Mid-year assessment

iVillage Member
Registered: 09-22-1999
Mid-year assessment
11
Wed, 06-30-2004 - 8:28pm
How do you feel about your efforts towards debt repayment so far this year? Did you have an eye-opening moment that you can share? Any mid-year resolutions?

Littlesbigs

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iVillage Member
Registered: 05-30-2003
Wed, 06-30-2004 - 9:52pm
Since I just got through figuring it out, and e-mailing it all to Becky...

I give us an OUTSTANDING!!!

We have done a smack-down on about 41.1% of our total non-house debt total. We've gotten rid of $11,641.21 since January 1st, far more than I thought we would.

The power of focus and snowflaking is not to be underestimated!

My mid-year goal is to end the year with under $13,000 in non-house debt. That means between now and then, we will have to blast away $3691.79.

One of the eye-opening moments I've had was when my DH was about to toss a Target receipt, and I grabbed it while telling him, "Wait! I use the discount as a snowflake!" When he said, "But it's only 18 cents..." I said,"ONLY 18 CENTS?!?!? Do you know how much that will help?" Poor guy-he thought I'd gone off the deep end. But, those "only 18 cents" have made up the majority of our snowflakes this year!

Another lightbulb moment was when I was going through the Financial Peace University classes-I had never figured I'd ever be able to attain lots of wealth. When I realized that if we keep going, we surely could, boy-that was a powerful moment.

So, halfway through the year we FINALLY got serious about destroying debt...yay us!

Lisa

iVillage Member
Registered: 07-06-2003
Wed, 06-30-2004 - 10:09pm
I second the motion for Lisa getting an outstanding :) You're doing so well!!!

I would have to say that we accomplished everyone's dream on this board and most other people's by becoming debt free this month.

In SIX months we managed to wipe out $8500.00 that was left on our last credit card, as of July 1st, we will now live on one income - it being mine. The dh's income both day job and week-end gigs are going into various savings, first being to beef up the emergency, car and vacation funds.

Our goal is to save up $7000.00 at least by the end of the year.

Our mid-year goal was to pay at least half that amount but as they say the rest is history :)

I agree with you Lisa that being keenly focused and snowflaking while evaluating one's expenses careful are powerful tools in becoming debt free. Prayers and positive thinking certainly don't hurt! Don't think that mere pennies and small change are useless...in fact throw every single one you find towards your debt - it will make a difference.

Snowflaking should become the ninth wonder of the world IMHO!!!

Kassandra

Kassandra

"It is said that life has its peaks and valleys.  The challenge is to accept them equally and experience them

iVillage Member
Registered: 05-10-2004
Thu, 07-01-2004 - 12:53am

I rate us at outstanding right now:


Since January

 

Avatar for cl_beckymk
iVillage Member
Registered: 03-19-2003
Thu, 07-01-2004 - 9:15am

Mine isn't as great as the others!!!

iVillage Member
Registered: 04-28-2003
Thu, 07-01-2004 - 11:53am
Eh....it could be better but at the same time it could be worse. Here's our numbers:

Car: $2750.49 as of 1/1 - paid off 3 mths early in June

Truck: $8253 as of 1/1 - now owe $5895

MBNA: $5798.84 as of 1/1 - now owe $5680.59

Visa: $3225.50 as of 1/1 - now owe $3296.41

Visa: $651.85 as of 1/1 - now owe $557.25

Sears: $1558.31 as of 1/1 - now owe $1599.82

Boat: $3062.40 as of 2/1 - now owe $2801.16

So, all together, we've paid our debt down by $5470.16. Not too bad when you consider the other expenses we've had pop up this year so far. We're hoping to get about another $5k paid off before years' end.

