Ditchin' Debt

If you have heard about Dave Ramsey you’ve heard him talk and praise about the debt snowball. The debt snowball is when you pay off debt from lowest monthly payment to highest and disregard the interest. There is another known way of paying off debt called the avalanche method. That is when you pay your highest interest rate debt and disregard monthly payment. But which one is more time efficient? Let’s find out! The following are random amounts and interest rates to give a good idea on the time it will take to pay off the most common kind of debt. The debt: Credit card: Amount: $8,000 monthly payment: $264 interest rate 15% Student loan Amount: $10,000 For 10 years Monthly amount: $88 Interest rate: 6% House loan Amount: $9,000 for 6 months Monthly amount: 125 Interest rate: 0% Car loan Amount: $15,000 for 5 years Monthly amount: $262 Interest rate: 5% Debt snowball method: If we were to do the debt snowball method, the order would be student loans, h...

We are living in uncertain times. People are being laid off, we can’t leave our homes, it’s a real mess. But, with this time you can prepare yourself and your families for the foreseeable future by learning about personal finance. You don’t have to be a expert on personal finance you just need to know enough to get by. With this check everyone is getting from the government it’s a great place to start! I have no interest in politics, and I don’t know where the government made this money appear from, but I’m trying to get myself and my family out of debt not the United States! So free money is free money, as long as I don’t need to pay it back later with interest. So let’s pretend you’re a family of 3, you’ll be getting 3k from the government (woohoo). Instead of putting that towards a bill, save some of it. People have a lot of opinions on how much they should save for an emergency fund. My opinion is, it depends. When we receive the check, we’ll be putting at least 1k in our s...

After five years at the same company, I was laid off. It came as a real shock, but I was getting the feeling something bad was going to happen. I was asked to come to a meeting room and two people from HR were there with a folder. They gave me information about cobra and asked if I had any questions. Obviously, I was still in shock so I said no. They asked for my badge and told me I had to leave and couldn't go back to my desk, which was filled with pop toys, my 8-month-old basil plant, and pictures of my daughter. Just like that, I didn't have a job or income. That happened on the 19th of February. A week has gone by and I'm getting into a rhythm of breakfast, games, applying for jobs, lunch, cleaning the house, repeat. But I'm really missing going to work. There's a saying, "you don't appreciate something until it's gone." and I feel that.  Being laid off also threw a huge wrench in my "get out of debt" plan. The plan is being ...

Being able to control what you spend is crucial in getting out of debt. The easiest way to cut costs is to find out what you can cut and what you can't cut.  Let's take my budget for example. There are three items that I can't cut because of how fixed they are. Those items are my mortgage, my daughter's daycare, and my debt. Now, there are ways to lower these amounts whether it's refinancing your mortgage, finding an alternative daycare provider, or consolidating your student loans or other loans. But assuming you've done all you can do like we have, then we're sitting at about 83% of my spending I can't touch or do anything about. Now, this number may scare some but we're working on getting out of debt right? So that percentage will slowly go down over time. We got this! Now, the other 17% we can move around and change to an extent. That percentage consists of Utilities, Cable, Groceries, and Gas. Some ways you can cut these cost is by l...

This week we focused on staying on budget. I also applied and was accepted to an affiliate program which I'm very excited about! I'm looking up a lot of information on affiliate marketing and best practices. Some of the info I've learned is how to market the products on Pinterest. I plan on doing most of the affiliate marketing on there, and maybe sprinkle some cool products on twitter and the blog. Right now I am using ShareASale to find affiliate links to try and make money. My strategy is to find programs that will help people get out of debt. So far I am doing affiliate stuff for a Cashback website called DollarDig ( https://shareasale.com/r.cfm?b=569535&u=2292638&m=51865&urllink=&afftrack=  ) and a discount jewelry store called Balla.  (https://shareasale.com/r.cfm?b=785753&u=2292638&m=52317&urllink=&afftrack= ) For those of you interested, the way I can make money with these company's is if you click on the links and register ...

