Debt Dumpers - 2018

[StacyStrong]

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[StacyStrong]

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[amalone1013]

OMG you're hitting everything I'm stressing about.

Right now, I only have 100 being targeted to principal. I can make that $600 targeted, but then my accrued interest will continue to grow on every loan I'm not targeting. That freaks me out!!! I can't figure out which is better.

My car is paid off March 2019 so I'll be targeting the extra 300 a month at principal, but aside from that, I don't know if my regular additional payments should go to principal or if I should keep my accrued interest low.

I need to see a financial advisor but they are so expensive.

Is the $100 to principal spread across all of your loans? Or just one? There's some calculators that will help run scenarios for multiple loans/interest rates, they're just harder to find online it seems. That could help. DH and I had 10 loans each that ranged in interest from 2.5% up to 6.5%. We went by interest rate and started with the highest and knocked it out, then moved onto the next, etc. We owed around $100k combined. I know some just go by the loan balance, and pay the smallest first because they like that win to keep them motivated. Typically you save more paying the higher interest stuff first, but it kind of depends on the timeline/amounts/rates/etc to see what kind of difference it might make. I would think that targeting the higher interest loans first would help you the most since you're looking to make sure your tax bill is as low as can be down the line. But a calculator could help figure that out.

ETA: maybe this could help?
https://tools.doughroller.net/debt-snowball-calculator/

 

[StacyStrong]

Is the $100 to principal spread across all of your loans? Or just one? There's some calculators that will help run scenarios for multiple loans/interest rates, they're just harder to find online it seems. That could help. DH and I had 10 loans each that ranged in interest from 2.5% up to 6.5%. We went by interest rate and started with the highest and knocked it out, then moved onto the next, etc. We owed around $100k combined. I know some just go by the loan balance, and pay the smallest first because they like that win to keep them motivated. Typically you save more paying the higher interest stuff first, but it kind of depends on the timeline/amounts/rates/etc to see what kind of difference it might make. I would think that targeting the higher interest loans first would help you the most since you're looking to make sure your tax bill is as low as can be down the line. But a calculator could help figure that out.

ETA: maybe this could help?
https://tools.doughroller.net/debt-snowball-calculator/

The 100 is targeted at one specific loan (highest interest, but lowest balance at that rate)! I use student loan hero and it's pretty good with calculators.

Thanks for the help! I'll check that one out too

 

[DisneyMandC]

OMG you're hitting everything I'm stressing about.

Right now, I only have 100 being targeted to principal. I can make that $600 targeted, but then my accrued interest will continue to grow on every loan I'm not targeting. That freaks me out!!! I can't figure out which is better.

My car is paid off March 2019 so I'll be targeting the extra 300 a month at principal, but aside from that, I don't know if my regular additional payments should go to principal or if I should keep my accrued interest low.

I need to see a financial advisor but they are so expensive.

Is the $100 to principal spread across all of your loans? Or just one? There's some calculators that will help run scenarios for multiple loans/interest rates, they're just harder to find online it seems. That could help. DH and I had 10 loans each that ranged in interest from 2.5% up to 6.5%. We went by interest rate and started with the highest and knocked it out, then moved onto the next, etc. We owed around $100k combined. I know some just go by the loan balance, and pay the smallest first because they like that win to keep them motivated. Typically you save more paying the higher interest stuff first, but it kind of depends on the timeline/amounts/rates/etc to see what kind of difference it might make. I would think that targeting the higher interest loans first would help you the most since you're looking to make sure your tax bill is as low as can be down the line. But a calculator could help figure that out.

ETA: maybe this could help?
https://tools.doughroller.net/debt-snowball-calculator/

I agree with @amalone1013, you might want to use a calculator and try to figure out where to target the money. I totally get not wanting your interest to keep accruing on your other loans, but you may find that if you hit your higher interest loans really hard with principal, you'll end up better in the long run. Paying the smaller loans first is also a great way to stay motivated, as she mentioned, but does mean you'll have more interest on your bigger loans.

