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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A very late September update-
And my progress has come to a screeching halt! I am paying more than the minimum, but barely. But still doing better since using YNAB than before YNAB. I'll take it.
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WOW has it been a year for me. Last check in was February, but even though I have been neglecting my posts here, I have not been neglecting my debt payments! Let’s see… My husband totaled his car in March, and we ended up financing a (new to us) car for him. (This increase to our debt is not reflected in my debt chart, since hubby considers it *his* and I'm not ready to fight that battle with him. 😬) I had two subsequent injuries since the one I had in February, which caused me to change jobs to one that will not be so hard on my body. My new job did come with a slight pay bump, but I don’t love it and I’m not sure it’s going to stick. I’m also still working a second job (weekends when I'm not on-call for my main job) to help with my debt payments. I’m also still in school, which continues to affect the number of hours I can work but I need to finally finish my degree. (I am making all tuition payments out of pocket).
So far this year I have managed to pay off my car (in January), that pesky personal loan with a SUPER high interest rate (yippee!!), and today I submitted the payment to pay-off my capital one card (which also has an atrociously high interest rate). Slowly but surely still making progress. I don’t think I’m going to meet my goal of $15K for this year, but I’m going to get pretty close. Total paydown to date for this year is $11,096.96.
2019 Starting Debt: $45,414.70
October Debt Paid: $1680.18
Current Debt: $34,317.74
Debt Smackdown: $11,096.96 / $15,000Reply-
zoebby *drop mic* that's AWESOME!
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zoebby WOW! That's amazing!!! With all the challenges that have been thrown your way being as close as you are to your debt payment goal is amazing!!! You've still got 2 more months to go, so who knows what will happen. Even if you don't hit it, I hope you realize how incredible it is what you have accomplished!
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zoebby You're taking amazing steps out of your debt! It's a journey. One step, one dollar at a time. Keep your eye on the prize of being debt-free! :0
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We are 96.46% of the way to our goal! A few months ago, I really thought we wouldn't make it. This challenge has really helped us stay on track when we didn't want to or didn't know how it would work. Now, we're set to pay off all the student loans (that was originally going to take until March 2020) by December!!! We'll finance a home improvement/repair before then, so not debt free, but it will be nice to be done with that large minimum monthly payment! And we can snowball it into the financing, of course.
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Move Light Sound Life that's amazing that you're close to your total pay down for this year. Even if you don't hit it; you can absorb any shortfall in the next few months to make the post xmas wallet apocalypse easier to ride out. I've had to move my debt free date a couple of times to match what we have going in real life, so sometimes it feels like a rollercoaster. (I'm not a fan of rollercoasters :D)
Good job :)
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TooClumsy Thanks for the encouragement and insight! Christmas has been financially small for my family for years. I'm sure it will be tempting to expand, but I'm also sure that we can be creative somehow. We should work on that this weekend, thanks for reminding me!
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October update: I've updated the spreadsheet with my debt payments on my student loans (minimum pymts) and on our interest free flooring card, which I was able to pay $500 towards just that. Expenses have really racked up because we had a bad storm with a very close lightening strike that fried so many electronics - all 3 tvs, wifi router, charging cords, all of our Nest products (thermostat, 4 smoke detectors, & our new video doorbell), our AC unit, furnace, electrical GFIs throughout the house, and more. It's SO much money that I've filed an insurance claim. But in the meantime, I'm shelling out money for replacement items and an electrician, while insurance reviews the claim.
I will definitely not make my stretch goal of $28k this year, but I've already exceeded my base goal of $18k. So I guess I should be happy about that. However, while I still feel like we're hemorrhaging money for this mess and a 6 month old baby (man they are also SO expensive - good thing he's cute!), I don't feel happy about my progress for the year because it feels like we're just going backwards. But I know it will be better once we get the insurance claim.
And to help cut household costs, I've cancelled DirecTV, which has just gotten awful since taken over by AT&T anyway, Now we have Hulu Live TV, which works just fine and is so much cheaper. One month at a time.
