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Nov 3, 2024    |       5 comments

Stay the Course – Pay Off Debt First

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The message I heard from your comments on my post about changing direction to focus on savings was – Not a good idea.

Sounds like staying the course to focus on paying off consumer debt should continue to be priority one. While balancing in some savings. What I’m doing now.

Then pivoting to saving over the student loan debt. Then returning to student loans.

Am I reading the room correctly in this?

Big Rock Priorities

  1. Pay off the remaining $8,600 in credit card debt
  2. Pay off the $2,600 personal loan
  3. Save a solid 6 months of daily living = $36,000
  4. Pay off student loans

Sit Still

I know that selling my house is not a good financial move. I know that.

And as commentors pointed out, it is definitely a decision driven my emotions. Versus smart and logical reasoning.

So for now, I’m going to sit on that decision for a bit longer. It’s still rolling around in my head. But the extended trip and staying with my daughter for a week during her surgery, definitely gave me a different perspective. And really, it’s not something I have to decide now or put a timeline on.

dogs - opie and addie

Even they wonder what I’ll do next.

Having some stability and figuring out why that’s so hard for me is probably a better priority now. I had a good, heart centered talk about just this with my daughter this weekend. Hearing her perspective was eye-opening.

Now I will go forth and devise plans to pay off debt. A plan that is achievable. And not a game. One that can be tracked and measured. That doesn’t rely on me earning extra money from side gigs or selling anything.  A real, honest to goodness plan.

 

 

Nov 1, 2024    |       4 comments

Back to Texas – Extended Again

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In a few weeks, the girls and I will hit the road to drive to Texas for Thanksgiving. The original plan was to drive there and back together. While I was in Texas this past month, that changed.

My dad needs more assistance with sorting some things out at the house. We dealt with a lot of the clutter, rearranged rooms, purged items this last time. However, there remains piles and piles of paperwork and boxes that have been unopened since they moved there 10+ years ago.

While I was there, we decided that the girls will fly back after Thanksgiving and I will remain for some additional time, possibly 2-3 weeks. During that time, I will tackle the piles of paperwork and see if we can get some sort of process for making sure bills don’t fall through the cracks.

The Financial Implications

We are boarding 3 of the 4 dogs (including Jake who currently lives with Princess) for this trip. My dog Addie will go with us. She typically travels with me especially when I’m car camping along the way. Boarding the dogs will run $25 per day per dog. My dad has agreed to cover that cost for the additional time I will be gone.

After we confirmed with the girls that they were good with flying back, my dad booked their return flights. To be honest, I think they were both a bit relieved to get out of the return road trip. And I love solo road trips, so win-win.

In the end, I think this is a good plan. And does not cost me any more money than the original plan. In fact, it saves me some money since I won’t need to pay for a hotel on the trip back home. (I love car camping.) And I’ll save on two – three weeks of groceries since my dad provides food when I’m there.

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