The Official 2019 Debt Smackdown
Welcome to the Official* 2019 Debt Smackdown!
Happy new year everyone!
I know a few of use have been chomping at the bit to get going with 2019's debt - so with out further ado, I present this years spreadsheet! First of all, quick thanks to everyone on here who supported this last year, and helped make sure the Google Sheet remained in tip top shape.
So what's this about? If you are holding onto some debt as you enter 2019 - 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 2018, we collectively paid down over $1,500,000 in debt! An increase of OVER $600,000 than in 2017!
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.
Per last year, this is a shared one between the two forums/communities. Hopefully, that won't bring any problems! (Link to the Forum post [soon])
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 2019 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 2019 Google Sheet 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 $1,500,000. Let's smash that number again in 2019!
Please let me know any issues with the sheet - sometimes things are a bit wonky when making new ones!
*Official in the sense that there's a spreadsheet. Not official in the sense that it's made by YNAB. I'm just following naming conventions here :)
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How do you find the Google sheet after you enter you info?
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Gold Rhythm Gold Rhythm The link to it is near the top of this page. It took me a few times to figure that out. On my computer, I hit the up arrow to the top and then scroll down a bit to find the link, and it opens in another tab.
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TC Jackie Thanks for the help! I should have figured that out :)
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April check-in. I went backwards about $2575 officially if I include my paid in full credit card which I don't normally count and isn't reflected below. 😕 But that includes initial payments to clear the drain line for a sewer overflow (cleaned up now), $2k in budgeted car maintenance, and $1400 tax bill. So it could have been far worse.
The month I have to replace the line from the house to the main sewer line won't be nearly this simple. 😬
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Late April check-in. Total to CC debt: 1848.54. Gifted $2000 from my mother. Paid $1100 to synchrony/care credit and it is paid in full! Paid $600 to Wells Fargo. Paid off one phone installment plan $150.
Mays goals:
>Pay off 2nd phone installment plan and switch from ATT at $245/mo to cricket wireless with hopefully at least $100 savings per mo.
>Open and transfer balance of Wells Fargo card to new Capital one 0% interest card. (Completed, awaiting approval and transfer) Bal: $ $4185
>pay off loan for new couch $900
> Snowball and aggressively pay down PNC card which has 0% interest until 1/2020. Bal:$4771
Notice total of these $9856 is almost the debt I started this challenge with! Main goal - NO adding new debt. Keep budgeting first and pay statements in full!!
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Late April check in- I paid off only $570 this month but managed to not create new debt, so that's something. Work is slowing down though unfortunately, and I have a lot of dental work for myself and kids that insurance won't cover, so I don't know how things will be going forward.
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Late check in. April was minimums only AND we used the cards over Easter holiday for unbudgeted expenses. Having kids is crazy expensive--mine are still young so the budgeting stuff is still wonky. 2% utilization increase, which hurts. Paying minimums really is like throwing water on an oil fire. Sigh. Back to the grind. May is not shaping up to be much better either...blech.
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This will be the last month we make good progress for awhile since my husband will be going in for shoulder surgery and will be off work for a few months. However, after paring down our budget and realizing we can make minimums on my income alone, we felt confident enough to go ahead and smack some debt down while we can!
Starting balance Ending balance
$66,314.31 1st Mortgage $65,808.72 (-505.59)
$14,558.19 2nd Mortgage $14,354.68 (-203.51)
$12,197.30 Car $10,032.37 (-2,164.93)
$93,069.80 $90,195.77
Total debt paid down in May $2,874.03, total for 2019 $13,536.08 (51.76% of goal)
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April progress report on my battle against the student loan beast.
As of March 31, 2019: $251,414.81. This is my starting balance after joining YNAB in mid-March, 2019.
As of April 30, 2019: $249,425.70
April notes: Regular monthly payment resulted in principal reduction of $1,089.11. Made extra principal payments of $900.00. Of this, $300.00 was a credit earned from referring a friend who ultimately refinanced her loans with my bank; $600.00 was "regular" money. Total reduction of principal in April: $1,989.11.
