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 :)
-
Didn't post for March because i knew i actually increased my debt. Today i actually sat down and faced my reality. Here's my update....
I closed on my house on 2/19 and didn't move until 3/16. New home comes with new expenses. First HOA payment was due 4/1 and I added $1059.38 to my debt total for needed household items. My first focus was to buffer one month of my mortgage payment. (Done!)
I was generously gifted money and i was able to pay $1947.00 towards the debt. I Paid off my Synchrony/care credit!! I now have 2 credit card balances left. I am focusing on my 0% interest balance card as that promotion ends 1/2020. I am also looking into a new card 0% card to transfer my high interest balance card to.
These first 2 weeks of April i have worked extra days and have had 3 extra days of call back/OT pay. May will be a 3 paycheck month! Looking forward to crushing this debt and moving on to student loans!
-
Also forgot to add.. the day before i closed on my mortgage I rec'd a call from a collection agent for an old medical bill from 2005! I was able to make a settlement offer and take care of that too!
-
NewDawnNewDay
As long as you're averaging more steps forwards than back, it will work out. Sometimes when you're digging yourself out of a hole, there are small (and large unfortunately) avalanches. It does sound like you're making good progress overall!
-
NewDawnNewDay Back sliding is ok sometimes. Moving is expensive, and there are always unforeseen little things that need to be taken care of right then with a new place. It's just the way of things. Glad you're making progress, and we've got a 3 pay check month coming up, too, I'm excited!
-
-
Could someone explain how the google spreadsheet works. How to i get my paid off YTD column to change?
-
NewDawnNewDay it should update when you enter your payment figure into each month. Is it not doing that?
-
NewDawnNewDay
The formula in your summary cell was overwritten with $301. You may have inadvertently done that when entering your first month's entry. I fixed it (I think).
-
HappyDance Thank-you!
-
-
Late to the game, but here we go:
CC#1: $12,363.16
CC#2: $14,498.49
Car: $22,463.48
Heloc: $88,754.88
Total: $138,080.01
Goal is to pay off CC#1, by November.
-
tntmm6 welcome aboard!
-
-
Ok, I know we're only halfway through the month, but I have my final April numbers ready to go. I paid $1491.88 towards debt this month. I have $2488 remaining! It's so close I can almost taste it.
Btw, anyone know why the top line in the spreadsheet that tracked how much debt we have and have paid off as a whole group is gone? I miss it. BritishMuseum ?-
Debt Crusher Cat Mother added another $46 to my April payments, so now it's $1538.53
-
-
Alright, it's fixed. Somebody apparently moved it down to line 300 or some such. I assume accidentally. It's back at the top, and the formulae are fixed, so it'll display what it's supposed to where it's supposed to again. Cheers!
-
April check-in,
paid $400, reducing my principle by $393.93
-
I’ve got $855 in debt payments scheduled for this month. This is my first month with YNAB and so I am realizing that while I pay my credit card in full, I have been riding the float and as such I am about $1000 short on having that envelope fully funded. I will probably take it from savings and make this part of the learning process of getting into this new method! No new debt!
-
PugsBugs Yeah, the float can be a sneaky thing sometimes! Glad you figured it out and have a plan to ditch it!
-
-
Just made the minimums this month had some truck expenses that took planned monies away from debt, so $110.35 down. Next month will be my last Child Support payment, I have paid off $75,000 in back support in 7 years, along with 5 years of regular monthly payments.
So not too sure what to due with the "extra" money that will be freed up starting in June. As I see it I have three choices.- Have it all applied to the Social Security "Over-payment" this would allow me to pay it off around my birthday next March.
- Cycle it into other outstanding debts for a couple of months then go to plan 1.
- Really start building my emergency funds.
All have a certain appeal. Any thoughts from out there in YNAB land?
-
Ruff16965 (05bd62cee897)
You've come a very long way. Well done.
I made it a priority to live on last month's income, so I took a deliberate detour through getting buffered (YNAB definition) and catching up on where I needed to be with all my essential true expenses, then going hard at debt again. But my choice at the time depended on how close the light at the end of the tunnel was (still more than a year away) and how much I already had built up and categorized as "emergency fund" (not much).
