Debt Dumpers - 2018

I think I'm going to go ahead and pay $1000 towards my student loan next week... makes me anxious but there's no point having the money sit in savings earning 1% interest when my student loan is accruing 5% interest! After that payment, my loan will be down to $3700.

I know this feeling. :thumbsup2
This is exactly why I emptied my new car fund and paid off our home equity loan back in April. Having savings is one thing, but having a LOT of savings but still paying interest on debt is counterproductive.:scratchin
 
Well my daughter and her boyfriend have decided they are going to get married in November of this year. I believe I can make it happen for $2500 or less (thankful for a small family and small circle of friends) but it’s another expense I probably don’t need at this point!!
 


Mid-month check in. Made an extra payment on the car and my student loan. We are leaving tomorrow for our 4 day WDW trip. Gift cards should cover our AP's and room balance due to me upgrading from POR to Grand Floridian. We do have to pay for food, though (I have funds saved up).

Got our water bill and it's less than half of what it normally is ($25 versus $60). I also took $250 out of our miscellaneous fund to buy tickets to NY Comic Con in October. DH and I are dressing up as Storm and Black Panther. We also will no longer have our before and after care bill since kids are in camp so that should provide some extra funds.

Hope everyone is chugging along!
 
First, congrats on all the weddings! Whew, what a busy time!
Are you looking for an IRA or just an investment account? If you want to add to your retirement account, it's usually better to just increase the amount deducted from your pay so you don't owe federal taxes on that income. You could also put after-tax (take home pay) into a Roth IRA which doesn’t have the same tax benefit as investing pretax but you also don’t have to pay income tax down the road when you start withdrawing that money.



I've been with Vanguard for 25 years through my work and love them. I started with them in my early 20s as a tax-shelter my employer offered. Now they have about half of my retirement account. They have a LOT of funds to choose from with a wide range of risk.



Last year I had been saving for a big trip this summer ($10,000 for a cruise to Norway). When I found out I wasn’t able to get that week off work, we decided to skip the trip until next year so we opened a joint investment account with Vanguard. Personally, we love the Vanguard US Growth fund. The annual returns are much higher than others and even the 10-yr avg. is pretty good considering this timeframe includes the economic issues of 2008/09 when all accounts were losing money.

I also look what a fund has earned since inception. Many of the Vanguard funds have been around since the 1920s, 1950s, etc. Of course nothing is guaranteed.

Vanguard funds are usually “no-load” which some investment companies charge a fee such as 5%, called a load, just to invest. What a racket...



If you have family in the business, that’s great place to start and hopefully get trustworthy advice!
Wow, see-this is why I brought my question to the DIS.
I figure I have 20 years to put money away-for real.
Thanks for the advice.
I cannot have money taken out of my check, since I work for a church-I do have a Pension with them and the money of return keeps going up each year. I just got a notice that I will be receiving $880 a month, it used to be $650. Hopefully It will be up to $1500 when I retire.
 
We are what DR would call "ish". We have started following his principles, though we do play the credit card game (and pay off our balances every month). Just over a year ago we started his plan. My DH loves it because for him, it addresses one of his life concerns: retirement. His mom had to medically retire at an early age and has been living on SSI and workers comp since. He didn't want to live like that. We are on steps 4-6 right now.

On July 1, we get to make our first extra principle payment on the house. It will be just over $1k extra to principle! Woo hoo!

@OhMari , DR suggests putting 15% of your income into a ROTH account. Of that, it should be split 4 ways, 25% in each category: growth, growth & income, international, and aggressive growth. (In simpler terms: small cap, med cap, large cap, and international/world)

To everyone else: Good job and keep plugging along!
 


Well my daughter and her boyfriend have decided they are going to get married in November of this year. I believe I can make it happen for $2500 or less (thankful for a small family and small circle of friends) but it’s another expense I probably don’t need at this point!!

Congratulations!! pixiedust:
 
i just stumbled on this page. We are also getting out of some debt this year too. We are following the Dave Ramsey plan. Any other DR followers?

