
The Official 2018 Debt Smackdown
Welcome to the Official 2018 Debt Smackdown!
Happy new year everyone!
I know a few of use have been chomping at the bit to get going with 2018's debt - so with out further ado, I present this years spreadsheet! First of all, quick thank you to @epicfroth, who set up 2017's, and @rolltide who did a fair amount of support in the last few months, and @anniebananie for setting up the idea back in 2015 I think?
So what's this about? If you are holding onto some debt as you enter 2018 - and would like to get rid of it - this challenge is for you.
To the participants from last year, welcome back! For some of us, our total debts are too large to smack down completely in one calendar year, so if you're here from last year, congratulations on your progress and let's keep on doing this! In 2017, we collectively paid down over $900,000 in debt! That's no small feat, it's pretty mind boggling!
For all new participants, we are happy to have you join in this year! New blood is always welcome. Let's all motivate each other to pay off those debts and continue moving forward to financial freedom.
There's only one small change to things this year, and that is that this challenge is a shared one between the two forums/communities. Hopefully, that won't bring any problems! (Link to the Forum post here)
How it works:
1. List the amount of total debt that you owe.
This step is to give you an awareness of your current debt situation. Feel free to share, this forum is a safe and nonjudgmental place. You can also decide to keep this information private, you don't have to post your total here if you are not comfortable doing so.
2. Post in this thread the total amount of debt you would like to pay off during the 2018 calendar year. (This part is required.)
Feel free to break down the amounts by credit card/type of debt. Also, if you have a specific plan or some ideas on how you plan to pay down the debt, you can post that too. Maybe your plan will spark some ideas for others on how to tackle their own debts!
3. Check in monthly in this thread and report on how your debt smackdown is going. (This part is required.)
4. Post monthly on the 2018 Google Spreadsheet to track your progress. (This part is required.)
Claim a line on the spreadsheet, and post your total debt to be paid off, and the monthly amount that you send off towards it. Some people track their total payments and don't account for interest, some people account for principal only. The method you choose is up to you!
If you come across this challenge later in the year, no worries, you can still jump right in. Just put zeroes in the months where you had not joined the challenge yet, and start in the month you join in.
Last year, we collectively paid off $900,000. Let's smash that number again in 2018!
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So, I paid off my outstanding CC debt (other than PIF rewards cards) in 2017, so I don't have anything to pay off yet. However, I am anticipating buying a $35,000 car this year (having saved $10,000 as a down payment) and will likely finance the rest. So, I'm going to put $25,000 as my paydown amount when I get into the sheet!
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Thanks to all of you for putting this together - I have always wanted to join in on one of these, and feel like this is the year I can actually meet some concrete goals on this front. Here are our total debts:
- Credit Card 1: $6631.34
- Credit Card 2: $12,977.70
- Student Loan 1: $11,273.02
- Student Loan 2: $97,564.99
- Mortgage: $161,000.21
We'll be making minimum payments on all the debts except Credit Card 1, and snowball from there. The plan is to pay $750 a month toward Credit Card 1, which should get us to a zero balance by September, if not sooner. The monthly funding goal is set in YNAB and we're gonna work our butts off to make it happen.
GOAL: Pay off $8200 of credit card debt
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Claimed a line in the spreadsheet.
- Last year starting debt total: $30,051.65
- Last year goal: $10,000.00
- Last year payed off: $10,082.08 (including interest)
This year my plan is to get the total debt owed below $10,000.
- Starting Debt Payoff Goal: $12,000.00
- Current Debt Total: $21,045.07
- Car Loan #1: $8,304.56 @ 4.75%
- Car Loan #2: $12,740.51 @ 3.25%
This year, I am also going to track interest paid separately, just so I can see the numbers.
Here's to a new year and less debt! Let's do this! -
Thank you for putting this together! Very excited to start this challenge and knock out some of my debt that has been haunting me!
Student Loans - $20,750
Car Loan - $12, 500
CC - $8,561.85
Total = $41,811.85
My goal is to pay of $25,000 plus interest accumulated. Still trying to see what is the best strategy for each category: monthly payments vs saving and making a big payment. Either way, looking forward to all of us CRUSHING our 2018 debt goals!
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Last year, even with job losses, we managed to pay off $11,168.66. Not too shabby. I've now been currently employed since May 22nd, but hubby lost his job two days before christmas and we're trying to find him a new one stat.
