Eliminate my debt

Well, I just paid an extra $20 on my car payment this month. It’s not that much but it makes me happy to know that I won’t pay one dime worth of interest on that extra $20. Every little bit helps.

These past few months have been literally life-changing for me. This goal started out as getting rid of my debt because I was getting married. Long story short, the wedding has been canceled and we are no longer together. I won’t go into detail out of respect for my ex, but for the sake of this “Eliminate my debt” blog I should mention that the breakup was not due to anything financial.

As far as my goal to eliminate my debt, I’m aiming to reach zero debt by the time I’m 30 (I turn 26 in September). My short term goal this year is to get my car and my credit cards paid off in full. Since I get to write off the interest I pay to my student loans, I’m paying those off last. However I can’t neglect the student loans too much because aside from my house they hold the largest balance.

The problem is that in order to pay off my car and credit card this year I need to pick up a few extra side projects (I build websites for people). But that shouldn’t be too hard if I can just get my name out there.

Unfortunately there are a few expenses that have come up that will slow down my goal and make it more difficult to pay off my car and credit cards this year. The main one is the damage that my ex’s dog did to my carpet. Now certain areas of the carpet are ripped up so I will need to get new flooring sooner rather than later. I have two options: 1) Since the major damage is done around the fireplace I could just lay tile around the fireplace so that it looks okay while I pull together money for the floor and 2) I could wait until Costco has one of their sales on laminate wood flooring and just do the entire house for $1.50/sqr-foot.

I’ll keep you guys updated on what happens next.

1. make sure my budget is targeted for four fifths of my total net earnings.
2. Start the process of selling things I do not really need.
3. Stop buying things I don’t need.
4. Find out exactly how much debt I have.
5. Find out how much I can afford to pay.
6. Find out what kind of debt I have.

Let’s start with the bad news…
Despite my best efforts to save money I gave in and got my fiancee a dog for her wedding gift and tickets to Wicked for her main Christmas gift. And as you might have guessed they both went on the card…and they weren’t cheap. Fortunately, we were able to pay cash for most of the rest of the Christmas gifts for our two families.

Along with booking the honeymoon, this holiday season has proven to be very expensive.

But there’s a light at the end of the tunnel. I just received a bonus at work that has helped us pay off the rest of our short term debt for the wedding and has freed up some extra change at the end of each month that we will be using to pay off our cars faster. We’re also working on what I like to call an ‘Oh Sh*t’ account, which we will use for all those lovely surprises that tend to show up from time to time.

We have also rented out a room in our home to a friend which will allow us to have some extra money to pay debt off faster.

If all goes well we should be able to pay off both of our cars by the end of 2009.

...now hopefully everything just goes as planned.

The majority of my debt comes from student loans. I know this kind of debt is normally considered an investment but since I’m getting married in February I now have to worry about the burden I’m giving to my new wife. So, the debt has got to go, and soon.

My first goal is to eliminate my credit card debt so that I free up enough money to blitz my student loans. I currently have two credit cards. One is an old credit card that has a high limit and the other is a new credit card with a low limit. I have locked up my high limit credit card in hopes that this would keep me from ever charging anything to it. So far it is working. I am keeping my low-limit credit card in my wallet for emergencies but since it has a low limit that should hopefully mean that I can’t rack up too much of a debt on it.

...wish me luck. Any advice would be well appreciated.

ZERO OWED

Creation of the nest egg. Ok-let’s see how fast I can do this!!!

By April, I will only have one school loan and the car loan. The goal is to make those disappear within two years if not sooner. Before that plan gets serious attention, I need to create a strong nest egg. Debt arises when one is unable to support themselves within their means.

I need to expand my means.

Just so many extra expenses…not paying anything off now…at least not anything extra (over and above normal monthly payments)...hopefully can start pushing some extra cash towards this soon!

My credit card really took a knock this christmas. I need to pay it of and want to start using it as a savings account. Big debt problem is car and house!