There are several different ways to do it, and no one in this group judges how you want to pay! Some do higher interest loans first, some do smaller monetary amounts of loans first. When DH and I were balancing his car payment, a personal loan payment, and two student loan payments, we chose to target his car payment first even though mathematically it didn't make sense. The loan was only 1.9% interest compared to 4-6.5% on the other loans, but the car payment was $500/mo. Freeing up that $500/mo was more important to us than the $150/mo on the personal loan.

 

[Ngwira]

Girllllll, you get me. So many of my law school friends have parents the paid for their schools, vacations, down payments, etc. And that's truly wonderful. I have no I'll will reward them. But that's just but me. I grew up comfortable middle class, though my parents had struggles I didn't know, but they weren't able to contribute to my education outside of taking parent plus loans and they certainly can't afford to give much large chunks of change as a gift. That's fine with me. My family is incredibly supportive in other ways.

So now I'm here making the best of what is in front of me. Do I wish I took out less in student loans? Yes but I can't do anything about it now. Would I prefer moving out again (I just moved in with my boyfriend's mom and brother this time last year), yes, but this saves us money and we are comfortable.

It'll be a couple more years, at least, I imagine, but it is what it is. I could cut my loan payments in half, stop contributing to retirement, move out and live pay check to pay check but ....WHY???? Especially when our families aren't overbearing.

Another lawyer here that feels your pain concerning student loans. All I can tell you is it does get better. As you advance in your career and your pay grows, things will get easier. To add context, DH is also an Attorney with student loans (we met in law school). We have 2 kids, student loans and a mortgage, and we got married a year after graduating from law school. To top it off, DH and I did not have ANY help from our parents with law school or undergrad so loans were the only way we could go.

You are wise by choosing to live with his folks to pay down your debt. Many people don't have that option. The older you get, the more you'll realize that the opinion that matters most is the ONE YOU HAVE ABOUT YOURSELF. Don't worry about what others think. As long as you are secure in yourself and are following the path that makes sense for YOU, keep at it.

Other posters will tell you that despite my debt, I REALLY enjoy my vacations..lol. There is a way to do both-pay down your debt and still enjoy life by travelling. Don't let others tell you otherwise. You can be responsible and still vacation. We are all here to support you and will not pass judgment. Welcome to the debt dumpers board!

 

[StacyStrong]

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[bethwc101]

We are looking at being debt free by Feb. 2019!
We will have both the ccs paid off by Oct and then the car and dirtbike payment is left.

 

[DisneyMandC]

As I mentioned about a month ago, some of the uncertainty at my office has ramped up. There are no immediate threats to anyone's job currently, but since we work for an elected officer there may be some concern this fall. My job should be safe regardless of what happens, and if worst came to worst I would feel comfortable at this stage opening my own practice or joining a friend's practice. I feel bad for several of my coworkers who are higher up and are very concerned that they might get axed. It's all too early to tell, but I'm wondering if I should maybe knock out some more of my student loan and try to squirrel some money away. I'm down to $3775 owed on it.

 

[Ngwira]

As I mentioned about a month ago, some of the uncertainty at my office has ramped up. There are no immediate threats to anyone's job currently, but since we work for an elected officer there may be some concern this fall. My job should be safe regardless of what happens, and if worst came to worst I would feel comfortable at this stage opening my own practice or joining a friend's practice. I feel bad for several of my coworkers who are higher up and are very concerned that they might get axed. It's all too early to tell, but I'm wondering if I should maybe knock out some more of my student loan and try to squirrel some money away. I'm down to $3775 owed on it.

I think you should pay off as much as you can and squirrel away for a rainy day. About 10 years ago, a similar thing occurred at my employer. A new Governor was elected and it was SCARY. I won't give too many details so as to give away my identity, but I never regretted keeping a lean budget when times were tough. To this day the lesson of keeping expenses low and savings squirreled away has stayed with me.

If you have the extra funds, why not pay that $4k student loan off? Given the possible tough times ahead, pare down your debt and save as much as you can just in case things take a turn for the worst. You likely won't regret it.

