Official DIS Debt/Finance Support Thread

[barbeml]

Just popping in to cheer you on! You can absolutely do it and once you are debt free and saving, you will feel an amazing sense of freedom.

I wish you all the best of luck!

 

[dvcgirl]

I just did the same thing this morning, I was so proud that I posted my own thread to brag! I got a 3% cost of living raise (we get it every year at our anual review) this month and so I bumped up my 401k contribution from the 3% I had been doing to 6%. I hopefully can do the same thing next year (I don't see why I won't be able to, but you never know, a lot can happen in 12 months) and get it up to 9%.

At any rate, this is a great way to increase your savings (whatever you're saving for, retirment, college, vacation etc.) without sacrificing anything. You're used to making it on what you took home before the raise anyway!

This is how you build wealth....when you get that 3%, just invest it...you'll never feel it as long as you keep living beneath your means. That's how we've done it for the past 16 years and we've worked our way up to 40% of our combined income.

I just got my T. Rowe Price Investor magazine that they send out and they have one chart in particular that caught my eye. "How much of your salary can you replace in retirement?" The table helps investors determine whether they are on track. For example, if you have 30 years until retirement and have saved 1x your current salary to date.......and are able to invest 15% of your salary annually, in 30 years you will replace 50% of your salary. This table assumes a 8.91% return for stocks and 5.78% return for bonds. So that's not so bad right....if you believe that SS is in your future, together with that 50% you may just be okay. If you can save 20%, you replace 62% of your salary. With SS, assuming an average income, you'd have a nice retirement.

However, let's take a look at the "late starter", 20 years until retirement....hasn't saved a penny and just begins to wake up. In 20 years saving that same 15%, they replace only 20% of their income. Even if they have saved 1x their current salary, with 15% going forward annually they replace just 29%.

So better to make those 3% jumps each and every time you get a raise because trying to make for it later is incredibly difficult.

 

[daisy_lady]

I am so in the need financial help boat. lol

We are a one income family. We have 3 kids. DH does make good $$$. But $250 EVERY WEEK (yes you heard me right) goes to health insurance. I have checked around, and so far nothing else is cheaper. Well let me take that back. There is cheaper, but with less 'benefits'. I have Crohn's Disease, and with 3 small kids (5.5, 3.5 and almost 5 mons) we need decent coverage.

We just bought our first home last Dec. We have no cc's. No car payments. No cable tv. But we have medical bills out the wazoo. lol

We are struggling just to make "normal" payments (mortgage, electricity, gas, water, phone).

I am going to start nursing school HOPEFULLY in December. They offer night classes and online classes. So by the time our baby is in school full time, I should be settled into a nice job.

I have been doing good budgeting. We eat out only once a week. Seriously we do. We only spent $100 on groceries last month. Shocking, I can't believe it.

I have begun to write everything down that we spend, regardless of how little. Man does that put things in perspective!

 

[Chicago526]

I am so in the need financial help boat. lol

We are a one income family. We have 3 kids. DH does make good $$$. But $250 EVERY WEEK (yes you heard me right) goes to health insurance. I have checked around, and so far nothing else is cheaper. Well let me take that back. There is cheaper, but with less 'benefits'. I have Crohn's Disease, and with 3 small kids (5.5, 3.5 and almost 5 mons) we need decent coverage.

We just bought our first home last Dec. We have no cc's. No car payments. No cable tv. But we have medical bills out the wazoo. lol

We are struggling just to make "normal" payments (mortgage, electricity, gas, water, phone).

I am going to start nursing school HOPEFULLY in December. They offer night classes and online classes. So by the time our baby is in school full time, I should be settled into a nice job.

I have been doing good budgeting. We eat out only once a week. Seriously we do. We only spent $100 on groceries last month. Shocking, I can't believe it.

I have begun to write everything down that we spend, regardless of how little. Man does that put things in perspective!

Good for you for being a nurse! My friend is an RN and loves it, and makes great money. It's hard now but in a few years, you should be doing much better. My friend had her nursing school paid for by a local hospital in exchange for agreeing to work for them for 2 years post graduation, are you getting a deal like that?