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Spring Green Rain You're rolling with the punches! That is a lot to take on. And congrats on your little boy! Keep your focus on getting debt-free. TV is so over-rated. Haven't had cable in 8 years. Just Netflix and before that was library DVDs, which I might do for classic movies I want to show my boys that aren't on Netflix. :)
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Purple Foal Thank you! It's true, I am rolling with the punches and that is something good. :)
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October check-in: I'm right on track to make my goal - one more car payment in Nov. and two payments on the last cc. Both of those are at 0% interest. I'm so tempted to just pay them both now (thanks to YNAB I could do that), but I have a couple of potential bigger bills hanging out there. I've budgeted for them, but not sure they're totally covered.
This group has really helped me focus. Next year I'm going to join the savings group, too.
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TC Jackie That's amazing! Now remember to snowball those car payments & CC payments into your savings. Otherwise, life will take that money. :)
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TC Jackie
That's awesome. I'll look for you in the savings challenge thread next year. You think debt-smacking is hard? Wait until you try to save that money. Mwa-ha-ha. I think it's harder than getting out of debt.
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I got a letter that my CSBs have matured & will be getting a cheque in Nov for $900. That will go directly off debt. Before YNAB, I would've been planning to how I was going to spend the money. Different focus now. $30,400 to go in less than 3 years. :)
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Paid $1200 toward my credit cards this month and on my way to paying off my first balance transfer by November.
I'm also 81% of the way to reaching my target of paying $14,000 towards my credit card and auto loan.Reply -
Second October Update:
Since I didn't have to pay my personal loan back (see post above), I was able to put the majority (431,51€) of it towards one of my CCs.
Why not all? I figured since I am way faster with paying down my dept than I thought three weeks ago, I would by traintickets for christmas now instead of budgeting till december for them (because discounts) plus put a few euros away for paying for a nice dinner with my boyfriend (cause he paid for a lot of food for me in the last few months).
I will also get a ~€190 refund on CC#2 in the next day or two, so that balance will go down as well.That makes overall:
Sept Balance Payments Current Bal
Per.Loan € 500 (- € 500,00) € 0,00
CC#1: € 1538,31 - € 431,51 € 1106,80
CC#2: € 478,89 € 478,89Total: € 2517,20 € 1585,69
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Well, it's official as the last payment posted yesterday.... I am 100% debt free! A month earlier than I anticipated and I can't wait for the next step - saving for a 2020 vacation and down payment.
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Taylor L That's Awesome!!! Congrats!!🤩
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Taylor L
Ka-BLAM! (confetti cannon goes off)
Congratulations, weary debt smacker!
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Taylor L Congrats!!!!
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Taylor L Woohoo! Go you!
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Taylor L Congratulations.....SIGH.....Someday.
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Taylor L WAHOOO! Congrats!!!
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Taylor L Amazing! Well done :)
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Taylor L Incredible!! Give us a recap of what you owed & how long did it take to pay off. What did you find the easiest things to cut out? The hardest? How long have you been using YNAB? Strategies for us? Love hearing the success stories! You should probably add yours to that category. :)
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Taylor L Congratulations! That is amazing. 🎉
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I had to buy a new pair of tires this month, but the good news is that I was able to float the entire $320 by pulling the money I was going to put towards extra debt payments this month. My net worth should go up by about $100-$300 too so I'd consider this my most successful month so far :)
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SiruhTheSantas Sometimes the success isn't paying down debt, but being able to handle the OTHER stuff that pops up WITHOUT sliding further into debt. Kudos to you!!!
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Is it just me, or are there more people that are hitting the zero debt goal, or their goals for the year in general, this year than there have been in the past??? I think this is the second or third year I've followed this thread, and I'm just blown away by how many people are paying everything down to zero! It's AWESOME!!!
