Thanks to the power of putting small yet continuous sums of money against our two loans, we just crossed beneath the $110,000 owed threshold. In just under 6 months, we've paid off over $14,000 in debt. Now, to be fair, that's a little behind where we need to be if we want to be paid off in that 40 month time period. But bear in mind two things:
1. In that time we've gone in to "crisis mode" and socked extra money away in a rainy day account, as well as refinanced our mortgage. Unless something truly insane happens, we won't have to do either of those again in the near future.
2. The later it gets and the more principal we pay down, the less of our regular monthly payment will go toward interest. A regular monthly payment toward a $90,000 mortgage won't lower the principal balance as much as it will if the loan's balance is $20,000. The closer to 40 months we get, the faster the principal reduction starts happening, like snow in an avalanche.
Things will be slowing up in the next few months -- summer means no income from school for me and less piano lesson income -- but we still hope to make great strides in our program. Our next big hurdle (hopefully in the next week or two) is to get the mortgage down below $90,000. Small goals, to be sure, but they help us stay on track and stay focused when we'd rather go out and splurge needlessly.
Monday, May 24, 2010
Thursday, May 20, 2010
Tough Choices
The scene went something like this ...
End of the day, both our heads throbbing, I ask my wife, "Why don't we just grab something to eat on the way home."
She agrees, if only because we're both still shell-shocked from teaching a bunch of 10- and 11-year-olds just a week from summer vacation.
We head to the parking lot, pull out, and head for home. Along the way begins the inevitable discussion.
"We pass right by Subway. You want that?"
She frowns. "We had a coupon for it, but it's at home."
"It's fine," I say. "We've only got $99 charged on the credit card so far this cycle."
"Yeah, but it's so expensive."
We fall into silence for a couple of minutes before she says, "We could do Little Caesars. It's not too far out of the way."
Well, she's right, but it's also right near the interstate, and by the time we get there it'll be the start of rush hour. Heavy traffic and beginnings of a migraine don't go well together, so I hem and haw and finally say, "What about Arby's? That's always good when we've got a headache."
She's quiet for another moment, then drops the bomb.
"We could just eat something at home."
When it comes right down to it, she's the one who more often than not has to reign in our spending. I'm not a spendthrift by any stretch of the imagination, but I don't mind spending five or ten bucks here or there, especially if it's for something for both of us. Part of me enjoys eating out as long as it's simple, so suggesting something at home causes a wrench in my gut, but in the interests of marital harmony (not to mention I just want to get home to take some Excedrin), I agree.
And you know what? The meal we ate at home (frozen pizza, about $2 from Meijer with some green pepper thrown on top) was every bit as easy as eating out would have been. It may not have been terribly healthy, and not as tasty as eating out (if only because there wasn't as much dripping fat and lard), but between the pizza and a few pain pills, the headache is gone, and I feel like I can get back to my life.
In the heat of the moment (especially when we're tired and don't feel our best) making decisions that are better for our finances can be hard, but like most things, I've found we have less "buyers remorse" if we go the frugal route, and we usually don't suffer on the fun side of things. Anybody have a similar situation they want to share? Comment section's below -- comment away!
End of the day, both our heads throbbing, I ask my wife, "Why don't we just grab something to eat on the way home."
She agrees, if only because we're both still shell-shocked from teaching a bunch of 10- and 11-year-olds just a week from summer vacation.
We head to the parking lot, pull out, and head for home. Along the way begins the inevitable discussion.
"We pass right by Subway. You want that?"
She frowns. "We had a coupon for it, but it's at home."
"It's fine," I say. "We've only got $99 charged on the credit card so far this cycle."
"Yeah, but it's so expensive."
We fall into silence for a couple of minutes before she says, "We could do Little Caesars. It's not too far out of the way."
Well, she's right, but it's also right near the interstate, and by the time we get there it'll be the start of rush hour. Heavy traffic and beginnings of a migraine don't go well together, so I hem and haw and finally say, "What about Arby's? That's always good when we've got a headache."
She's quiet for another moment, then drops the bomb.
"We could just eat something at home."
When it comes right down to it, she's the one who more often than not has to reign in our spending. I'm not a spendthrift by any stretch of the imagination, but I don't mind spending five or ten bucks here or there, especially if it's for something for both of us. Part of me enjoys eating out as long as it's simple, so suggesting something at home causes a wrench in my gut, but in the interests of marital harmony (not to mention I just want to get home to take some Excedrin), I agree.
