by Hope
This has been a month for the history books and the goal of getting out of debt in 2021 is closer than ever. I’ve worked a record number of hours between my new corporate job and maintaining a handful of existing clients for my business. I’ve made a record amount of money.
I figured it was time for a debt update.
| Student Loan #1 | $17,000.00 | $3,478.45 | $0 | 2.88% | $0 |
| Student Loan #2 | $21,750.03 | $19,184.23 | $19,242.59 | 2.88% | $306 |
| Honda HRV | $21,200.00 | $16,012.86 | $12,769.08 | 3% | $1,600 |
| Total | $59,950.03 | $38,675.54 | $32,011.67 | $1,906 |
Getting Out of Debt
My student loans are on auto-pay as of this month, the $306 is the minimum required payment. I will continue to pay this amount every month until my car is paid off. I hate that the interest caused this loan to grow over the last couple of months.
Even if the government suspends required student loan payments again, I have decided to keep paying this amount. It makes it easier to keep my records and budget. (And it will at least minimally chip away at this larger debt.)
Car Payment
I am upping my minimum monthly car payment to $2,000 per month. (This month I paid $2,200 toward my car as my income was higher than I anticipated after all the deductions.) If there are additional monies after my monthly budget and maxing out my 2020 ROTH, they will go toward my car payment.
This is getting real…I am getting out of debt in 2021 or at least mostly!
ROTH
I have $$$ diverted to my ROTH account with every paycheck. However, there is no way, that I have found, to attribute that to 2020 instead of 2021. Therefore, I have been making additional contributions manually so that I can set those as 2020 contributions. My goal was to max out 2020 by 3rd new paycheck. I’m going to miss that by just a little bit. So it will take me until the end of February to reach to $6,000 goal. (Remember, I did begin contributing back in the fall of 2020 so I am not having to make up the entire $6,000.)
Hope is a creative, solutions-focused business manager helping clients grow their business and work more efficiently by leveraging expertise in project management, digital marketing, & tech solutions. She’s recently become an empty nester as her 5 foster/adoptive kids have spread their wings. She lives with her 3 dogs in a small town in NE Georgia and prefers the mountains to the beaches any day. She struggles with the travel bug and is doing her best to help each of her kids as their finish schooling and become independent (but it’s hard!) She has run her own consulting company for almost twenty years! Hope began sharing her journey with the BAD community in the Spring of 2015 and feels like she has finally in a place to really focus on making wise financial decisions.
I’m proud of you Hope. When you’re frustrated at work keep your eyes on the goal. Even if you only stick it out for two years, pay off all your debt, and build some retirement savings you’ll be in a much better place.
Yes, that has been a constant reminder in my head and from my boyfriend.
Day dreaming of when I just have my day to day bills which are pretty reasonable these days thanks to all the cutting back and getting smarter over the years.
Keep your eyes on the prize. Bring debt free with a heathy EF gives you freedom.
Good for you!!
Daaaaang Hope. You’re on fire! Cheering you on for an epic year of paying off debt. You’re going to have your paid off car title in hand in no time!
Yes, every week when I do my money, I play with my monthly payments to see when that date will be…sometimes it’s August, sometimes June but either way it’s coming!
For Student Loan 2, is your minimum payment less than the interest so that’s why the balance is going up? Shouldn’t the minimum payment be paying down the loan (slowly) over time, not making it bigger?
I didn’t make any payments the last couple of months of the year as I prepared for my job transition. I wanted to hold on to as much cash as possible to make it a stress free transition. Now that I’m on an auto pay schedule, this won’t happen again.
That’s great, Hope! Congratulations!
This is really encouraging to see! You’ve had a long haul, and the end is in sight! Congratulations!