 

[StacyStrong]

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[DisneyMandC]

I think you should pay off as much as you can and squirrel away for a rainy day. About 10 years ago, a similar thing occurred at my employer. A new Governor was elected and it was SCARY. I won't give too many details so as to give away my identity, but I never regretted keeping a lean budget when times were tough. To this day the lesson of keeping expenses low and savings squirreled away has stayed with me.

If you have the extra funds, why not pay that $4k student loan off? Given the possible tough times ahead, pare down your debt and save as much as you can just in case things take a turn for the worst. You likely won't regret it.

Yeah, my budget was busted this month by a couple different factors (annual purchase of hay for my horses, 6 month car insurance due), but next month I should be in much better shape budget-wise other than my DL trip. I'm about $700 shy of what I need to pay it off, so maybe I'll try to budget any leftover money for July to that and do another big payoff in August. I paid down $1100 of it this month, which felt good! I'm also getting a raise next week. I was originally going to take the extra money and put it towards my IRA, but perhaps for now I'll budget that extra to the student loan.

Will you lose your forgiveness if you join a firm? Hmm, I suppose it won't matter too much if you're down to $3775

I have more than that, so I would lose the PSLF which would stink. The $3775 is one that can't be forgiven. Again, this is all total conjecture for the absolute worst case scenario, which is unlikely to happen. I do work in a pretty niche area though, and (not trying to sound at all like a braggart) I've had several private practice attorneys approach me before to try to get me to come work with them since they hate doing this type of work. So I think I could make decent money at it- I just don't really want to be self-employed since I grew up watching my parents own their own business and know how much fun that is.

 

[Eureka]

Guy called me back about the van this morning. The AC condenser and radiator were hit in the accident and were leaking. Plus some support was bent. Would be $1800 to fix. So we're not. If we can get over there tomorrow after work, we'll take our stuff out of it and ask for someone there to be our point person so when the place we're going to donate it to comes, they can take the tags off and let us know to come get them. (And we need to pay them the $130 for the diagnostics, which is fine by me, they always go above and beyond for us). And then we have to go car shopping, which I do not particularly enjoy. But at least we know early in the week what needs doing so hopefully can have it all done by the time DS gets home on Saturday.

 

[Aurora_Australis]

ETA: maybe this could help?
https://tools.doughroller.net/debt-snowball-calculator/

Great timing! Was just coming in to ask about this.

 

[disney-inspired]

Well, Murphy was bound to show up sooner or later, right?
My dog had a quickly growing swelling in her leg and was limping. Took her to the animal hospital and $488 hours later, she was ready to go home. She had a foxtail that created an abscess and the vet had to lance it and flush it out with antibiotics.
Thankful I have my emergency fund and that my parents are splitting the cost as it's the 'family' dog.
So having to replenish $244 won't take too long or detract from my progress, I'm just going to put a pause on my WDW savings for a week or two.

 

[Tygerlilly]

17 hours of overtime on this check means I can pay all our bills this week, catch up on the couple I had to shuffle from last check, AND I can replenish our freezer and pantry!

I'm already signed up for 2 extra days this week and 1 day next week (and should be able to grab a 2nd day easily), which should net about 25 hours of ot on the next check. Now that we're caught up, that should be able to go straight to either one set of personal loans or his truck balance.

Combined balance of our personal loans is about $1500 ($220/month). The truck is $1800 ($370/month). Which would you tackle first?

 

[amalone1013]

17 hours of overtime on this check means I can pay all our bills this week, catch up on the couple I had to shuffle from last check, AND I can replenish our freezer and pantry!

I'm already signed up for 2 extra days this week and 1 day next week (and should be able to grab a 2nd day easily), which should net about 25 hours of ot on the next check. Now that we're caught up, that should be able to go straight to either one set of personal loans or his truck balance.

Combined balance of our personal loans is about $1500 ($220/month). The truck is $1800 ($370/month). Which would you tackle first?