Year-end goal is to get the balance down $31,414.81 to $220,000.00. I'm now about 6.33% there. Plan is to keep throwing extra money at the balance with each bi-weekly paycheck, and to use any bonus funds (typically received in summer and at year end) to reduce the balance further.
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Slate Blue Pilot
I can only hope you have a fancy degree in return for your mortgage-worth debt!
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Technicolor Cheetah I'm a lawyer. I originally borrowed $225,000 and after several years of income-based repayments that did not even cover the accruing interest, and a federal government interest rate of 7.625%, the amount had grown to $300,000 by the very beginning of 2016. Ever since then, I've slowly but surely brought the balance down to what it is now, and was able to refinance at a much lower 3.95% rate with a private lender last summer. The change in interest rate alone is making a huge difference. It's painful to think that I still owe more now - after tens of thousands of dollars in payments over the last several years - than what I borrowed, but I try to keep positive in thinking that I'm moving in the right direction, and that YNAB is helping to accelerate that.
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Slate Blue Pilot
It sounds like you have an income commiserate with your debt and that you have the willingness and life situation to attack your debt this year. I will be watching supportively!
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Slate Blue Pilot uggh! Been there! ok maybe not with that amount but i too have sadly accrued way more in interest than i should have by deffering the loans and following the head in the sand mode for a long time. I am looking forward to the day when i can start attacking the debt and get it paid off! Congrats on finding ynab to help you! keep on keeping on!
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NewDawnNewDay Interest is the worst. It's like pushing a heavy object uphill. But at least as you progress, the object will become lighter. Hoping that one day soon we both will be in a position where interest is working with us (investing, compounding returns) rather than against us.
Technicolor Cheetah Thanks for the support. Still at the beginning of year 1 of an aggressive 6-year attack plan, so I will need it!
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My balance transfer for my debt went through! I now have zero interest until Dec of 2020! WOOT!
So, that changes my plan a little bit. Since somebody is willing to loan me money interest free, I'm not in any hurry to pay it off.
In regards to the spreadsheet, should I change my total to reflect the amount I expect to pay by the end of this year? Or leave it in there as the whole number that I know I won't completely pay off? Just trying to figure out how to realistically handle goals since I know that I won't pay it all off unless some kind of crazy windfall comes my way.
Thanks yall!!-
farfromtheusual Curious why the zero interest would change your plan. Where are you allocating your previous debt smackdown monies?
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farfromtheusual Why change the plan, debt is still debt owed to someone else. What is your plan if suddenly you have a decrease in income? Thankfully you're not accruing interest but i'd definitely set a goal in ynab to with dec as your Nov 2020 as your payoff date and try to throw an extra 50/100 bucks at it too.
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Whiskey Mama NewDawnNewDay because the money is no longer accruing interest. My income vs my outgoing money is SO razor thin that if I can borrow money and not have to pay anyone for that privilege than it's very much worth it for me to ONLY pay exactly as much as I need to pay every month in order to pay it off at the end of the promo period. There's no reason to stress myself more by trying to throw more money at it and risk going over budget and not being able to pay for current expenses. I only average about $1200 in personal income every month, and so trying to pay down $1200 debt on top of my usual monthly bills is daunting. So this way it allows me to keep more of my money in play for myself, which gives me a chance to actually plan for bigger expenses that come once in a while.
So I think I'll just adjust the goal in the spreadsheet to reflect what I know I can pay each month, and then if I do get some extra funds to throw at it, that will be an added bonus. I'm riding the float on my other credit card, so I'll toss any extra at that in the hopes of bringing that down to zero sooner rather than later.
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farfromtheusual that sounds like a well reasoned plan of action. Best of luck to you!
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farfromtheusual Sounds like you and I are in a very similar boat! Good luck to us both! We can do this. :D
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TheTabby Orchid Display
Thanks!!!
Yes, we can do this!!
