It will take us 4 years to get out of debt

[seashoreCM]

I'm sorry to say this but if you were planning a trip to Disney, that could make the debt last a whole year longer compared with not going to Disney and paying down debt using that money.

A big problem in the U.S. nowadays (21'st century) is usury.

Disney hints: http://members.aol.com/ajaynejr/disney.htm

 

[beckanoah]

4 years just seems soooo long from now. I don't think our cars will last that long, they're 2000 & 2002.

Just wondering if anyone else got themselves into such a huge debt like us, and it's going to take YEARS to get out?

Well, yes, I do have a large amount of credit card debt (workingon it) but my car is a 1992... so I think your cars will be OK!

 

[ceecee]

No more WANTS only Needs! No new furniture, car, vacations, etc. If you don't have the cash don't buy it. No more instant gratification! A friend of mine wants to get out of debt but CAN NOT get rid of her CC and they are too tempting! She is in her 30's, not 10! If a grown adult can't control using a CC, she needs to get rid of it. Your cars should last we have a Olds Eighty Eight 1997 w/200,000 and a 1999 Windstar w/96,000. We have saved up enough to buy another, so we're ready when one goes. Nothing depriciates like a car so I hate buying them.
Then once out of debt, stay out of debt. You will get used to it and then you can accumulate some savings. If four years seems too long, look into a second job until it's paid off.

 

[Dashzap]

it will take 4 years to get completely out of debt (except for mortgage). I will not reduce our small savings (lol), but I'll reduce our retirement savings for the 4 years down to 4% (company will match). I'm still trying to figure out if we can get any Disney trips in...lol...I know that should be the first thing we cut out!!

4 years just seems soooo long from now. I don't think our cars will last that long, they're 2000 & 2002.

Your cars should last. Ten year old cars do need the some repairs, but it will still cost less than buying a new car. DH and I are driving 10 year old cars with no plans to replace them any time soon.

Cars and vacations are not good places for your money right now.

 

[ocalla]

Gosh, I am so glad I opened this thread. I have been thinking about buying a new car because ours are older models (and let's face it when we see the new ones it makes us want one too). My DH keeps saying he wants to keep these until they don't run anymore. I was not raised to keep vehicles after they hit 75 - 85,000 miles, and both of ours are now over 100,000.

After reading the posts, I see how silly the idea is to want new cars. I would much rather put the "car payment" money on our cc bills, and be debt free.

We have been really working on the cc bills for 1 year now and just about all the extra money I have goes to paying them off. I don't even purchase lunch out, I wait and have lunch after I get off of work and head home. DH brings lunch with him since he works all day.

But I do have to agree with one of the posters, you MUST treat yourself to something small (weather it's a movie, dinner out, bottle of wine) every now and then or you will just totally forget the "get out of debt plan"

Thanks everyone for "guiding me in the right direction".

To the original poster, hang in there. 4 years is not long (spoken from the mouth of a mother to a 16 year old daughter who will be graduating in just 2 SHORT years) Time Speeds By!!!

 

[Pigeon]

4 years just seems soooo long from now. I don't think our cars will last that long, they're 2000 & 2002.

There's no reason the cars shouldn't last. Dh drives a 93 Corolla that runs just fine. I've got a 2002 Saturn, and I consider it practically new.

 

[ceecee]

Gosh, I am so glad I opened this thread. I have been thinking about buying a new car because ours are older models (and let's face it when we see the new ones it makes us want one too).

When I was 22, I got my first NEW car, the salesman told me how much the car would be worth once I drove it off the lot! I still remember that!

 

[tonilea]

We used to be the kind of family that had no debt (except for mortgage). If I did buy something on credit, like furniture, we would pay it off within a couple of months.

I don't know what happened to us over the last few years, but our debt is just insane now. I feel it is all of a sudden out of control, so I'm getting into the "snowball effect" method of debt reduction.

I figured it out yesterday, and it will take 4 years to get completely out of debt (except for mortgage). I will not reduce our small savings (lol), but I'll reduce our retirement savings for the 4 years down to 4% (company will match). I'm still trying to figure out if we can get any Disney trips in...lol...I know that should be the first thing we cut out!!

4 years just seems soooo long from now. I don't think our cars will last that long, they're 2000 & 2002.