 

[vegasnative]

I'd love to join if I can. I am trying super hard to not use the cc and to pay off what we haev on the card. We have 2 cards, both with balances, 1 with a small balance, 1 with a rather large balance. It is frustrating as someone mentioned because I too would love to go here there and everywhere. It was the little things that went on the cards, that have now added up. I have a question for Mannsa it says you are a new RN, but you said you make about $25,000. That seems pretty low for a RN, that is like a teachers salary, how come? Anyway, I think this is a great thread, it is good because it makes me feel like I am not the only one is this situation, and we can encourage each other as we go forward. I also keep track of balances from month to month like other have mentioned, and it is nice to see the progress, just wished it went a little faster is all. I read a saying once "if you are digging yourself into a hole.........stop digging." (Rich Dad, Poor Dad).
I think it would be good if we could start a new thread each month so we can dicuss the good news (progress) and the bad news (charging).

 

[Goofygirls4God]

subscribing-
start Dave Ramsey at church this Sunday-I am a stay home mommy but both kids start school Aug 14th- hoping to do a little more to help pay off school debt...I am sure I will be seeking encouragement soon enough! I will be praying for all of us on this thread as we press forward...May the Lord pour out HIS blessings and abundance on each of us for a free future!
Blessings

 

[sap1227]

What a great thread!! It does feel like everyone here is debt free a lot of the time. Here is our story.........

When DH and I got engaged we both started putting $700 per month into a savings account (a lot of money for 2 20 year olds). A year after we got married we bought our home and everything was great--retirements funded, a good amount of money in savings, DH just started the job of his dreams. 2 weeks later we found out we were pregnant and we knew going back to work was something neither of us wanted me to do.

So here we are 4 1/2 years later, with about 1 years worth of my old pay in debt. There were so many things we were not prepared for (the cost of health insurance being so much, DS having lots of minor medical problems--that all together add up to a LOT, me being on bed rest when pregnant with DS#2). I know we can get out of this, but it will take some time (it took us 4 years to get in this situation).

DH is now working a second job (he is a firefighter, so he is still home with the boys and me more than most dads), I am selling on Ebay and working part time at a gym (where I can take the kids with me) and with all this money going towards our debt I can see there is light at the end of our tunnel.

I can not wait till the day we can say we are debt free again!!
Christy

I just wanted to add---that our cruise is being paid for totally by "found" money--Christmas $, Birthday gifts, all surveys that I do, Credit Card rewards and so on, it is not adding to our debt at all!!

 

[RIDisneyFan]

I want to join too! We're going to WDW again this Sept - couldn't resist free dining! Last Sept was the first time we had been to WDW in about 12 years. But we have decided this will be the last Disney trip for a long time. This trip is paid for, not charging it - we haven't used a CC in a couple of years. And we paid off DH's car loan with our tax return a couple of months ago. Our goal is to buy a house - I'm tired of renting. We're working on paying off all our cc's - trying to pay extra on them each month. We got behind when my DH went on disability. He has multiple sclerosis, can't work full time and just recently found a part time job he could do. Our household income went way down when he stopped working; luckily I have a pretty good job and can sometimes get overtime.
I have found lots of useful info on these boards!

 

[Reese]

Jumping on this thread. I need to get back on track. We were doing very good but since we had our newest addition I haven't gotten back on track. We've been doing too much fast food and spending on things not in the budget.

Hopefully this will help me get back in the game.

 

[strasfamily]

I am jumping on this thread too. We became debt free last year, but now for some reason we are finding ourselves running out of money every payday - even without any bills! That doesn't make sense.

We totally have to get back on budget. My hubby is starting to sell Pampered Chef so hopefully that will bring in some extra money so we can start saving too!

 

[K&KsMom]

Jumping on the thread......my DH and I have paid off our CC's numerous times but always seem to use them again. Any advice for a family of 4 living on one teacher's and coaching salary? Good news is we don't have car payments, day care costs, and a low mortgage but ugh it is still a never ending cycle with the CCs.

 

[kfeuer]

Jumping on the thread......my DH and I have paid off our CC's numerous times but always seem to use them again. Any advice for a family of 4 living on one teacher's and coaching salary? Good news is we don't have car payments, day care costs, and a low mortgage but ugh it is still a never ending cycle with the CCs.

My suggestion would be to build up an emergency fund (if you don't already have one) so that you can pay for unexpected expenses without using your credit cards.

Another budgeting tip that's helped us--add up all the expenses that come up quarterly, annually, etc. (things like car insurance, pest control, vet visits, etc.). Take that total and divide it by 12, then have that money automatically transferred to a savings account each month (we use ING). Then when those bills come up the money is already there for it.