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Just started using YNAB and joining this late. Goal for the remainder of 2019 is to pay $9,500 of credit card debt. 1st step is to stop living paycheck to paycheck!
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Perpetually Rungry Good luck!
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Grabbed line 270! I have $95,459.31 in debt (CC, Auto, Unsecured Solar Loan, Student Loans) and we're hoping to reduce the principle on that by at least $18,000! Primary goal, completely take the balance on my highest interest CC to zero! Currently at $7,686.69.
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$920 paid towards debt thus far in May. Will add another $200 to that by the end of the month. Not much more than minimums again this month but so far we have cash flowed all the things that have come up with all the end of the school year expenses and vacation coming up. I was a little worried that some of our vacation spending money was going to have to go to credit but we are completely on track to pay it outright as well as pay for remaining summer camp payment for my daughter outright so I'm totally okay with paying just those minimums!
June 1 we are paying off hubby's car! -
This is (hopefully!) my final update here! My May check in is that I am debt free. (This is a cross post from the FB YNAB Fan Group) Started YNAB in August of last year and paid off over $18,500 of debt. Car and credit cards all paid for since starting YNAB. I will be moving over to the Savings and Mortgage Payoff Challenges, I think. (only $45,000 left on the house!j) I am a single mom with two teenagers still at home and have battled not having control over my money forever. YNAB gave me a crystal clear picture of where my money was going and gave me the control to get out of debt and I am NOT going back there. I am beyond grateful for this app/site. I have completely changed my trajectory and am now on track to build my retirement and save for my kids' futures as well. Happy Budgeting everyone!!
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Pediheartrn
Bam! (confetti cannon going off)
A Very Well Done to you!
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Pediheartrn congratulations from one single mom of teenagers (oh the food!) to another! Job well done! 🎉👏
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Pediheartrn AWESOME! Way to go!
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Done with my student loan debt, only 16550 left for my car which will be gone by October and I can start saving for a house!
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I'm new to YNAB and haven't done a budget in years because it got complicated. At the time, I didn't have good resources available to help me unravel my mess. Just the few days that I've been working with this software has gotten me motivated to try again. I am pleasantly surprised how YNAB has made it so easy to see the light at the end of my tunnel. After putting everything into the software, I'm relieved to see that I'm not as bad off as I feared. I still do have a way to go before I can achieve my goals, though. This is just the beginning for me...this is really do-able.
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Angel's Mom
Welcome and good luck! Just be aware that you're going to forget a lot of expenses at the beginning - like the bills that only happen once a year or a couple times a year. And that's ok, you roll with the punches, start a new category, and start saving for next year's bill. It's a bit overwhelming at the beginning when you start thinking of all the things you want your money to be doing but you only have so much money. It's hard, and it's ok to step away for a day or two again. It's ok to do a fresh start and start a new budget if you're struggling. It's ok to ask questions! We're all at different places on our financial journeys and at all levels of income and debt, so there are lots of people who've been there or who want to help you never go there again, to help you figure this out so you can make your money work for you the way you want it to.
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Technicolor Cheetah Thanks for the welcome! As time permits, I am doing the 20-minute classes and learning a lot. I have discovered that I did forget a few bills just as you said. Thank goodness I always sign up for email reminders before it comes due. Best decision I've ever made regarding my bills.
The only thing I am struggling with is when interest gets added to credit cards and I log it to the interest and fees category, how does that interest get linked to the payment I later make. I've only searched on the help files, and next I'm going to search the forums here to see if I can get an explanation that makes sense to me. Once I wrap my head around that, I'll be good, I think (I hope).
You are right when you say that I have way more places I want to put my money than I have money. I'm finally working to rectify that with a solid plan rather than guessing. Finally I feel like I'm going to succeed.
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Angel's Mom
I suggest Nick True's whole YNAB series (not affiliated or connected in any way, I just found them informative and pretty clear). He has a credit card one also which was helpful. Hope you find him/them helpful as well.