A real eye opening moment for me was finding out I'm pregnant and we have to start thinking about re-adjusting our budget for that.

med12

iVillage Member
Registered: 04-05-2003
Thu, 07-01-2004 - 2:50pm
So far, I feel pretty darn good about our debt reduction for the year! We're down $2780 from January, and the very best thing is, we have not used a credit card for 7 months now! Yeah!! Snowflaking is going to be light this summer, because we have a LOT of extras coming up (camping trips, the zoo, a train ride, a museum, etc) Plus we have to register our car, and we're not on the ball enough yet to have savings for that. ;o) But as long as we get through to fall with no new debt, and our numbers are still falling - even a little bit - I'll be happy! Mid-year resolution? To just keep doing what we're doing!
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iVillage Member
Registered: 12-20-2003
Thu, 07-01-2004 - 5:22pm
Overall, I think I'm doing OK. I didn't start this rigorous a debt reduction process until April. Then, in May, I fell off the proverbial wagon; but I'm back on.. yippee! Since the first quarter of the year, I've paid off about $7K in my AT&T Universal card. Then I consolidated my Citi into my MBNA card w/ a 5.99% APR. I've since paid down $6K to bring my ending balance to $9K. I was fortunate in that I was able to find a job after two mos of being laid off , so I used most of my severance package (I had been laid off in Jan) to pay down my debt. I've also been trying to snowflake like mad. I snowflaked $500 to my MBNA cc today :-D

So right now, my debt stands at:

MBNA cc: $9K - I am hoping to pull together my other savings accts by the end of the summer and pay this down. It's going to stink since I won't have a very big cushion for emergencies (i.e. layoffs); but I desperately want to rid myself of cc debt.

Car: $15K... stinks! I bought this car after having leased it. Leasing was a HUGE mistake :(

School loan: $80K... this is the real doozie. But at least part of this (interest portion) is tax deductible. And the consolidated rate is abt 2.85%

The real eye opener for me was when I was unemployed earlier this year. It was such a scary feeling. It stunk having to pay cc debt from unemployment compensation. And it stunk to dip into my hard earned savings to pay my car loan. I promised myself that I would try my best to get to a place where even if I was laid off again, I wouldn't jump to the next job out of desperation. OR that if I hated a job to the point where I just walked out, I could.

Avatar for mrslove2000
iVillage Member
Registered: 03-26-2003
Thu, 07-01-2004 - 9:29pm
I know my efforts haven't added up to as much as they could have been. I do have a mid-year resolution, however I have broken it down into monthly goals. (Inch by inch it's a cinch, yard by yard it's HARD) I now am snowflaking a larger portion of "extra" money each month instead of spending it on STUFF to clutter up my home. I have so much more peace about our finances. YIPPEE!!

Best of luck to everyone!

Susan

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iVillage Member
Registered: 12-09-2003
Thu, 07-01-2004 - 10:54pm
to imbetteroffnow.......

yo said "Car: $15K... stinks! I bought this car after having leased it. Leasing was a HUGE mistake :( "

YES......It really does "stink".....LOL it was the only way could have obtained the big vehicle we wanted at the time though. 5 year lease and 60,000 miles......well it is gonna be the 5 years up in August and we will have turned over 100,000 miles!!

well, when we went to refinance it to "buy" it from the leasing company....EWWWW....it is actually WORTH about 5 to 7,000 dollars LESS than what we owe! we had to get GAP INSURANCE to cover us in case something happened to it...

when we finally pay that thing off it will be time for a new one!!

this will NOT be a lease....It will be a NICE USED Car! yup.....WE LEARNED!!!

iVillage Member
Registered: 12-20-2003
Fri, 07-02-2004 - 12:08am
To lookingupnow (i like this screen name):

o, yes, I am still kicking myself in the behind for having leased a luxury (back then) Japanese SUV 5 yrs ago. I blame age (I was 24)and the "wanting to keep up with Joneses" syndrome. Five yrs later, my lease is up and I have nothing to show for it but 60 $430 cancelled checks :(( Like u, I bought my "used" leased car and financed it for yet another 5 yrs. So of course, by the time, I finish paying this off, it's time to invest in another car. The only upside is that my car has held its resale value quite well. So if I decide to sell it, I think I will be able to cover the residual value with the bank.

These days, I roll my eyes whenever I hear all those car commercials with "lease, lease, lease your dream car @ 0% down and $200 pmts." yah, right..... (rolling eyes)

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