I would probably go by interest rate, because they aren't too different balance wise/payment wise... but this would be great for putting in a calculator or spreadsheet to play with. That's probably what I'd do, see how different it is Before DH got his new vehicle last month, his old car had an interest rate of 1.9% and mine is at 0%, but my payment is $100 more. When I compared, paying mine off first meant it took one month longer overall to pay off both, and cost $200 more, but we decided we'd rather have the bigger payment over with first. Sooooo obviously we didn't go by interest rate here, that was a silly statement to start with!

 

[Ngwira]

DH is getting a raise according to his boss. We just don't know how much yet. Great opportunity to pay off some of our student loan debt.

 

[imbatman]

Bright side, at least he owned up to his mistake and is still on track with what he told you he was going to do.

I don't remember you mentioning a trip to Tokyo previously. That sounds amazing! Other bright side, it's Friday and the weekend.

Yup, he totally stepped up to the plate! We sat down last night and I showed him the projections. He stroked his beard and said, "I'll keep plugging away for overtime."

A whirlwind Tokyo trip. I'm really excited! Trying to come up with a whirlwind tour plan, since the people we are visiting go by the seat of their pants. We ain't got time for that!

Well, I haven't been successful with dumping any debt since moving, but that was pretty much expected with getting settled in and the expenses that come with that.

We all have those times. Hang in there!

It's set for direct deposit. Apparently a routing or account number was misentered, and getting it corrected is taking a while.

You may check with your state payroll laws. I know in our state, the money HAS to be given to the employee on the pay date OR as soon as the mistake is found. Even if they have to cut a manual check.

I had to take my dog to the animal hospital today and they ended up having to lance an abscess to get a foxtail out. They gave antibiotics and pain meds all to the tune of $488.

Thankful I have an emergency fund for this sort of thing.

Not sure if you have the stomach for it, but I've learned that some of those procedures can be done at home. Just did this exact thing for our old dog two weeks ago. Usually, the dogs don't need the antibiotics once the wound is cleaned and irrigated, and kept clean (scabs over). And they are out of pain after a few hours. I only learned how to do it after a $512 foxtail procedure myself. BUT, I don't mess with ones in the ear.

I agree with @amalone1013, you might want to use a calculator and try to figure out where to target the money. I totally get not wanting your interest to keep accruing on your other loans, but you may find that if you hit your higher interest loans really hard with principal, you'll end up better in the long run. Paying the smaller loans first is also a great way to stay motivated, as she mentioned, but does mean you'll have more interest on your bigger loans.

There are several different ways to do it, and no one in this group judges how you want to pay! Some do higher interest loans first, some do smaller monetary amounts of loans first. When DH and I were balancing his car payment, a personal loan payment, and two student loan payments, we chose to target his car payment first even though mathematically it didn't make sense. The loan was only 1.9% interest compared to 4-6.5% on the other loans, but the car payment was $500/mo. Freeing up that $500/mo was more important to us than the $150/mo on the personal loan.

USE THAT SNOWBALL! Yes, that's in caps because it works! I'll be debt free, with the exception of a mortgage, by the end of next year because I calculated on it.

Thanks guys!

Who knew the Dis would turn into a support group for debt burdened JDs?

I also edited the heck out of that initial post. I reread it and saw how bad my phone typing was lol. Awful.

This budget board is filled to the brim with help. I know...I joined in January and have had nothing but love and support.

We are looking at being debt free by Feb. 2019!
We will have both the ccs paid off by Oct and then the car and dirtbike payment is left.

WHY has no one done a debt-free banana dance for you?! Let the dancing begin:

 

[disney-inspired]

Not sure if you have the stomach for it, but I've learned that some of those procedures can be done at home. Just did this exact thing for our old dog two weeks ago. Usually, the dogs don't need the antibiotics once the wound is cleaned and irrigated, and kept clean (scabs over). And they are out of pain after a few hours. I only learned how to do it after a $512 foxtail procedure myself. BUT, I don't mess with ones in the ear.

I would be more worried about causing her serious pain as they gave her a narcotic to do the procedure. Also it was really close to her hoohah, so steered clear of home remedies as she was not even letting me lift her leg.