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Angel's Mom I agree with Technicolor Cheetah . I've come to think of my first budget as a "draft" or learning budget. After about 5 weeks, I started a new one learning from the mistakes I'd made or wished I'd done differently. And I moved money around to roll with the punches, forgot some items (I'm only in month 8, so this is still happening with those once-a-year things). I get down when I have to spend on something unexpected, etc. But it has been the best peace of mind, since I always know where I'm at - even if I'd like it to be a better place. I'm getting there. You will, too.
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Angel's Mom Way to go getting started! That's the biggest hurdle.
As the others have said, be patient with yourself in the beginning while you sort out what your expenses really are. I always recommend that people give it 6 months before they start to really worry about figuring out how to pay down debt and things like that. Honestly, it takes more like a year to really be able to feel comfortable with planning out the spending. By then you have a really clear picture of how much you're truly spending, and can look back at averages better.
So be patient with yourself, and plan to be conservative for a little while until you have a real handle on the flow of things. Welcome to the club!
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Late April check-in - I reduced credit card debt by 2k. So total YTD debt reduction is $17k.
Up NEXT: I have $10k income scheduled to come in at the end of May, so in early June, I will pay off the final cc debt of $4300. After that payment, I will have a YTD debt pay-off of $21k and still plan to move forward with at least $9k more for the year.
September: I have scheduled bonus and I will take $9k and pay towards my 2nd home loan.
October: I will have an extra income of $5k and I will pay off the 2nd home loan totally.
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How do I do this if I buy a new car and trade in my old one?
old car has a loan with $X
trade in value is $X+(a little)
new car costs $Y
new car loan is $Y - (a little) - (downpayment)
???
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Hagermaniac
Are you planning and able to pay more towards your debt (new, old, whatever)? If so, just change your debt payoff target in the spreadsheet with however much extra you want to pay down. For example, my old debt was $3000, I would be able to pay that off in 4 months, but I added $2000 more debt so it's going to take me between 6 and 7 months to pay off that larger debt. So my payoff will go up to $5000 total target payoff this year.
If you added more debt and can't pay a larger amount towards debt each month, you leave the payoff target alone; it will just take you a bit longer to pay off the larger amount of debt. For example, say I started the year $30,000 in debt and I can only pay $5000 towards debt this year. Then I bought a new car and my new debt is $40,000, an increase of $10,000. In this scenario I can still only pay $5000 towards debt this year, it will just take another 2ish years at my current rate to pay off the increased debt. I leave the target payoff goal the same since I will still only have $5k to pay towards debts.
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I had been a bit overzealous with payments, even taking from savings to get my car paid off. I’m glad it’s paid off, but have stepped back a little on debt payment to get savings back where I feel comfortable.
Also, I had surgery 3 weeks ago and have been recovering from that. I just started getting bills from what insurance won’t cover, but am working on completing the financial assistance info to see if I can get it lowered at all.
The current debt I’m focusing on is my waterproofing loan. It is down to $14454. I’m really hoping to get it under $10k by the end of the year!
Thank you everyone for sharing and giving me more motivation to keep going!
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I AM DEBT FREE!🎉
With today's paycheck, I just submitted my final student loan payment. I started paying down my debt aggressively in December 2018 with a balance of $13,287.18. After realizing I could pay off my debt before 2020, I dedicated all of my budgeting focus to debt pay-off. After a little YNAB-ing, I realized I could pay it off in half the time. Feel free to check out my progress in the spreadsheet on line 30.
I love this community and hope I will see some of you over in the savings challenge soon. Updating this spreadsheet and checking in every month has been hugely motivating for me, and I appreciate those of you responsible for coordinating it.Additionally, big thanks to all the beautiful people who make this life-changing software, provide customer support, and keep the wheels turning at YNAB. This is a very special product/service, and I hope it's still here for me to use fifty years from now.
Good luck to all of you as you smash through your financial goals!❤️-
Savings Crusher Cat Mother 😊👏🎉
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Congratulations !!!
