How I did it: The first couple of years were bumpy. Soon after I bought the car, I lost my job. The economy was beginning to get bad, and long story short, I had to move in with a friend for awhile. I was able to get odd jobs and some temp assignments, and with few exceptions and some assistance from my mom, began to make the payments on time again.
Once I moved to San Francisco and got a 'permanent' job, I learned to budget better, and made the payments like clockwork. with a bank-issued check every month.As my income increased, I increased my payments, paying $500 a month for the last year. In November I paid off the last of the debt (around $800) and received my title in December. What a relief!
I plan to enjoy the 'extra' money for a few months (Christmas, some new clothes, a nice Valentine's Day dinner) and then start putting the money into savings.
Lessons & tips: As soon as you can begin making more than the minimum monthly payment, do it. Doing it later helps too, but the length of time of your debt payments will decrease significantly if you can do this early on.
Trauma_Junkie thinks she may have had a touch too much caffiene...
And I’m out of cheers of course. I was thrilled to pay off my car. Unfortunately about 3 months after doing so, it broke irreparibly, but I had a lot of savings from 3 months of not having a car payment, to get a new car, soooo, at least I could get one. I so want to pay this one off….
No problem about the cheer – the comment is just as good! Sorry to hear about your car – but good on you for saving the cash. I hope you found something that you’re happy to make payments on!
stareyedpanda cheered this 2 years ago
