Tuesday Thoughts?

Avatar for cl_phocid
iVillage Member
Registered: 03-26-2003
Tuesday Thoughts?
18
Tue, 02-28-2006 - 9:55am

It's Tuesday - hopefully we're all mostly off to a great start this week - so here are some questions to get your money thoughts flowing.


1.

All my best,
Danni

Pages

iVillage Member
Registered: 09-20-2004
Tue, 02-28-2006 - 10:27am
HI, Danni,
For us, there was no "magic threshold". In fact, our debt is probably higher than when we originally visited this board, due to purchasing vehicles. What did it for me was the lifestyle. Having to use the ccs every week just to get by. Our total debt is higher now, but we don't ever need to use ccs just to get by anymore. i think having to pull out the ccs to pay for groceries caused me more negative thoughts than thinking about the debt totals. It was dismal back then. Now, I am comfortable because I see the totals go down each month out of the year (unless we go on vacation or overboard at Christmas). Our income has shot up by almost 75% of where we were just 5 years ago. Our cc debt is about 7K less than it was 15 months ago.
I don't think my "magic number" has changed..i was never ok with our debt, but what has changed is my attitude. i no longer think that no matter what i do, i will be in the same place I'm at now five years from now.
Great question!
Heather
iVillage Member
Registered: 08-08-2003
Tue, 02-28-2006 - 12:06pm

My magic threshold was only $8,400. But it was still on the downhill slide. That was around 3 years ago I think. I don't post too often here, but I visit the site every single day and read nearly every post. For those of you who are new, stay. It really helps.

I am now debt free and a homeowner at 34. Thanks a great deal to everyone here. Weren't we going to have the I-5 corridor meetup someday? hehe.



iVillage Member
Registered: 01-25-2006
Tue, 02-28-2006 - 12:21pm

1. I didn't really have a magic number so much as just a nagging thought that I really needed to get my act together on my finances. I doubled my income a few years ago and knew there should be plenty of money but since I wasn't paying any attention to my bank accounts/expenses, I was using CC's to avoid screwing things up. It turned out my debt was quite a bit higher than I was comfortable with when I sat down and added it up but really any debt was going to be too much once I sat down and added it up and could see I could get out of it with reasonable changes to my lifestyle.

2. I have only been here about 6 weeks so my debt is on its way down but more importantly I've got my financial picture totally in mind and I have a plan for the next year or 2 and a loose picture beyond. I'm actually more concerned about building good habits around my money right now than the debt although I'm aggressively attacking it.

3. I think my magic number is going to be substantially lower although I don't know that I'll NEVER use debt again. That's my thinking right now but life hands us bumps in the road and I was unemployed for 9 mos at one point. That's where about 1/3 or more of my current CC debt came from and that credit allowed me to avoid suffering any lasting financial consequences to my credit worthiness so I can't 'bash' it completely. The part of the debt I want to rid myself of permanently is that portion that resulted from thoughtless spending (mostly because I had no idea how much money I had in my checking account) and living beyond my means.

Peg

iVillage Member
Registered: 07-11-2001
Tue, 02-28-2006 - 12:29pm

I didn't have a magic number either, it was more seeing that I had loans, mortgage, CCs but I think my final breaking point was when I had over $3000 in med bills 1 1/2 yrs ago. I have now just over $100 to pay on that now. That's when I felt I needed to be with people going through the same struggles I am going through. A lot of my debt is not due to poor money management, just life throwing things at me.

My debt has actually increased since the start of the year, and it has really thrown my debt reduction in a loop. I had everything planned out, but a lacklustre sales month and items breaking in my condo have made debt necessary.

iVillage Member
Registered: 01-31-2006
Tue, 02-28-2006 - 12:30pm
I am new here and really enjoy reading all your posts full of great advice. I was ok with our credit card debt for a while just because I didn't know any better. I thought I could pay it off whenever I wanted to. I guess this was due to lack of any education in this area. I am finally learning about personal finance and would like to invest as soon as we get out of the hole we are in. For now, we are only making a little over the minimum payments which is about $300/mo. There are so many other great ways to spend that $300 if only we didn't have this debt. Oh well. We are currently working on building up some cushion in our checking accounts and then will move on to building up an emergency fund. I am looking forward to posting that we are debt-free few years from now and celebrating many more debt-frees on this board. Have a great Tuesday!
iVillage Member
Registered: 10-09-1999
Tue, 02-28-2006 - 1:00pm

1 & 2. our magic # was carrying an $8500 cc balance year round, after years of doing this we finally decided to pay it off, cut up the cards & be done with the cc debt, so we've been cc debt free for over 3 years. It was only last summer that we really decided to pay off ALL of our debt. Until that time we constantly purchased new vehicles, boats, 4-wheelers etc & always had probably $60,000+ in consumer loans & parent plus college loans. We always have made good $ but always had lots of debt how stupid we were. We now have under $30,000 left to pay in hopefully 14 months.

3. Our magic number is now 0! We have seen success in paying down/off debt & we now BELIEVE we can do it & live without debt. We'll eventually work on our $58,000 mortgage & get that paid off as well.

Have a good week everyone!
cindylee

Avatar for cl_beckymk
iVillage Member
Registered: 03-19-2003
Tue, 02-28-2006 - 3:06pm

1.

Avatar for skthurber
iVillage Member
Registered: 03-27-2003
Tue, 02-28-2006 - 3:20pm

1. It wasn't so much a number as it was the realization that we were counting on my second job's income to make ends meet. When that job disappeared, it was a rude awakening. It made me determined to live within our means and use any "extra" money to pay down debt and start an efund.

2. Our debt number continues to improve. We have been in a DMP for 1 1/2 years, and our credit card debt has gone down from $55,000 to $40,000.

3. I am less willing to tolerate more debt. I would love to have no debt, but that is not realistic for me at this point. No credit card debt, no student loan debt, and perhaps someday no car payment are realistic goals. I am getting there slowly, but I am getting there!

-Sarah

Sarah


Mom to Gina & Tony


 


iVillage Member
Registered: 08-23-2005
Tue, 02-28-2006 - 3:26pm

1.

lvhunnie2005

Avatar for aerandel
iVillage Member
Registered: 03-25-2003
Tue, 02-28-2006 - 4:03pm

1. What was the debt threshold that brought you to the DSG? What was the "magic number" that made you say "Enough already! Get me off this hamster wheel of debt!"?

When I graduated college and finally sat down and figured out how much I really owed in student loan debt. Total was around 45K. Now it's around 48K due to interest accruing over the 4 years I was in college. I absolutely panicked and did tons of research about consolidating the loans, cried a lot, and stressed myself out to the max. I was making myself sick worrying about it. Then I found DSG and I realized I can take control. My plan is to start first with the other debts I accumulated through college, namely my 3 cc's and my car loan. Then I will attack the private loans at the higher interest rate, and after that comes the federal loans.

2. Since coming here, where is your debt right now?

Well I started with about 8k in cc and car loan debt. I am now around 5,500 in that department so doing well. Student loans are not in repayment because I deferred them due to not having a full time teaching position. They continue to accrue interest and it bothers me. Looking into consolidating my private loans at this time.

3. Do you think that your "magic number" of what you will tolerate has changed? How? Why?

Yes, because now that I've begun I really want to live debt free. NOt just my student loans, but I would like to avoid using cc's and now have a car loan. Pretty much everything but necessary debts like mortgage. Dbf is on board, now we just need to both get full time jobs to put our plan into high gear!

                          

             

Pages