-
Ruff16965 (05bd62cee897) with an emergency fund in place, events that prevent debt reduction (like extra truck expenses) are less likely to occur. I’d probably spend time imagining how each scenario would feel and go with the one that felt best. Would spending time on your overdue debts be likely to knock any of them out completely? That can be a real buzz and inspire you to focus even more on your ultimate goal. You may still achieve a Birthday debt free even with that diversion.
-
WairereRose I will have all debts but the over payment from Social Security taken care of by July at the latest at the rate I am going now. The emergency funds also include the move that I hope to make in the next year.
The extra for the truck were related to the new phone, the USB charger was not strong enough, the mount was magnetic that interfered with the wireless charger so got a new wireless charging mount, power cables. All little things but nickled and dimed me, but I spend a lot of time in the truck so it is peace of mind. -
Ruff16965 (05bd62cee897) I hear you. If you have a buffer I would probably go for option 2.
-
Ruff16965 (05bd62cee897)
I'm a fan of emergency funds. It all depends on what you would consider enough of a buffer. I would suggest one month's income if you're ok delaying debt payments that long. Alternately, you could go half E.F. and half of either 1 or 2. If you want to keep momentum into paying off debt, I'd do half and half.
-
Ruff16965 (05bd62cee897) Way to go getting that cleared up! Steps forward like that feel sooo good!
This kind of decision for me depends on how much the debt is costing each month. If it's costing a LOT, then it's worth it to throw the extra at the debt, and then work on the emergency money. If it's not costing a whole lot, then the emergency funds are much more worth it.
In our situation right now my BF has ONE card left to pay off. It's hanging at right around $5000, but it's also got a zero interest balance transfer that lasts until Feb of 20. His other 4 credit cards are clear, and we keep getting repeated offers for balance transfers on those cards. Right now we have quite a few other pressing things, like repairs to our house we purchased a year ago. So I'm not stressing about that last 5k for him. I'm just going to make small payments every month, and when we get to Feb, I'll see what the tax return is, but more than likely I'll just roll it into another zero interest transfer and let it hang there. If they're going to give me a "Loan" at basically zero percent (minus the little 3% to do the transfer) then it's just fine with me if it hangs out there in limbo. His credit score actually dropped by like 30 points when we paid down his other 2 cards when we got the tax return this year, which is the other reason I'm totally not stressed about this last little bit.
So figure out what makes the most sense for your financial situation and roll with that. Sometimes it's just based on what makes you feel better, which will keep you motivated better in the long run. -
farfromtheusual None of my debts have any interest, so they are only impacting my credit score but that has been steadily climbing, I hope to break 600 by the 4th of July and 650 by years end. Not to bad for someone that was about 350 2 years ago.
Leaning towards the emergency fund as I run it by a friend of mine who is a CPU and knows all about what I am doing and planning. She was quick to remind me that the emergency fund is where I have been stashing money for my new place and move across country.
-
Ruff16965 (05bd62cee897) Yeah, I'd do the emergency fund route, too, then. That makes the most sense long term to support you. And getting close to 600 isn't bad. It just takes time, and honestly I seem to think that even if you do things in a hurry and pay off a bunch, some stuff just won't change until the years go back and the long term track record changes. Frankly, I think the whole credit score thing is a crock (like wtf, my BF's score fell about 30 points according to the capital one tracker which I think uses experian when we paid off his credit card dept and his total credit usage dropped below 10%), so at this point as long as they're loaning me money for basically free, then I'm gonna stretch it out and not stress myself about paying it off.
-
farfromtheusual I use Capitol One and Credit Karma, so all three are covered. There is usually a 65 point spread between the three, which is strange. Credit Karma gives a little better break down as to what effects your score and rather it is Low, Med or High impact.