Just wondering if anyone else got themselves into such a huge debt like us, and it's going to take YEARS to get out?

You might be suprised. It seems like once we got really intense about paying down debt, we were blessed with opportunity after opportunity to make extra money. Admittedly, some of those opportunities were always there, we just didn't see them. We thought it would take us 2 years to be debt free, but we are looking at 15 months now. We should be debt free within the month.

 

[tonilea]

Gosh, I am so glad I opened this thread. I have been thinking about buying a new car because ours are older models (and let's face it when we see the new ones it makes us want one too). My DH keeps saying he wants to keep these until they don't run anymore. I was not raised to keep vehicles after they hit 75 - 85,000 miles, and both of ours are now over 100,000.

Our Ford pickup has in excess of 200,000 miles - we bought it with 114,000 miles. I can say without hesitation that it has been the best, most reliable vehicle we have ever owned - including some new vehicles.

 

[ocalla]

Here's a question for all of you budget minded folks out there.

We still have 1 year left to pay on our vehicles (both were purchased used), but they are both terrible with gas mileage. Should we just keep them since they are almost paid off? Or should we trade them in for better gas mileage even though that would be adding 4 years to our car notes?

I just can't make up my mind on this, any ideas would be welcome.

 

[ceecee]

Here's a question for all of you budget minded folks out there.

We still have 1 year left to pay on our vehicles (both were purchased used), but they are both terrible with gas mileage. Should we just keep them since they are almost paid off? Or should we trade them in for better gas mileage even though that would be adding 4 years to our car notes?

I just can't make up my mind on this, any ideas would be welcome.

How bad are we talking? My friend just purchased an SUV that gets 12-14 mpg! What we they thinking? They got a great deal on it.

 

[Chicago526]

Here's a question for all of you budget minded folks out there.

We still have 1 year left to pay on our vehicles (both were purchased used), but they are both terrible with gas mileage. Should we just keep them since they are almost paid off? Or should we trade them in for better gas mileage even though that would be adding 4 years to our car notes?

I just can't make up my mind on this, any ideas would be welcome.

Well, just take your MPG that you get now and compare it to what you'd trade it in for.

Let's say your MPG right now is 15, and you want to get a car that gets 25. That's a difference of 10 MPG.

Then take your yearly average miles that you drive. Let's say you drive 12,000 miles a year. 12,000 miles divided by 15 MPG is 800 galons of gas, @ 3.50 per gallon you spend $2800 a year on fuel for that car. Now, with the 25 MPG car, 12,000 miles divided by 25 MPG is 480 gallons of gas, @ 3.50 per gallon, you'd spend $1680 in gas, for a savings of $1120 per year or about $93 a month.

In this example, given that a new car loan would likely cost you more than $93 a month, you should keep the gas guzzelers. Once they are paid off, you can put what you were spending on car payments in to savings, and save to pay cash to replace your current vehicals 6 to 8 years down the road.

 

[ocalla]

2 SUV's, one is a Suburban the other is a Jeep Cherokee.

Purchased them 3 years ago before the gas prices went through the roof!!! Now everytime I have to fill up, I want to cry.

DH drives the suburban and is in Sales, he probably fills up twice a week. His office does give him a "gas/mileage credit" but I am afraid that will not cover his entire gas expense at this rate.

You would think the smaller SUV (Cherokee) would be better on Gas Mileage but Not True.

 

[Jhult]

Ocalla,
My wife and I both have gas guzzlers (Dodge Ram and Chevy Trailblazer). The lease on the Ram is up in June, but the gas was driving us nuts. We went to a Nissan dealership on 12/31/07 and bought a 2007 pre-owned Altima and could not be happier. I went from getting 13 MPG city, to 24-25 MPG city. The savings on gas is unbelievable. The lease on the Chevy is up in a year and we are planning on going back to Nissan and getting a Rogue. We figure that we will then be saving $200+ in gas per month.

We had a large increase in income a few years ago and thought we should go buy us large, brand-new vehicles. This, along with medical bills, hampered us tremendously, and ended up hurting my near-perfect credit.

We made a decision 6 months ago to change, and buying the Altima and getting in a debt program has the first step. We now see the light at the end of the tunnel. We should have our debt paid off within 3-4 years, and are much happier now.

