Debt

[dancerjodi]

Jetgrrl sent me a great spreadsheet for looking at debt payments, interest, etc.

If I paid things at the rate I've been doing (which *is* over the minimum payment each month) I'd be done paying off my 2 credit cards in 2008. Over that time I would have paid $35,000 in just interest alone.

This doesn't include my student loans and car loans (student loan should be paid off in 3 more years if I stick to schedule, car loan in 2 more if I stick to schedule).

Whee fun.

We need to figure out something smarter than what we've been doing to get this debt down. We can afford the payments, but we're throwing so much money away. This doesn't also include the credit cards that Brian has, or his car loan (or our mortgage). Me thinks we need to do less toy buying (ahem, Brian) and less spending over the weekends).

Comments

[rubicat.livejournal.com]

and here I was thinking that you two were seriously disciplined. LOL...

Turns out we are in quite the same boat. Now I do not feel so fiscally dorky!

:)

Discipline

[dancer.livejournal.com]

"and here I was thinking that you two were seriously disciplined. LOL.."

It depends on what discipline means. We have excellent credit, we always make overpayments, we just have a lot of debt. Some of it came from me as an undergrad (its how I got through, only making $50 a week) and the rest came from being homeowners (a new stove here, a new fridge there, an AC here, some curtains there). when we bought the house we only had about $4k in credit card debt.

I don't regret it, I'm just looking forward to getting rid of it. We haven't used cards in a long time (save for $2k of my most recent tuition payment) and use cash for purchases . .. its just taking a long time to get rid of the balance.

Re: Discipline

[rubicat.livejournal.com]

I probably shoulda used a different word... I thought that you guys did not have debt, since you are so ..... calm? in control of things? Organized?

We really ARE in the same boat, tho... We overpay and have killer credit as well, and the interest really gets to me. We always seem to have something come along just as we are able to throw a wad of money at our balance. And we, like you, have elaborate, uber-cool hobbies. :) Well, if you can count rubicat as a hobby... god knows I don't do much else...

I was just so comforted to read your post because it is just good to know that we are not alone! :)

Re: Discipline

[lensman.livejournal.com]

Well that still puts you guys in a whole lot better place than my Ex put us credit wise... (She had maxed out 13 credit cards)
I had two one of which got maxed out on taxes one year. (Plus a ~$7K loan I took out in my name to help clean up her credit. ~$4.5K left on that)

Over all it ended up taking me untill just last year to finally pay off both of those, with MANY missed/late payments, but it was that or not eat or pay rent, or some utility.... (I still have the loan to go, but I have a few other newer backed up items to clear out first...)

So the fact that you two are on course for killing your debt by 2008 is damn increadable....

Now I try to pay at approx 10% of the cards max limit per month (so if they're asking for $60, I'm sending $300).... It's helping re-build the bad credit I've accrued....

Re: Discipline

[nepenthedreams]

Feared. We had 0 debt when we bought the house. We also had a lot of savings. Now I'm getting sucked into debt because of the things we had to buy (fridge - it didn't come with one, as an example) and the things we didn't need to buy but wanted to (curtains).

Buying a house is so expensive. they tell ya it's cheaper than rent. Well it ain't. And on top of that, there's the huge amount of money you spend on the closing, on all the new bills you start to get as a homeowner, on repairs, and on providing all the things you got for free as a renter. For example, Alli realized on Tuesday morning that our showers did not come with curtain rods.

I'll just have to be more careful. Glad you posted this - it's a good motivator to try to stay ahead of debt. Not much you can do about it once you're there except what you're doing. You definitely seem to know what you're doing at the least.

Re: Discipline

[dancer.livejournal.com]

"Buying a house is so expensive. they tell ya it's cheaper than rent."

It really all depends. Our mortgage is cheaper than we'd be paying in rent. Also, you have to figure in the fat tax refund that you get (from deducting mortgate interest). We used to owe around $4k a year (they never tax Brian enough) now we get back $4k a year (keep in mind, we're taxed higher since we're married too.

All in all it think its more expensive, but its our money - we're paying ourselves in a lot of ways (rather than throwing cash to a landlord).

But yeah - we only had a few thousand in credit card debt when we bought. We have a lot more now :)