by Ashley
Another month is over – time for another debt update!
November was a good month! In some regards it was pretty pricey (hello, new house!!!), but in other ways we were able to be thrifty and save. In the end, we had a decent debt-payment in November and are expecting an even BIGGER one in December! Our first mortgage payment isn’t due until January and rather than let the “extra” money float away (or be absorbed into holiday/Christmas stuff), hubs and I have purposely budgeted to make a big debt payment this month.
Here’s how we did in November:
| Place | Current Balance | APR | Last Payment Made | Last Payment Date | Original debt, March 2014 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Navient | $68684 | 6.55% | $2000 | November | $82433 |
| Balance Transfer Student Loan #2 | $4000 | 0% (through April 2017) | $600 | November | $7650 |
| Medical Bills | $5661 | 0% | $25 | November | $9000 |
| Balance Transfer student loan #1 | $0 | 0% | - | Paid off in March 2016 | $5937 |
| PenFed Car Loan | $0 | 2.49% | - | Paid off in January 2016 | $24040 |
| License Fees | $0 | 2.5% | - | Paid off in April 2015 | $5808 |
| BoA CC | $0 | 7.24% | - | Paid off in June 2014 | $2220 |
| Mattress Firm | $0 | 0% | - | Paid off in May 2014 | $1381 |
| Wells Fargo CC | $0 | 13.65% | - | Paid off in May 2014 | $7697 |
| Capital One CC | $0 | 17.9% | - | Paid off in March 2014 | $413 |
| Totals | $78,345 (Oct balance = 80,712) | $2625 | Starting Debt = $145,472 |
YOU GUYS!!!! Not only are we finally in a new digit (in the $70,000’s instead of $80’000s), but we are THISCLOSE to reaching the half-way mark in our debt journey!!! We started at about $145,000 so when our total debt reaches $72,000 we’ll officially be HALF WAY to debt-freedom! It’s only a few thousand away!
Our debt reduction journey began when I was selected to start blogging here in March 2014. My goal is to have officially hit our half-way point by my 3-year bloggiversary in March 2017. I can’t believe I’ve been around so long! Initially when I began here I thought I’d only be blogging until our credit card debt was gone…but then I ended up hitting it out of the park and eradicated our credit card debt in just THREE months (I thought it would take a year or longer!)! I wasn’t done yet, so I decided to stick around for the long-haul. So glad to have so many of you as readers for this entire time (and welcome to new readers!)
It’s also time to begin thinking about 2017 financial goals. Goal-setting has always been one of my “things.” I really enjoy setting goals in different aspects of life (e.g., financial, work, personal, etc.) and I frequently take stock to see how things are going. I’ll be working on a post soon where I discuss the outcome of 2016’s financial goals and I lay out a plan of goals for 2017 moving forward. I’m excited to start seeing this debt really melt away as we near the half-way mark. Can’t wait!
What financial goals did you make for 2016? How are you doing on them?
Hi, I’m Ashley! Arizonan on paper, Texan at heart. Lover of running, blogging, and all things cheeeeese. Freshly 40, married mother of two, working in academia. Trying to finally (finally!) pay off that ridiculous 6-digit student loan debt!
Wow! Almost halfway is awesome. I was wondering, when the only debt you have is your house are you going to continue on BAD or post occasionally as this is a rather large commitment. Also, are you going to add your mortgage to your debt list?
My initial thought is no & no (I wouldn’t stay after our only debt is the house, so i won’t be adding it to debt list).
But that being said, I also never thought I’d be around this long, so who knows?
Congrats girl!
I forget if you’ve mentioned it, but what’s your plan with the balance transfer loan?
Definitely paying it off by April. And then I may transfer another student loan balance. With all the consolidation companies I’ve been looking into recently, I really am not being offered a huge savings in interest. So this balance transfer is really the best rate I’ve got available to me (2% initiation and 0% APR for 6 months). I may write another blog post about this because I was really surprised by the lack of competitive interest rates in terms of consolidation (especially after we just got a killer rate on our mortgage – 2.9%). Sooooo….I don’t know/haven’t decided what to do with that moving forward.
Congrats on being so close to half way! We had a goal of smashing all of my student loan debt in 2016. We got really close, but not quite there (paid off about $40k of my $45k). Then its on to knocking out hubby’s debt.. $571k! yikes! Here’s to an even better 2017!
Hi Ashley! Amazing progress! I’ve always wondered this – can you please explain how you do the 0% loan transfer? do you ask your credit cards for a 0% time period or do you just open up a new credit card with the 0% offer? i have tons of small student loans that i wish i could just knock out and would love to pay them all off at 0%!!
Hey Ashley!
Congrats on the new house! #winning
I’m trying to send you an email about my experience sleeping in the woods for 4 months to pay off debt but the “Contact Us” email address doesn’t seem to be working. Mind pointing me in the right direction? (Or just email me at the email I’m leaving in the details =) )
Best,
Charlie