We are semi-DR. I love, love, LOVE the snowball method of paying down debt. Personally, I couldn't get as drastic as he suggests; it felt too much like a crash diet. I was afraid it would make me give up too easily. Instead, we focused on needs vs. wants and stuck with needs as much as possible. We did still travel during the snowball step mostly because, again I felt like if I deny myself too much I would get discouraged and quit. Each trip we took though only revitalized my efforts to get right back in the saddle. :banana:


We are currently in step 3 though taking the long way home. I'm currently saving for a fall vacation out west: Grand Canyon, Las Vegas, Disneyland & Sedona. This should be done by the end of June.
After that I'm saving my usual, July and August's snowballs going to our Christmas fund. Then in the fall I'll return to saving up a down payment for a car, either new or new to me. I'm trying not to really look at any cars because once you start getting that itch... it would derail my plans. So for now, to stay strong, I avoid looking & shopping for cars. I'm hoping to be ready to shop near the end of the year and possibly can consider a 2018 model if it's heavily discounted as a leftover.

We already have a pretty good chunk in Vanguard thanks to cancelling our big cruise this summer and dh's inheritance which of course is bittersweet.
By spring we should be done saving our "real" emergency fund and need to decide if we really will do this Norway cruise in 2019 or just attack our mortgage. I'm so torn on that and have flip flopped in my mind 50x so far. "Life is short; enjoy while we can" vs. "We're not 30 anymore; dh has < 10 yrs of work; we should be more 'responsible' with our money. Don't want to retire with a mortgage". I can change my mind faster than I can flip a coin. :rolleyes:
 
We sold our trailer. DH decided he just didn't use it that much anymore and wouldn't with work being busy, and also we were outgrowing it with the kids getting bigger and we'd have to size up in trailer. So anyway, it was sold. That frees up about $35 from storage cost, and then the very small bit it was to insure which was so cheap anyway. But, I've never been much of a trailer and camping fan, so I'm not bummed to see it go.
 
Personally, I couldn't get as drastic as he suggests; it felt too much like a crash diet. (snip)

We did still travel during the snowball step mostly because, again I felt like if I deny myself too much I would get discouraged and quit.
THIS. This is why we failed the first time. Giving every dollar a home was a second and third job for me. It was so depressing not being able to splurge on a dinner or wonder how to come up with some money for a birthday gift for a friend (or your kid's friend) because the money in that envelope is gone.

Could we be paying more towards our debt right now? You betcha. But I also know how badly that would come back and haunt me. I have to take the small wins for now, and having the DH work OT and being on board with the snowball is a win. Also, I keep my eyes out on Groupon for gift certificates for the kids' endless birthday party gifts.
On Friday, June 15th - I paid off my last credit card :banana:
Remaining consumer debts:
2018 - 2019 car insurance (not a debt but I want it paid of ASAP)
Personal loan
car loan
I will join in on your banana dance: :banana:
 
Man, we got hit with hail last night, this time both cars. :sad2: My car got it last year too, wasn't that enough?
 
So, I've been stalking the "I Love CC So Much" thread. First off, holy cow--info overload!

Secondly, does anyone on this board have experience with Plastiq? The idea is intriguing: earn rewards for paying with your CC with a small charge.

Mine would be my car payment ($383.62 currently, and $393.21 with Plastiq). I'm trying to noodle if it's worth it. I'd love to hear if someone on here has used the service.
 
So, I've been stalking the "I Love CC So Much" thread. First off, holy cow--info overload!

Secondly, does anyone on this board have experience with Plastiq? The idea is intriguing: earn rewards for paying with your CC with a small charge.

Mine would be my car payment ($383.62 currently, and $393.21 with Plastiq). I'm trying to noodle if it's worth it. I'd love to hear if someone on here has used the service.

I haven't tried it as my DH would FLIP out about paying fees. He already gives me grief about the annual fees on the credit cards.

Unfortunately for me, DH does the bills so I can't even try it. I'll just stick with applying for cc. LOL
 

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