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farfromtheusual
As an overall number of people hitting zero? I think you may be right: it does seem like a larger number than in previous years. But if you look at it from the percentage of participants who initially claimed a spot on the spreadsheet and declared their intentions, it's probably the same ratio. Also, the number of die-hard debt smackers who are still diligently checking in at this point was down to 26.8% by September, and that's been the usual progression on the annual challenge. We lose a lot of players; it's a brutal game.
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HappyDance Yes, it seems like there are quite a few that are down to zero this year, where as I don't feel like there were that many in the past years. Is the percentage of debt smacked any higher than the average in the past years? (I'm a numbers geek, LOL, so these things make me happy!)
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farfromtheusual
I don't have actual numbers for comparison; it's just an overall feeling based on memory and observation.
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October debt update: Paid a total of £113.38 off this month. Entirely paid off one of my credit cards, will call up and cancel that in a few days :) A second should be done by the new year, the final one I'm paying the minimum on right now.
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Mx Emmin I thought to check in on my debt thermometer and I am 35% of the way to my being debt free! I created the debt thermometer in August so it doesn't take into account anything I paid off before then. According to the google sheets document for this challenge I am 57% of the way to my 2019 goal but I only started this challenge in September. My personal goal for 2019 was to pay off two credit cards and get out of my overdraft: so far I have pad off one card and got out of the overdraft. Only one card remaining!
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Mx Emmin WAHOO Congrats!!!!
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Mx Emmin
Fabulous job! I hope you're feeling proud of having taken ownership of your debt and how you're turning it around!
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October Check-In
So hubby is in the process of getting a new job (he just has to get the paperwork, etc done) but he won't start until November so I wasn't able to pay as much on debt this month, just $1891. But thankfully because of all the work I did earlier this year, it doesn't look like it even pushed our debt-freedom date back any! And once we get rolling with his new job, we should have more and will be able to push the date the other way! :)
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October Check In
Bad month for me. Only paid $120 on the CC. Progress is 68%. My main side income check (which is what I use to pay down debt) was small this month and it is late. So I will just roll it into next month's check. Thankfully I have worked a lot this month so my check will be bigger. Hoping for good things in November.
Also took on a lot more debt. :( More than double what I had. Which is super sad. But that's okay, it was expected and it is 0% interest. I am not going to add any extra to the chart, but I will count payments in the smackdown since I will be switching my main focus from my CC to my new loans.
November is an extra week paycheck for me, so hoping that will help out as well. Although I do have quite a bit to purchase for the baby on black Friday, and I need to start thinking about Christmas... Ugh.
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The Goat Queen Just keep your eye on the ball. In the past my instinct was to somehow not notice any more when things went off the rails. Kind of like a bad diet plan.
Just as an aside, as a mom of two now grown kids, babies don't need much and they don't remember all the awesome stuff you got them for Christmas. Just thought I'd put that out there.
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MXMOM
Oh yes I definitely agree that babies don't need a lot. We aren't buying any Christmas presents for the baby. But we do plan on purchasing the few bigger items we need on Black Friday if we don't get them at the shower. Things such as the car seat and crib will be significantly less then, so might as well take advantage of the sales.
I typically like to buy most of my Christmas presents on Black Friday. That way it is done and over with, and everything is cheaper. But I don't have any ideas on what to get this year for anyone. Usually I have the gifts already picked out. But I feel very unprepared this year. Oh well I still have a month to plan and save.Reply
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Technicolor Cheetah said:
Also, the first 6 months of the budget are a bit of a panic as you're feeling YNAB broke all the timeI hear you! I'm close to 4 months in. It's amazing how different life is when you aren't putting on credit cards to float them or build them. Just use & pay off the new spending. Just have to get used to saving up for all expenses. The awareness & clarity of my finances is so empowering. :)
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Purple Foal
pssst - the first 6 months I'd just open my budget multiple times a day and just stare at it. It was so addictive, the control, and like you said, so empowering. We were doing just fine before YNAB, money in the bank, living within our means, but the change before and after has been just stunning. I do not think that our net worth would have increased so much without it. At the beginning it was a lot of, what fire do I put out first? And despair over not funding true expenses the way I wanted to because the money just wasn't there.
