DEBT FREE
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| Fri, 06-09-2006 - 11:08am |
I am so excited!! I can hardly believe it!! I have to apologize for not posting much! Sometimes it takes alot of time just to read everyones post (which I do read each and everyone of them). I just paid off my van today. I bought it on Jan 9th, 2006 for $20,514.65 and I paid it off today. That's just 5 months. We had a really good tax check this year and that helped alot. Plus DH is back to his full time job and making what he used to. We have paid off over $30,000 since I have come to this board. Part of it was from selling DHs Tahoe. Now I need to start saving some $$ monthly for DH to get something. We have to have 2 vehicles. We got DS a Chevy Tracker and DH has been driving it. DS just got his license on Wednesday. I just wanted to share my news!! We still owe >$181,000 on our house. I have been paying extra on that the last few months too. It is really paying off.
Donna

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Hello Donna,
Congratulations! You are debt free except for the mortgage. That's a great accomplishment! I would suggest following Dave Ramsey's suggestions and do the following:
You've Done
Sincerely,
Lindsey Schocke
Geeks on Tap: Mission Accomplished
Congratulations Donna! What a huge, huge, accomplishment. That is awesome, paying off that amount.
Heather
Thanks Lindsey! We are kind of following DR, but I have allready in the last few months increased some things.
You've Done This ---- 1) Save $1000 cash in the bank as a baby emergency fund.
You've Done This ---- 2) Get out of debt.
3) Finish the emergency fund (3-6 months of expenses).
We have a little over $10,000 in our savings. That's close to 3 months living expenses. I will work on getting that closer to the 6 month of expenses.
4) Put 15% of your gross income toward retirement.
We increased DH contribution to retirement. The max he is allowed is $2.30 an hour. But we also opened up Roth IRA's for DH and I and have put $2000 in each this year. So, we can still put in another $2000 each this year. I put about 16% in mine from work and have for a while plus work puts 1.5% of my earnings.
5) Save for college (if you have kids).
Kids have ING accts that we have been putting $$$ in every 2 weeks. Also have the Roth IRAs to fall back on for school. (that's why we did Roth IRAs vs 529 plans so it could go for school or retirement.)
6) Pay off the house.
We will not have this paid off for a very long time. So I figure we will do what we can with this.
7) Build wealth and give it away!
Can't wait to be on this step.
Donna
Lara
Wow! What an inspiration!!! Thank you SOOOOOOO much for posting. It's so helpful to be reminded from time to time that people have been where we are and gotten to the end of the tunnel--and gone on to do marvelous things with the money they're not making debt payments with! LOL
Thanks for posting. And congratulations! You must be so proud of yourselves.
Heather
Donna, you are doing so awesome!
You are doing so well. I saw your reply to my Dave Ramsey babystep post. How much do you have left on your mortgage? How much are you willing to snowball? I'm sure I could find an online calculator that would show you how much interest you'll save by paying it off earlier than planned. =)
Sincerely,
Lindsey Schocke
Geeks on Tap: Mission Accomplished
Wahoooooo!!!! This is GREAT news! Congrats to you and your hubby for paying off this debt, and for your son getting his license! Sounds like June is a fantastic month for your whole family. :-)
Pat :-D
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