And you know what? The meal we ate at home (frozen pizza, about $2 from Meijer with some green pepper thrown on top) was every bit as easy as eating out would have been. It may not have been terribly healthy, and not as tasty as eating out (if only because there wasn't as much dripping fat and lard), but between the pizza and a few pain pills, the headache is gone, and I feel like I can get back to my life.
In the heat of the moment (especially when we're tired and don't feel our best) making decisions that are better for our finances can be hard, but like most things, I've found we have less "buyers remorse" if we go the frugal route, and we usually don't suffer on the fun side of things. Anybody have a similar situation they want to share? Comment section's below -- comment away!
Sunday, May 16, 2010
A Stroke of Good Fortune
How does this relate to becoming debt free in 40? I recently received excellent news. In helping my mother explore the veterans benefits available to her since my father passed away, I discovered something amazing called "Remission of Fees." While in the service, my father had cancer. Because of this, he received disability benefits for the rest of his life. What I didn't realize? I was entitled to 124 college credit hours of tuition because of my father's disability.
This means I will only pay a small fee of my graduate fees per credit hour rather than the full-tuition. This saves us close to $10,000 for my masters degree, and I will still have 88 credit hours available to me.
Needless to say, we're overjoyed at our good luck. Are there benefits in your financial life that you are not taking advantage of? What wonderful surprises have you experienced? Tell us about it in the comment section below.
Sunday, May 9, 2010
$10,000!
Just crossed the $10,000 paid off threshold! Less than 6 months ago, we started this quest to get our debt gone, and in that time, we've paid off over $10,000 in principal on the loans. There's still a long way to go, and we're still a bit behind the pace we'd like to set, but with a goal this big -- whether it be paying off debt, learning a new skill, or losing weight -- you have to celebrate the milestones along the way. Each little victory, even one as small as getting rid of just over 8% of our total debt in five and a half months, is that added psychological boost which will help us get to the next milestone.
Are any of the rest of you out there trying to eradicate your debt? If so, drop us a note in the comments section and let us know how it's going.
Also, I realize we have been bad (okay, really bad) about posting on a regular basis. I'm hopeful we'll be able to post more routinely here in the near future, including a couple of posts about how we're tackling our debt now and how we're allocating our money. For those of you who have stayed with us and kept tabs on our progress, I thank you for being here, and we'll try to once more provide you (horrid split infinitive ... sorry!) with good financial advice and suggestions to help you get to where we're going. Thanks for being along for the ride.
Are any of the rest of you out there trying to eradicate your debt? If so, drop us a note in the comments section and let us know how it's going.
Also, I realize we have been bad (okay, really bad) about posting on a regular basis. I'm hopeful we'll be able to post more routinely here in the near future, including a couple of posts about how we're tackling our debt now and how we're allocating our money. For those of you who have stayed with us and kept tabs on our progress, I thank you for being here, and we'll try to once more provide you (horrid split infinitive ... sorry!) with good financial advice and suggestions to help you get to where we're going. Thanks for being along for the ride.
Thursday, April 15, 2010
Weather Report
I had mentioned a couple of months ago that things were going topsy-turvy in the school district where my wife and I work, and that because we weren't even sure we'd have jobs next year, we were going in to duck-and-cover mode. We refinanced our mortgage, bolstered our rainy day account, and held off on debt payments for a while.
I'm happy to say that it looks like those storm clouds on the horizon blew past us, and we're in the clear, at least for now. There are a few things still up in the air, but they're just details and don't change the fact that my wife and I should both be gainfully employed, at least for another year.
That being said, here's where our financial picture stands, and what our plans for the coming months are:
For those of you who have been patiently waiting to see our loan numbers drop, I share your pain. I can only say that those numbers should be dropping frequently in the coming weeks, so check back often. As always, leave your comments and questions in the section below -- they're always appreciated!
I'm happy to say that it looks like those storm clouds on the horizon blew past us, and we're in the clear, at least for now. There are a few things still up in the air, but they're just details and don't change the fact that my wife and I should both be gainfully employed, at least for another year.