 

[kfeuer]

I had some good news yesterday that will help my retirement savings goals. First, I'm going to be getting a raise

Secondly, we were discussing long-term plans for the business and we're anticipating that in a couple years we'll be able to max out our SEP-IRA's--and the max is 25%! If they put in 25% for themselves, they have to put 25% in for me, too. I only work part-time, but if we get 25% of my annual salary that will really help our savings along!

 

[dvcgirl]

Jumping on the thread......my DH and I have paid off our CC's numerous times but always seem to use them again. Any advice for a family of 4 living on one teacher's and coaching salary? Good news is we don't have car payments, day care costs, and a low mortgage but ugh it is still a never ending cycle with the CCs.

Well, for one, an emergency fund...to pay for those unexpected things that can and will come up. And then, it just takes serious discipline...cut them up....get them out of the house. It takes a real determination that you *will* live on less than you make. In the beginning, you need to look at every single item you purchase, from juice boxes for the kids, to big screen TVs, and put each item into one of two categories...."wants" and "needs". If it's a want, then you need to carefully consider if you can afford it, and if you purchase it, understand that another "want" may go unfulfilled.

Imagine a world where there there is no availability to easy credit (and this world actually exsisted not too long ago). Imagine that when the money runs out at the end of the month that there simply is no more money. How would you do in that world? Try living that way for a few months and you'll find that you learn how to stretch a dollar.

 

[Reese]

Imagine a world where there there is no availability to easy credit (and this world actually exsisted not too long ago). Imagine that when the money runs out at the end of the month that there simply is no more money. How would you do in that world? Try living that way for a few months and you'll find that you learn how to stretch a dollar.

It's also amazing how much more attention I pay to how much I'm spending when I'm only carrying cash. The first few times I did groceries with just the money in the envelope I was on the verge of a panic attack. What if I go over??? This made me realize how easy it was to overspend with my debit card. Now we make one weekly withdrawl and tuck the ATM card away.

 

[golden1]

I am happy to see a thread like this. I am hoping to get a lot of inspiration from it. I am in a different situation because I really want to try to stay out of debt. My only debts right now are mortgage and $2500 left on a car - not too bad. We are contributing 10% of my dh's income to a 401K and have been doing that since we were in our mid 20's so we are doing okay retirement wise. What is depressing me is that I quit work 4 years ago to be a SAHM to my kids and we have pretty much depleted our savings to do it. We are contemplating having another baby but I doubt we would be able to do that without going into debt and that KILLS me. So I have been trying to find ways to live on DH's income while drawing as little money as possible. It seems like we keep having unexpected expenses that are keeping us from meeting our budget every month. We don't eat out or spend much on ourselves but our fixed costs are very high so there is little room for error. We don't live in a big fancy house either. Once our cars are paid off, things will get better but it will still be really tight. I will be going back to work either in 2 years or in 5 years (depending on whether I have another baby) and at that point I hopefully will be in better shape. Once my youngest kid gets out of daycare, we can really start saving but I will be close to 40 by then.

 

[alliecats]

I just paid off my car!!! This will be the first month I haven't had a car payment since...1993.
Hasn't sunk in yet, though.

 

[vegasnative]

Reese brings up a good pointer. Typically people will spend less when they pay with cold hard cash than they would if using a debit card. Then you usually spend less with a debit card than with a credit card. It is something about giving someone a twenty dollar bill as opposed to swiping that card real quick. We started doing this also about 3 months ago. Once a week I put DH's check in the bank, make a withdraw and thats it...nothing else, if it runs out it is gone! Hard to do, but it can be done.

 

[WatchinCaptKangaroo]

Jumping on the thread......my DH and I have paid off our CC's numerous times but always seem to use them again.

If you're using them instead of cash/checks take the money from your checking account and pay it off right away, or put the money into an ING account to earn some interest until the payment is due.

If you're not, leave them at home.

 

[disneysteve]

Jumping on the thread......my DH and I have paid off our CC's numerous times but always seem to use them again.

The question I would ask is what are you charging on the CC? If you are charging needs because you can't otherwise afford them, that's a potentially serious problem. In that case, you really need to sit down and review your spending in incredible detail and see where you can cut back your spending and also try and figure out any ways you can increase income so that you can start living below your means instead of beyond them.

If, on the other hand, you are running up the CC balance buying wants and luxury items, then you just need to stop doing it - plain and simple. As they said on that recent Saturday Night Live skit, don't buy things you can't afford.