Now I have more money that isn't earmarked for bills I need to pay now or in the next 12 months but instead those someday bills. Some day I'm going to have to replace an appliance (looking at you washing machine and dishwasher 👀). Some day I want to replace my windows and repave the driveway. Some day is looking more possible every month and it is a beautiful feeling.
...I still check my budget multiple times a day, but it's kind of a security blanket check in - you still there, everything look good? Yeah? Ok!
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Technicolor Cheetah So good to hear!! I was definitely just putting out fires. Now I'm working towards anticipating them, like maintenance. But I do have a solid plan for my yearly expenses. Just looked at my budget, and although I'm on the sprint, I budgeted $200 for eating out but only spent $52 & no takeout! My grocery bill was $500 but I've been stocking my freezer, pantry, and clearly cooking at home. :)
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Technicolor Cheetah haha, I do the same thing. I go look at it, check the accounts, yup, still matching. And then I stare at it. Like there should be something to do. But there's nothing. Nothing to move around, nothing to add up, nothing to (re)calculate averages of. It's fine. It just sits there. I can go grocery shopping and get gas without a second though, and even grab lunch for myself without much of a blink. And I still go in and look and stare at it.
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Haven't checked in for a bit, just updated though next month since I was paid today instead of Friday. I have $105.00 left to pay Social Security and that will come out next month. So I have cleared all my goals. Wish I could say that was a recent to celebrate. However I will be back next year as I ended up backsliding and have some credit card debt and personal loans to now wipe out.
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Ruff16965 (05bd62cee897) Every little bit helps. Just keep going. :)
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Technicolor Cheetah said:
Technicub the secondLove this!
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Spring Green Rain said:
good thing he's cute!),Yup, you'll be saying that a lot! Mostly when you want to kill them but then they do something adorable.
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We have had a horrendous year, but we are still here. Instead of decreasing the debt, even with a "windfall" of $46K (which was supposed to be the starter sinking fund for our new home down payment), we've gone backwards by $5K. But we are still here. Amazingly, we have paid the bills, not lost utilities, paid off a car and two credit cards, and retired another small installment loan balance this year. Major setbacks are registering three vehicles that all needed some manner of work to pass safety inspections, funerals and flights, and preschool for 2, but I'm counting it all joy and we will keep moving down.
DH's main client barely stayed open this year and went into survival mode, which has meant his work has dried to a trickle--some months, it's been one drop *sigh*- but we are still here! Even bringing in 35% less than last year in an area with a COLA that is 95% higher, we have made what feels like progress: we are no longer USING the credit cards. So, there's that. We are NOT paying them down (and carrying balances means that the balances don't move at all) but we are not adding to the debt anymore either.
I'm still thankful for YNAB for letting me see how bad it could be.
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Slate Blue Vacuum That's HUGE. I have to remind my BF of that sometimes, we've paid EVERY bill on time, and not ever had a situation when we've not been able to pay a bill. That's a big deal.
I'm glad you're aware of how great that is! Keep celebrating the small stuff, because all that adds up to big stuff!
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farfromtheusual Slate Blue Vacuum For us a big "win" was not living in overdraft. As much as its a drag to get paid and then its all gone in YNAB categories, our world before was paycheque went into bank, brought balance up to zero, and then bills drained it back down. Yesterday was payday and mortgage etc all comes out tomorrow. This would have been our zero balance day. But just checked and account balance is $6800!!!!!!! Are you freaking kidding me?!?!?!? Never ever would I have thought we could break the overdraft cycle.
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MXMOM #GOALS
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MXMOM that is amazing - congrats!!
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MXMOM yes! That's HUGE!!!