-
Ruff16965 (05bd62cee897) Oh that's helpful. Where do you get Credit Karma from or is that a service separate from your cards? I know there's a wide spread, and the only good thing I have found is that when we went to purchase the house last year, we found that the BF's scores were higher when they were pulled "officially" than what Capital one was saying, so that was a good thing. I don't really stress too much over it, I mostly just use it as a barometer to notice what's happening in accordance with what we do (i.e. spending or paying down debt/adding loans). I was just really irritated to see it drop so much when he paid off debt. It even said "see how this affects your score" and I clicked and it was like
👍 your overall credit went from XXX up to XXX
👍 your total debt went from XXX down to XXX
Was this helpful?
I was like. NO. 😡
LOL -
farfromtheusual www.creditkarma.com it is free, updated once a week, they also have an app, but have never done anything with that so no idea how good or terrible it is.
If you read, and not aiming anything at you by the title, get a couple of Eric House's "Personal Finance for Dummies", best explanations on how the whole thing works. Of course I love the whole series from Vegas to Sewing to BBQ, and have a ton of the computer books.
-
Ruff16965 (05bd62cee897) Cool, thanks for the tips!
-
farfromtheusual I have been using CreditKarma for a long time now. They were and are great. Came out as a really good alternative back in the day when you depended on AnnualCreditReport.com for your once in a year free report or such (as far as I know). It is free and they are able to keep it free by marketing products to you that match your credit profile (for which they get paid by companies). As far as I know and understand, from a privacy standpoint, as long as you just use CK, things are okay. It gets a little murkier when you want to use their tax filing service, which is also free, but at that point, you sign a waiver that allows them to use your tax information to market services to you from vendors. I personally keep away from that for obvious reasons.
As for the spread, there is almost always going to be one, since different companies use different scoring models to calculate your score. CK and Capital One use the TransUnion 3.0 Vantage something, if I am not mistaken. Bank of America and Discover still rely on old FICO scores. Amex uses the newer TU 3.0 too. Citi uses Equifax.
Most credit card companies nowadays provide free score tracking. So between CreditKarma and your credit cards, you should have a good idea of how your score and report should look like. CK just gives you a free option if you don't have a credit card that offers you that.
For just tracking your score and reports, I could not recommend CreditKarma more. It is great. :) And good luck with your debt paydown.
-
farfromtheusual I've always been able to find a balance transfer with no interest and no transfer fee. So always look for one of those first when considering a new card.
-
LoaferDude Good to know! Thanks for the tips!!
-
MartyH Yup, I generally can too, but I try to balance using those offers with opening new cards.
-
A little late on the March check-in. We basically just did our minimums and a little bit of round-ups from our checking account. Total of $578.31. We just did our taxes, though, so hopefully April will allow for some extra from the returns.
-
An exciting month for me budget-wise. This month I have cracked through the $1500 dollar mark for my personal loan which feels huge. I'm excited to see it. I've also just set up all the loan payments till the end of the month from money in my 'regular payments' account that I've set up following the principles of the CAP course I'm teaching. I can't say I'm actually following them thoroughly, but something's changed nonetheless. It's very nice to be able to set things up to pay ahead rather than just make the payments each week.
So - reporting in:
Personal Loan $1485 (paid $95); CC remains PIF so no 'progress' there.
That puts me at 36.44% of my goal (up from 33.23% last month)
This looks slow, but in my journal, you'll see that at the same time I've made a massive dent in some other debt that didn't make it to the challenge this year. I've added it in and changed my payment amounts, so I actually went backwards quite significantly, and my total repayments percentage is now "down" to 32.37%. Going forward this will look way more impressive since I'm pretty sure that May is a 3 pay-week month - yay!
-
WairereRose That is awesome! I cracked the $4,500 barrier on my personal loan with my payment this month and it felt huge as well! Something about being getting below those threshold numbers just feels so satisfying. (Of course, I promptly went back up over $4,500 when the monthly interest hit, but it was a great feeling while it lasted...)
-
Violet Drill Mum and I just decided that each fortnight when the mortgage payment comes out we’re going to throw a few extra dollars at it to reduce the outstanding balance down to the next $10 mark. We will be saving cents in interest added to the actual payment each time but it will quickly catch up I hope.