That being said, here's where our financial picture stands, and what our plans for the coming months are:
- Our Rainy Day account stands at just under $6,000. When our next CD matures in a few weeks, we'll be over $6,000, which is between two and three months of living expenses for us. The only reason we're not going to increase it is that our income comes from so many sources, the odds of all of our income disappearing is slim.
- Our mortgage is refinanced at 3.75%, and we've already paid off $500 in principal, even though our first payment on this new loan isn't due until May 5.
- Our student loan has become our top priority, not because its interest rate is higher, but because it's significantly smaller, so much so that we can have it paid off -- with a little luck -- in December of this year. Expect to see that number dropping rapidly.
For those of you who have been patiently waiting to see our loan numbers drop, I share your pain. I can only say that those numbers should be dropping frequently in the coming weeks, so check back often. As always, leave your comments and questions in the section below -- they're always appreciated!
Monday, April 5, 2010
Sign here ... and here ... and here
I'm a couple days late in posting this, but I did want to let you all know that my wife and I closed on our refinance with ING Direct last Thursday. They haven't paid off the old loan yet, and there's nothing about the new loan up in our account at ING Direct, but the whole shebang's a done deal.
What this means now is that it will be easier than ever for us to pay extra against this loan, since most of the money for doing that will come from our checking account at ING -- no more mucking about with and waiting for electronic payments to go from one company to the next. It also means that we have that much extra every month (if you ignore escrow, about $200) that we don't need to have to make our regular mortgage payments. It's like having an extra rainy day account of a sort -- the less we need to be able to pay every month, the longer before we get into real financial trouble if the unforeseen happens (which, by its very definition, we can't know about until it's happened).
Speaking of the unforeseen, we should find out this week if our jobs are secure for next year, of if the proverbial apple cart will be upset. That will have a huge bearing on whether our extra monies go toward our rainy day account, our mortgage, or our student loans. We'll keep you posted on that.
In the meantime, if you haven't checked out the excerpt of my novel in the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award contest, I invite you to go here to check it out. A little light reading to pass the time until our debt numbers at the right start dropping once more....
What this means now is that it will be easier than ever for us to pay extra against this loan, since most of the money for doing that will come from our checking account at ING -- no more mucking about with and waiting for electronic payments to go from one company to the next. It also means that we have that much extra every month (if you ignore escrow, about $200) that we don't need to have to make our regular mortgage payments. It's like having an extra rainy day account of a sort -- the less we need to be able to pay every month, the longer before we get into real financial trouble if the unforeseen happens (which, by its very definition, we can't know about until it's happened).
Speaking of the unforeseen, we should find out this week if our jobs are secure for next year, of if the proverbial apple cart will be upset. That will have a huge bearing on whether our extra monies go toward our rainy day account, our mortgage, or our student loans. We'll keep you posted on that.
In the meantime, if you haven't checked out the excerpt of my novel in the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award contest, I invite you to go here to check it out. A little light reading to pass the time until our debt numbers at the right start dropping once more....
Thursday, March 25, 2010
And now, for something completely different...
Before I get to the main part of the post, an update -- everything is done on the refinancing through ING Direct except the closing, which hopefully will take place in the next week. So far it all looks good, so now it's just a matter of finishing up the fiddling paperwork. Fun.
Now, to the main thrust of this post ...
At least on the surface, what I have to talk about today doesn't appear to have much to do with finances, but watch my literary legerdemain and see how I tie it all back in....
Every year, Amazon.com runs the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Contest (ABNA). I have a young adult novel -- "The Coming of the Heroes" -- I've been working on for the better part of eight or nine years, so I submitted it to the contest back in January. From an initial pool of 5,000 young adult entries, my novel is now one of the top 250.
I'm inviting anyone and everyone to check out my excerpt (the prologue and first chapter) and, if the mood takes you, to rate it and leave me a review. The more reviews I can get, the better the novel will look overall, which is always a good thing.
So, how do you rate it, you ask? Simple...
1. Click here.
2. If you have a Kindle device, skip to step 3. If you don't, look at the right side of the screen, and there you'll see some options to download a free Kindle reader to your device -- PC, MAC, iPhone, Blackberry, etc. Click the one you want, and then install the software.
3. Now, go back to the page you went to in step 1. Over at the right side of the screen, click on the "Buy now with 1-click" button. Don't worry, it's free.