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Savings Crusher Cat Mother That is SO AWESOME!!!! Congratulations!!!
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Savings Crusher Cat Mother that’s amazing!! Congrats!
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Savings Crusher Cat Mother SUPER CONGRATS!!! WAY TO GO! Enjoy the freedom!
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Savings Crusher Cat Mother Congratulations on becoming debt free! Hope you continue on your budgeting success journey.
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I've just updated for May.
I got sick of having to deal with the credit card interest each month, so I reassigned some of my sinking funds to just pay the damn thing off (was just over 1000). Now I've just got the mortgage to worry about - a long way to go on that sadly.
I started YNAB in February. I get paid monthly (mid-month), and was always able to pay my bills, but no matter how few bills there were I was always out of money by the time the next payday arrived. But today I was able to re-distribute some of my 'money for later' to smash that cursed card and be confident that I could manage all my upcoming costs without needing to lean on it again.
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The Late Heavy Bombardment Way to go! That feels so good! Now maybe you'll have a few extra dollars to throw at the mortgage to get that whittled down a little faster.
Congrats!
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farfromtheusual thanks! I'm actually going to pop the extra into the upcoming Dec 2020 high-school costs for my kid
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May check-in:
Made $865 of payments against debt but unfortunately had an emergency medical expense that I haven't been YNABing long enough to cover with sinking funds, so that set me back $1700 (it could have been $2000 but I had some cash to defray it!). So, that's a net -$965 this month but I can put that $1700 on a 0% card for the next 12 months and add that to the debts I have to pay down. So... good and bad.
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What are all the categories you create sinking funds for while paying off debt? Initially I just had my $1k emergency fund and did a $1k Christmas/gift fund each year, and recently added one for my son’s upcoming braces, but have been thinking about sinking funds more as stuff always ends up coming up here and there with the house. It’s tough for me to decide if I should have a sinking fund for home repairs, how much to put in it and if it should be started now or once I get my next debt paid off so I can keep putting more towards the debt.
What are are your thoughts or suggestions regarding sinking funds?
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Gold Song I have heaps!
I have a group of 'Buffers' - which have a target amount for 'just in case I need it' . ie: $100 for 'gifts' so that I always have something if the kids get invited to a party, or $100 for art supplies so there's always something there when my partner needs it for the next project.
then I have a huge list of 'Save for Date' funds which have a 'target amount by date' goal, for known upcoming bills (whether it's recurring or one off, I don't discriminate in here).
I itemise everything separately at the moment - so I have a lot.
Oh, and I use silly emoji things to note annual repeating (🔁) and no. times per year (♶) - but that's probably too much info. And i use cheeky '---2020---' type $0 categories as visual separators.
As an aside - there's so much "hacking details into the category description" going on that I'd hope YNAB is paying attention and designing a Better Way™
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The Late Heavy Bombardment I quite like your 2020/2021 category hack.
I also am amused by your handle. :)
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Alia Gee I am pleased to know this. Thanks.👍
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Gold Song The Late Heavy Bombardment WOW some people are way more detailed than I am lol. I applaud such level of planning! My financial life isn't super complicated, thankfully, so my sinking funds are fairly simple.