-
-
Very slow and steady in the early part of the year. Things are going to pick up like crazy after June!
-
Oh, I am so close! April check in and I have paid an additional $2,005.31 towards my original balance of $10,416. All on one 0% credit card. So...my total paid this year is $8,409.94 or 80% of my total balance due. Hoping I can pay off the remainder in May. Then I can be debt free except for my mortgage. That is the next challenge. I cannot wait to crank up my retirement savings!
-
Pediheartrn NICE!! Great job!
-
-
I want to pay off my entire CC debt of 6636 USD this year. I am not paying any interest right now because they are running a 0% promotion, one till Nov 2019 and another till July 2020, I would like to get rid of them first. I also have a university tech loan for a smaller 1100 USD amount that I intend to pay off as soon as the CC debt is eliminated.
-
April Update/First Update :/ - I have just paid 8600 towards my private student loan thanks to this great new job! I was so happy seeing that number get cut by more than half. Next month I will either start tackling my auto loan or keep plugging away on my student loan, it is hard to decide which one to pay down first. I despise the interest on the student loan but the car loan takes so much money for the minimum payment. The goal is to be debt free by October, about 22k left, and start saving for big goals!
-
Orange Sloth Congratulations on the new job! And the payment. How did that feel? Paying down my private student loan (with ridiculous interest rate) was definitely the most satisfying. 😂
-
Nicole It feels great! I am working a lot more but it is only temporary until the debt is gone and then hopefully I can cut my time spent working in half.
-
-
OMG! 76% complete!! HAPPY DANCE!! Sent the last of our April payments and we have paid down $8320 this month thanks in big part to a tax refund. I'm so relieved that I came back to YNAB and started paying closer attention to our finances. Man, I really let this go for way too long. It's looking like if we really buckle down we could have all our non-mortgage debt paid off by December of this year... if we kept going with regular snowball payments it would be April next year. For no car payment, no credit cards, no loans... that would be pretty freaking amazing.
-
rnjenren1 76% ?! 🎉 Nice job! I'd be dancing too. You're looking at the options now, and making progress on your goals. December is just around the corner!
-
-
We just scheduled a massive student loan payment for Monday. $3506.80 makes the balance be 19517.84, which should be paid off by January of 2020! This is ahead of the schedule that I previously posted. We decided to save less for a car down payment. Hopefully nothing unexpected occurs. :)
-
Move Light Sound Life Whoa! That will be huge progress by Jan 2020! Congrats and keep up the great work!
-
Move Light Sound Life
Think of how fast you could save for a car down payment when your loan is paid off! Heck, you could save for a whole new car in a couple years if you snowballed your debt payment into saving for a car when the student loan is over!
-
rnjenren1 Thanks for the encouragement!!! I see you're doing well, too! :)
-
Technicolor Cheetah Right, though we're putting off some rather important functional home improvements/maintenance to pay down debt, so at some point we're going to have to reckon with reality on that front, too... But the money will snowball to good use, for sure!
-
Move Light Sound Life
Even if you only save 1/4 of the snowball for a down payment, you'd be in inexpensive new sedan territory in less than 4 years. Pretty awesome!
-
Technicolor Cheetah Thanks! I love the encouragement! Thanks for making this community a nice place to be!
-
-
April check-in: I made my first snowball payment to my private student loan this month, after having paid off my car last month. That felt really good to pay so much more on this stupid student loan! And now I have to find time to transfer the title to my car to only my name, which will also feel good. Progress! My federal student loan is set on auto payment, so I've updated the sheet for the month. One month at a time.
-
April Check In.
It's been a tight month financially. Owed on my taxes and had to squeeze money from my savings + use PayPal Credit. This month I've manage to pay the minimums on all my cards ($373) and will do the same next month. Slow but continuously steady.
-
Tishy Wishy Good luck!!
-
nomade0 thank you
-
-
April's Check In.
