (Dad's cousin is an accountant so does our taxes- I know I could totally do my self) Here's hoping for a refund to keep adding to the Savings/EF for the fall when I'm off work. Going off on maternity leave is very nerve wracking for the first time...

 

[Jen and Ashwin]

If you remember way back to the end of January, I pitched a promotion to my boss. Well, it has wound its way through the university system and is official! I got a title change and a raise! The raise was several thousand dollars more than I was even hoping to get, so I am currently over the moon with excitement. My goal is to not change our monthly budget at all and apply all of these new earnings towards our debt dumping. It should really help accelerate our plans! Today is awesome.

The only thing that could be better is if DH gets a job offer. He had another interview this morning. I told him to just keep swimming, eventually something will work out.