This week was crazy for us. We are officially refinanced (which took what feels like an eternity) and this is our first week paying more for a whole week of daycare because my father, who normally watches my daughter on Thursdays, had surgery and is out of commission for a month or so. We are a bit worried about money this week because we've been paying so much debt the past three weeks. I think we went a little too hard but we'll be ok! So this week we didn't pay anything off, but we did start our taxes! We're expecting a lot for our tax return which we're hoping will make a nice dent towards our last credit card and our Disney trip we have planned. I know you're not supposed to go on vacation while doing this whole get out of debt journey but let's be real. As much as I love listening to Dave Ramsey every morning, he would say not to go on vacation until all my debt is paid off. But, I'm not a super hardcore Ramsinite who follows EVERYTHING he ...

I started this blog in October and since then I have gained 50+ followers every month. At first, I didn’t know what I was doing. I had a twitter account but I didn’t use it to promote anything, it was just to see what other people were tweeting about. I had a plan of attack when I started the twitter, and I'm going to tell you how I managed to get my followers. *As a disclaimer, I don’t have thousands of twitter followers. But with the numbers I’m getting, I’m heading in that direction* Tweet at least three times a day Tweeting at least three times a day helped me get into using my twitter more. This also shows people that you use your twitter and it’s an account that they should be following. What I did when I started is I would do a personal tweet, a blog related tweet (personal finance), and I would reply to someone who tweeted something. Be SOCIAL on Social Media It is VERY important to interact with people you follow and that follow you. If you are constantly...

This week, we didn't pay off as much as I would have liked to. BUT we still paid off something which is what I care about. We have a good reason why we didn't pay off as much as in the previous weeks. We paid off: Medical bill ✓ As of January 1st, we have paid off $1,678.46! Now you may be wondering why we only paid off one debt this week when we paid off so much debt the previous week. Remember last week when I said "We wanted to make sure we still had enough money left to pay for utilities and other bills later in the month." and week one I talked about Murphy's law . Well, it was smart of me to not pay off so much because Murphy came around! In my previous blog post  Refinancing your mortgage, and what you need to know!  I mentioned that we were refinancing our mortgage, which will finally be done this month. Well with doing a refinance there are closing costs on top of closing costs, apparently.  Luckily, most places can put the closing c...

This week was huge for us! We FINALLY started our debt-free journey and let me tell you, I'm hooked! We paid off: Wifes Credit Card  ✓ Lowes Credit Card  ✓ Old ER bill  ✓ Electrical outlet job  ✓ We wanted to pay off more but we also want to be cautious. We wanted to make sure we still had enough money left to pay for utilities and other bills later in the month. As of January 1st, we have paid off $1,620.04 ! Pretty good for only 2 weeks into January! The plan for next week is to pay off 2 dental bills , and another medical bill and next month we start chipping away at my credit card. My Credit card is the largest one we have. About two years ago we purchased a new roof that went on both my wife’s credit card and my credit card. Then a few months ago we bought a new furnace for our home that I had to put the rebate amount on my credit card. It’s going to feel so good lifting that weight off our shoulders! If I were to do it over again I would h...

Every week I’d like to do a weekly report of our progress getting out of debt (I know we’re finally starting) I’m not one to jump into something without doing a lot of research and obsessing over it for a few months. This week we paid $100 towards debt. Not a lot but it’s something. We have a bunch of pending medical bills that we’re paying before we tackle our credit cards (which I can’t wait to do) After paying off the $100, the next day we had to take my one and a half-year-old daughter to the ER. She was diagnosed with RSV, bronchitis, and pneumonia. Instead of putting the $150 on my credit card I paid for it fully! I was talking to my wife about how Murphy’s law really does poke their head out when you’re trying to do something new, or get out of debt. I won’t let Murphy control us though! I would like to pay off some sort of debt every week. Next week I would like to pay off 2 more bills that have been pending for a bit. Slow and steady wins the race! We are...