4. Read it. Then, down at the bottom of the page, click on "Create your own review" to rate and review the excerpt. This won't help me through to the next level of the contest, but if I progress far enough, these reviews will effect the hearts and minds of people who could potentially put me on even further.
So what does this all have to do with finances, you ask? I could take the easy route and say, "Well, if I win the contest, there's a publishing contract on the line, with a $15,000 advance against royalties." You see, there's a dollar sign in that sentence, so it must have to do with money, right?
But I won't take the easy route. Instead, I'll get philosophical for a moment...
Why do we want money? The simple answer is that we want money so we can do what we want to do, what we love to do, what we were born to do (or, if you're a Lost fan, what we're destined to do). Now, I don't claim any sort of divinely-given purpose, but I do know that I love to create things. I'm already a composer and arranger with many pieces in print, and no matter how many pieces I write, I'm always excited to get to the next piece.
The same is true of writing. I haven't had the success yet with writing that I've had with composing, but I love to do it just as much. Progressing in this contest just gets me closer to my dream, which is to live my life doing nothing but creating. More than the creating, though, is being able to share what I create with others, not out of a selfish "look at me!" purpose, but because I hope that what I've made will touch peoples' lives, and perhaps make those lives just a bit better. Even if I don't win the contest, the farther I progress, the more marketable my work becomes, and the more likely I'll be able to get my book out there where I'll have a real chance to share it with others.
So, a big thank you in advance for taking the time and effort to look at my excerpt, and if you feel called to rate and review it, so much the better. With spring break starting tomorrow, hopefully it'll be easier to find the time to write here more. In the meantime, enjoy the weather spring has to offer.
Now, to the main thrust of this post ...
At least on the surface, what I have to talk about today doesn't appear to have much to do with finances, but watch my literary legerdemain and see how I tie it all back in....
Every year, Amazon.com runs the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Contest (ABNA). I have a young adult novel -- "The Coming of the Heroes" -- I've been working on for the better part of eight or nine years, so I submitted it to the contest back in January. From an initial pool of 5,000 young adult entries, my novel is now one of the top 250.
I'm inviting anyone and everyone to check out my excerpt (the prologue and first chapter) and, if the mood takes you, to rate it and leave me a review. The more reviews I can get, the better the novel will look overall, which is always a good thing.
So, how do you rate it, you ask? Simple...
1. Click here.
2. If you have a Kindle device, skip to step 3. If you don't, look at the right side of the screen, and there you'll see some options to download a free Kindle reader to your device -- PC, MAC, iPhone, Blackberry, etc. Click the one you want, and then install the software.
3. Now, go back to the page you went to in step 1. Over at the right side of the screen, click on the "Buy now with 1-click" button. Don't worry, it's free.
4. Read it. Then, down at the bottom of the page, click on "Create your own review" to rate and review the excerpt. This won't help me through to the next level of the contest, but if I progress far enough, these reviews will effect the hearts and minds of people who could potentially put me on even further.
So what does this all have to do with finances, you ask? I could take the easy route and say, "Well, if I win the contest, there's a publishing contract on the line, with a $15,000 advance against royalties." You see, there's a dollar sign in that sentence, so it must have to do with money, right?
But I won't take the easy route. Instead, I'll get philosophical for a moment...
Why do we want money? The simple answer is that we want money so we can do what we want to do, what we love to do, what we were born to do (or, if you're a Lost fan, what we're destined to do). Now, I don't claim any sort of divinely-given purpose, but I do know that I love to create things. I'm already a composer and arranger with many pieces in print, and no matter how many pieces I write, I'm always excited to get to the next piece.
The same is true of writing. I haven't had the success yet with writing that I've had with composing, but I love to do it just as much. Progressing in this contest just gets me closer to my dream, which is to live my life doing nothing but creating. More than the creating, though, is being able to share what I create with others, not out of a selfish "look at me!" purpose, but because I hope that what I've made will touch peoples' lives, and perhaps make those lives just a bit better. Even if I don't win the contest, the farther I progress, the more marketable my work becomes, and the more likely I'll be able to get my book out there where I'll have a real chance to share it with others.
So, a big thank you in advance for taking the time and effort to look at my excerpt, and if you feel called to rate and review it, so much the better. With spring break starting tomorrow, hopefully it'll be easier to find the time to write here more. In the meantime, enjoy the weather spring has to offer.
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