I basically took what I knew to be my annual Big Expenses that I'm almost never prepared for and created general sinking funds for them with rough monthly goals I work to meet every month:
Gas (yes, a weird sinking fund, but I put money into this every month to have a stockpile saved. I don't drive around town much - I luckily live where I can walk most places - but I make long distance trips to visit family every few months that suck up a lot of gas money in my stupid gas guzzler, so it's nice to be prepared)
Auto Expenses - this covers both potential auto repairs KNOCK ON WOOD and my annual car registration fees/taxes
Gifts - to have a pool of money for both throughout-the-year gifts like Mother's/Father's Days and for Christmas
Personal Care/Clothing - overpriced haircuts, massages as often as I can possibly afford lol, the rare splurge of clothing
Annual Subscriptions - things like my YNAB subscription and Amazon Prime that I get charged once a year
Vet Expenses - to cover my fur baby's annual exam and any other potential expenses if he got sick or something KNOCK ON WOOD
It happens way too often that when I need to roll with my annoying overspending on like groceries or something, these sinking funds of mine too often get stolen from first. Honestly, most of these get funded through annual extras like tax returns and Christmas bonuses, things I shouldn't really depend on as much as I do. This is a problem I'm very aware of and have been working really hard to be better at. I actually have a second checking account with my bank that is used as a Reserve account to hold money for these sorts of things (PNC in the US - Virtual Wallet ... best thing ever, I LOVE it) and I've been trying to be better at actually moving this money from my main account into this Reserve account so I don't spend it. I just have to be more diligent about not moving it back from Reserve, something that is far too easy to do with my bank, both a good and bad thing.
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The Late Heavy Bombardment Ah! Nice use of emojis. I have mine set up as [Expense] (Annual, June) as a reminder but this is... many fewer characters. 😂
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So here is my May check-in. Although I have made payments towards my debts, I had some expenditures that have regressed my progress. This month I am paying for a second trip to help a friend with some medical stuff, my fridge broke and I am finally getting the work completed in my backyard. Add to that my son's education expenses for September for which his dad is unable to help with, it has been a tougher month financially. Looking forward to gaining speed in the next few months. Although I am not where I was hoping to be by this point of the year, I am super proud that I am not taking huge strides backwards and there is still time to make some significant gains.
I also wanted to send kudos out to you all for the progress you have been making. You inspire me!
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Bearours WTG - you are maintaining the most important thing and that’s a positive attitude in the midst of some challenges. You will be back on track in no time with this clarity of perspective and forward focus.
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WairereRose Thank you so much for your kind words and encouragement. It totally made my day!
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Bearours Those tough months are so rough. I heard this podcast a few months ago and it's helped me stay focused (and cope) when things happen.... which, alas, they so often do! Stay strong - - you're doing great!
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Hot Pink Yeti Thank you so much for the words of encouragement and the link to the podcast. I had an opportunity to listen to it tonight. You are right! It was spot on!
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The Late Heavy Bombardment said:
As an aside - there's so much "hacking details into the category description" going on that I'd hope YNAB is paying attention and designing a Better Way™We'd love to hear more details about your system! When you have a moment, would you mind submitting a Feature Request? That form goes directly to team so you can let them know what you’d like to see going forward. We can’t make any promises, but that puts it on our list of possibilities! 😄
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Nicole I don't really have a specific request that I can articulate.
I've just noticed that there seems to be a large number of forum members (including myself) who are hacking details into their category descriptions to meet their own needs that YNAB isn't meeting. I'd hope that YNAB is paying attention to all these workarounds people are hand-rolling, and determining if there's commonality that can be addressed in the interface design or improved training or expanded documentation, or wherever is most appropriate
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The Late Heavy Bombardment We are! One way we collect data like that is through Feature Requests, so we know exactly what you'd like to see.
I like to add a few things to my category names in my personal budget, but was really intrigued by the setup in your screenshot, and thought I'd ask. Of course, it's 100% optional. 😄
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May progress report on my battle against the student loan beast.
As of March 31, 2019: $251,414.81. This is my starting balance after joining YNAB in mid-March, 2019.
As of today, May 23, 2019: $247,680.05
May notes: Regular monthly payment resulted in principal reduction of $1,095.65. Made extra principal payments of $650.00. Total reduction of principal in April: $1,745.65.
Year-end goal is to get the balance down $31,414.81 to $220,000.00. I'm now about 11.89% there.
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I paid an extra $244.26 on my car loan this month. On target to get it paid off by the end of the year at the latest. I received a check for overpayment of state taxes so I'll be able to pay and extra $803.17 in June so I may get the car paid off by October! Also, I make my extra payments on the due date so the larger amount (either my regular payment of $371.86 or the extra payment) goes toward the principal. The end is in sight!