 

[KristinU]

Live like no one else so you can live like no one else. I gave the book to DH for a birthday present and he is finally excited. I am now reading it and can't wait to start.

I put my entire check into a credit union account and will do the same with the next one and I will have my emergency fund set up. I did this before reading the book because DH said it was one of the first things to do.

I haven't had time to read yet but am excited to see what is in store for me.

I know for a fact the DVC is going to get sold! The rest is just following the plan and paying off the debt.

My question is this: We have always kept seperate finances. Can we do the plan seperate or do we have combine all debts and income?

Good luck everyone!

Congrats! To answer your question Dave Ramsey will have you combining all of your finances into "our" finances vs. "mine" and "yours". Cool that you're setting off with selling DVC - we held onto ours throughout paying off debt and considered it several times throughout the process...we now just sold after doing some math on the dues. The Timeshare Store is who we went through and we couldn't be more pleased.

You might be suprised. It seems like once we got really intense about paying down debt, we were blessed with opportunity after opportunity to make extra money. Admittedly, some of those opportunities were always there, we just didn't see them. We thought it would take us 2 years to be debt free, but we are looking at 15 months now. We should be debt free within the month.

So very true!!! When we set out our goal to become debt free (except the house) it looked like 18 months. Then the intensity just kept growing once we saw some results...we cut the budget like crazy and sold lots of stuff and ended up doing it in 6 months.

OP - you never know once your momentum gets going - your 4 years might just get pared down!

 

[zaja]

Vehicles do last forever - well, a really long time - with regular maintenance. We just got rid of a suburban that had 345,000 miles on it, and that was only because of gas milage. Still ran amazingly, even at that high milage!

 

[Traveliz]

Vehicles do last forever - well, a really long time - with regular maintenance. We just got rid of a suburban that had 345,000 miles on it, and that was only because of gas milage. Still ran amazingly, even at that high milage!

Wow I am quite impressed. All these vehichles have so little mileage on them compared to mine - I drive a full size van (so not so gas friendly but I haul alot of kids) and I am just at 203, 000 miles and although the van is beginning to show some eccentric behavior (nothing that keeps me from driving it though). I will tell my car about yours and perhaps she will endeavor to be good that long!

Liz

 

[taximomfor4]

Wow, you all with impressage miles on your vehicles are inspiring me. We had a pontiac that we THOUGHT would last forever, but after paying at least $400 in repairs 4 times in 8 months, we got rid of it. We are meticulous with maintenance, because neither of us is handy. Can't repair ANYTHING on our own. But we couldn't have dh's car gone into the shop that often. Not the car to hold out with, I guess. Bought a little Hyundai, which has a looooong warranty. Doing perfect maintenance. We are trying to make THIS be our car that keeps going, and going, and going....

Then, our Chevy minivan...which I was still making payments on...kept losing its heat. They would keep it for days (and loan me a teeny Cobalt or something), fix something in the minivan, give it back, the heat would work for a couple of weeks, then it would start coming and going again. So the whole process started again. We couldn't keep taking the loaner AND dh's hyundai everywhere we went (family doesn't fit in a car)...so after the fifth time with Chevy trying to fix the heat, we threw in the towel. Bought a kia (loooong warranty). Payments stayed the same, but now we mostly started over. Yuck. This one BETTER keep going, and going, and going. (I did get no-interest financing on it! YAY!)

Funny enough, OP, we are in serious debt paydown mode now too. I just got a job, so am going to do all the spreadsheets to nail down our budget. Not going to be fun. Not sure I am up to looking at the reality. But it sure will feel better when it's all done! I think a support thread is a fine idea!

 

[SarahTel]

You might be suprised. It seems like once we got really intense about paying down debt, we were blessed with opportunity after opportunity to make extra money. Admittedly, some of those opportunities were always there, we just didn't see them. We thought it would take us 2 years to be debt free, but we are looking at 15 months now. We should be debt free within the month.

That's excellent news! I noticed that most people on this thread are looking at ways of saving money, cutting back & generating extra cash as a way to get out of debt. If you can do it this is by far the best method & everyone deserves a big pat on the back!

I just thought I would also add this into the mix. For those in a *lot* of debt, looking into a debt solution my be the best option before your debts get any worse. That link discusses the top five & should give you an idea if any will suit your situation. If your really struggling - have a look.

Well done to everyone!