I'm going to aim for 10K this year. Last years stretch goal was 20K and we hit 55.84% of that. Curious what kind of butt I can kick this year.
Good luck everyone!!!!
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I'm in! Last year, I had a goal of $19,118 of debt payoff and hit $17,859.57. However, a good $10k of that was from a windfall we won't be receiving this year.
This year's goal is to pay off $10,000 of my student loans. I'm counting amount paid rather than principle paid down as my interest rates are low and it's easier.
Total debt: $19,973.84
2018 payoff goal: $10,000
Stretch goal: $10,000 in principle paydown alone
My three student loans are wrapped into one payment, and for the past six months or so I've been snowballing my debt and putting 100% of extra payments toward the smallest loan with the highest interest rate. My stretch goal is to have that loan ($2900) paid off in the first quarter of 2018. I have no idea how that will affect my minimum payments, etc., but I'm excited to find out!
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yay, I am glad we are doing another this year, I did really well last year. I owe a bunch if you count student loans, etc but these are my goals to pay off for 2018:
1915.64: what I owe my dog's cancer surgery (he is doing great!!)
2834.63: will pay off my car.
1200: to pay to the Bank Of Mom for my furnace loan.
Total: 5950.27
I put myself on the spreadsheet and will check in monthly :)
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I’m in again for this year!
1. I have a Line of Credit with a balance of $21,000
2. I’d like that Line of Credit to have a balance of less than $10,000 by the end of 2018. My current budgeted amount is $950/month and I need to average $1050/month to make it!
3. I have no update today
4. I claimed line 19! I will be posting how much principal paid. LoC has a promo interest rate of 2.99% until Dec 2018 so it won’t be much according to undebt.it .
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I can' wait to free myself from credit cards! I've been on a hamster wheel of paying off/accruing debt for years! I'm ready to get off and stay off. :)
Credit Card 1 $445 (paying off this month)
Credit Card 2 $8439
Loan $5182.56
School Loan $4474.06
I will focus on paying off Credit Card #2 this year. YNAB has budgeted $682 per month to pay it off by December. I will also throw any extra windfalls at it. The other debts will receive minimum payments. $361 and $127 respectively.
My goal is to never pick up a credit card again if I can't pay it in full!
I'm looking forward to all of our progress. Thank you for creating this thread to keep me accountable.
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Happy Tuesday Everyone!! and HAPPY NEW YEAR!
Checking in with line 25 on the debt smackdown spreadsheet 💪
Last year my goal was $15,000.00 (and this was a total stretch). I ended up paying off just short of $12,000.00.
I'm trying to be more realistic this year and not be disappointed in myself when I don't make it to $15k. So without further ado:
- Total Debt Currently Owed: $58,700.16
Debt Breakdown:
- Student Loan A: $6,059.71 @ 6.80% interest
- Student Loan B: $3,447.48 @ 3.86% interest
- Student Loan C: $5,086.18 @ 4.66% interest
- Student Loan E: $7,210.71 @ 4.29% interest
- ACCU EdLOC: $36,896.08 @ 4.73% interest
Main Goals: pay off $12k total with a stretch goal of $15k.
My goal is really to pay off B and a chunk of C this year. It's definitely slow going at the moment, as I make about $47k a year in Monmouth County, NJ. I live with a few roommates and we split all bills. I currently shop at ALDI's for groceries and I'm seriously cutting down on my clothing spending and my makeup spending. I have a journal going (A Debt Free Dream) and I'll be trying to update there pretty regularly.
Good luck everyone!!
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X-posted from The (Un)official Debt Pay-down 2018 (thank you for getting us started, Silver Horse !)
SO EXCITED for this, thank you for the official thread, BritishMuseum ! :)
My debt total is currently hovering just under $65K. Oof.
I've reworked my budget for the new year with my new salary, and my aim is to send at least $2K per month towards the debt. Finally actual progress may start to be made!?! :)
So I'm saying my official 2018 goal is $25,000 towards debt paydown. Stretch goal $30,000.
For the time being at least I'm going to try VERY hard not to stress about how little of that is going to pay down principal, and how much is getting sucked away as interest (*cries*) - but maybe by this time next year I'll be in a better position to negotiate some better rates and/or pull off some low interest balance transfers? *fingers crossed*!!
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I initially wrote this in the unofficial one, and now I'm bringing it here. Spreadsheet time!