April has been up and down. I used some discretionary money to make an extra principal payment on the mortgage paydown goal, which felt really good. Total of payments: $318.82
Down - Did the super adult thing and got a termite bond put on the house ($$ but already saved for), but then found out that there's so much preexisting termite damage I can't get a warranty on damage with the bond (??!!??!). I've been relying on a home inspection done 4 years ago at purchase, but the longer I'm in the house, the more I realize that inspector did his work with his eyes closed. So now I have a call in to a contractor to come inspect and repair structural damage under my house ($$). I can't put this off - I have joists half eaten through!
Up - I got a raise! A significant one, that will basically have its impact beginning in May. I've talked to my husband, and the tentative plan is to put 90% or more of the increase in wages towards debt! How great is that? More than that, it alleviates some worry - if we need more money for the house repairs, I can more quickly replenish whatever emergency fund category I have to tap. It also means I don't have to wait til the end of the year when snowball funds are available to begin my debt payment schedule!
So all in all.... really good, I think. I'm hopeful and excited and eager to see what I can get done next month!
-
Navy Blue Colt Good luck with the house stuff! I hope that it turns out to not be as bad as you are afraid it might be!! And good on the raise! That will help a lot!
-
farfromtheusual Thanks! I hope it's straightforward and easy too! 😄
-
-
April check in - $5092.31 debt remaining (excluding mortgage). Makes nearly 30% of my debt now gone. Still could pay this off by July 2019. Trying to stay close to that!
-
I did the thing. I paid down $25k in 4 months (thanks to windfalls and parking some long term savings there) and got the Heloc to $50k.
Tenant is behind in rent and I just broke my leg, so the goal going forward will be to keep it at 50k. If I can get it lower, awesome, but really just need to maintain it there through the next months,
-
Alia Gee Great work on the debt. Sorry to hear about your tenant and leg. Hope you heal quickly and stay on track!
-
Alia Gee Oh my goodness! So sorry to hear about your leg! I hope it is a swift and easy recovery! And I Hope you're able to get your tenant to pay quickly without any loss to you.
-
-
Late check in....paid of $1,940 in January, $2,630 in February (my mom was a cosigner on a student loan and surprised me with a payoff!), March $1,689 and April $1,683. I'm definitely making progress and 45% towards my 2019 paydown goal already, so I'm on track. But I still carry a balance on one credit card and need to rein in my spending. I could be paying more. It's progress, though! Which I haven't had in....years, if ever.
-
Coral Squirrel Yay!!!!!!
-
-
March I cleared all balance transfer debt - put down 2,794$ and my credit card debt is gone!
Now, my goal is to get all the money that is owed to me to clear my primary card, and, already spoke to the cc and I got no interest for next 2 months. Money debt is close to 300$ and then all cc balances are back to 0, and with balance occurring when I make purchases.
Next thing is my last debt -LOC, now since losing 200$/month I don't know how I'll pay beyond min payments. April I just paid min, and I know I have some serious planning I need to do. I do know I'm owed an additional + 500$ , which I was planning to use to go to my friends wedding... I'll see if I can split costs...
I'm also developing side hustle gig, plan is to use portion of those earnings as well
Thats it for now.
-
April check in - I made very small progress this month. Bonus is that I was able to still pay off my unexpected trip expenditures in February and make some headway. The next few months are going to be challenging, but I am focused and determined.
-
Okay! I'm back in saving mode. I completed a balance transfer of all my debt, and backslid somewhat while moving house.
My total debt was $6000.18 at the beginning of this month (old debt + backslide debt + fee)
I'm 0%APR until 12/20, so my monthly payment (per YNAB) is a little less than $286. I was able to make that payment this month, so my current debt is $5714.18! Still not where I was before I backslid, but I'm happy to take any improvement :)
Additional good news: I was able to put almost $300 towards recurring expenses in the month of May! I may have to take a little off from this due to some stuff that just came up, but this is the first time I've been able to put any money ahead. Once I can do this reliably, I can start budgeting extra money towards my debt. Now that I'm not paying any interest on my debt, I'm following a payment plan and focusing on getting my finances in a regular rhythm so I can break my current paycheck to paycheck cycle :)