My current debt is a little over $100K. The majority of it is student loan debt (about $78K) and the remainder is consumer debt.
I currently have a chunk of my consumer debt in a free debt management plan through my credit union. The total debt that isn't wrapped up in the plan is approximately $10K.
I want to focus my debt pay down efforts toward reducing the $10K. I have three open standard cards now with balances between $600 and 800. I want to pay them off first, especially since two of them have terrible interest rates and fees. The sooner I can get rid of those cards, the better. I'll even accept the penalty for closing the accounts. They total about $1500 together.
So the goal for 2018, beyond saving $1K in my emergency fund, is to:
1) Pay off two cards from Evil Corp ($1500)
2) Pay off the other small balance card ($600)
3) Chip away at two of my open retail cards (combined total owed is $4000)
That makes $6100 my target pay down for 2018.
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Thanks everyone for joining in so far!
A few vital statistics, and perhaps some spurious correlations...
So far we have 34 of us, tackling a whopping $470,000 of debt this year.
2 days into January, 8 of us have already paid off about $6,000!
If you use some Really Dodgy Maths, at 17 users a day.... that means by the end of the year, we'll get...
- 6205 users, tackling
- $85,000,000 worth of debt.
Perhaps my ability to do maths is why I Need A Budget...
Good Luck to everyone who's joined in - look forward to celebrating some epic milestones at the end of each month!
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1) The total amount of debt I currently owe is $5, 475.89. That may not seem like a lot to people with mortgages and other larger major debts but for me it is pretty significant.
2) I want to pay off all of this debt in 2018 so I can go in to 2019 hopefully with a fresh slate. This includes an unfortunate amount of debt that is in collections. These collections have haunted me for years and years and trashed my credit. 2019 will be about rebuilding my credit and putting myself in a good position to begin saving up for a house and preparing better for my future.
3) I'll check in monthly to keep up progress. My projection (Sorry Jesse - I know we're not supposed to forecast but I can't help it!!) for January 2018 is looking good so far. My monthly breakdown goal (5,476/12=456) is $456 a month and that's actually lower than what I had allocated to debt payments before I even started putting this together. I was planning on allocating 491 to January's debt payments so that was a really good feeling. I'm looking forward to getting set up in the spreadsheet. Having a visual reminder of my progress is really helpful and encouraging.
That's all for now! Thanks for anyone who kept up with all this. Also - if anyone has tips for handling collection companies I will happily take any and all advice as this is the first time I've taken my head out of the sand and tried to deal with them and I'm very scared to do so. I know it has to be done but it's very intimidating. Thank you everyone!
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I am so excited and ready for this!
This year, my focus is to pay off my debt with the highest interest rates - Line of Credit account and Personal Loan. I do have Student Loans, and for now, I'm only paying the minimum amount due each month. For the purpose of not going insane, I'm choosing to only focus on my LOC and Loan for this challenge.
Total at this point in time is $6,419.35.
My Line of Credit account has the highest interest rate, and I aim to pay this off by June. Once that is paid off, I hope to pay down my personal loan by December of this year.
Ultimately, I want to enter 2019 with my *only* debt being Student Loans.
Can't wait to check in at the end of the month to see everyone's progress on the spreadsheet!
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Total debt: $10,030
Goal: Get rid of it by June!
Stretch goal: Get rid of it before June. This is dependent on the size of my tax return, and of course any other exigencies.
That figure is the current total amount of my debt. So to get rid of it, I'll actually have to pay more. But that's way too complicated to figure out, so I'm just leaving that as my quantity to pay down, and abolition as the target state.
Line 40/45, colored pink
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I completely fell off the wagon last year and I don't know what I was doing.
I have a total of 8 credit cards and 2 personal loans for a total debt of $44,489.40. I'd like to pay half of it off this year, for a total of $22,244.70. This will include 1 personal loan and 5-6 credit cards, using the debt snowball method. I'll edit my post later with the breakdowns, and I've claimed my spot on the sheet. :D
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Total debt: $54,700 (mix of credit cards, personal loan, and student loans)
Goal: Pay down $15,000 (which would pay off 3 credit cards and the personal loan)
Stretch Goal: $22,000
Method: Knock out two credit cards with low balances ($310 and $790) first for easy victories, then the personal loan which has a high interest rate and high monthly payment that I want to get rid of ASAP.
Can’t wait to check in again, hopefully this will help keep me accountable.