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Technicolor Cheetah said:
Some day I'm going to have to replace an appliance (looking at you washing machine and dishwasher 👀). Some day I want to replace my windows and repave the driveway. Some day is looking more possible every month and it is a beautiful feelingThose are the things that make me despair. Its like its never going to end. Pay off the debt. Then the cars will need to be replaced. Then the furnace. etc. The house is really a money sucking monster. When will it ever be time for me? Just whining because I am feeling YNAB broke today. Day after payday and everything budgeted. Yay but its kind of like a food hangover. I just stare at the YNAB screen and want magical money to show up.
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MXMOM
MXMOM said:
Just whining because I am feeling YNAB broke today. Day after payday and everything budgeted. Yay but its kind of like a food hangover. I just stare at the YNAB screen and want magical money to show up.I totally agree. And that's when we need hobbies away from the budget obsession! The feeling of empowerment over finances is highly addictive, in a good way, but there is other stuff to do too! I've been reading a tonne of finance books & blogs. Then I need to say to myself, enough for today, and switch to fiction. I listen to the podcasts in the car and find myself wanting to reach out to so many ppl about YNAB. It's almost like a cult. It's so good we just want to share it. But I do feel a little obsessed. lol
In regards to all the expenses we are predicting, just think how you would have dealt with those emergencies in the past... Scary to think about it now. Just credit with no thinking clearly. Now at least you are hyper-aware. It's like being in a trance of constant anticipation of batting down the hatches! I know I am in case my union strikes. That is scary being divorced with kids and what lead me to find YNAB. Sometimes these external forces are the universe speaking to us. Every cloud truly has a silver lining, if we just look for it. :)
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MXMOM I totally get that!
I bought a farmhouse that was over 100 years old and gutted it down to the studs, rebuilt like 95% of it and then added an addition. It has been our money suck for 7 years. It seems like as soon as we pay something off there is just another project that has been waiting and needs done that will take us another year or more to pay for. Just had to do some foundation waterproofing $5k. Now I'm pregnant and we are having to finish a nursery. Then I need to regrade the yard $5k. When that is paid off I need to redo the duct work and the floors $15k+, the kitchen is barely use-able... $$$. The septic is like 40 years old and could go out at any time. $$$ Ugh. By the time I am done the house will be practically new, but it has taken us so long that about the time we are done everything will start needing to be maintained or redone again. Just seems never ending.
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October was a good month! I paid off $1260 in debt. My yearly total is up to $16901.15! This is definitely the most I've ever paid off in a year. It feels really good! I've knocked out a car loan and now have a little over $10k on a waterproofing loan. I'm trying my hardest to get it paid down below $10k before the end of the year! Can't wait!
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Gold Song Gold Song That's great! I really get the "can't wait" part. My last car payment comes out of the bank on auto payment on Monday and I can hardly wait for that.
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TC Jackie *waiting with confetti cannon* Bring on Monday!
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November check-in: I paid off our 10.65% credit card! Undebtit's plan was to pay it off next month, but I scraped up enough to finish it off this month. I am 93% of the way to my 2019 goal and have plans to exceed it. I have a student loan with a balance of less than $1000 that I plan to pay off next month.
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Pay Me To Draw congrats!
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I paid off a student loan!! I had December budgeted with the plan to pay it off, but I realized, I have the money NOW! Pay it NOW!! So I did. Another $945 to November's total, making it $4826!
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Pay Me To Draw CONGRATS!!
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Pay Me To Draw Alright!! :)
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I've been doing pretty well with debt reduction. most of my money has gone to the future debt I was planning for this month - medical stuff. And lo and below it has started. I was able to pay $3927 of those costs straight from cash I saved.
I will find out the full cost owing by next week total for the procedures I've calculated to be about 18,000. The best part is that once again I have taken advantage of 0% balance transfers. Plus, I'll be getting close to 6k for a side gig I've just completed. So the debt load should drop to under 10k. I'm pretty happy. That means I'll have a year to pay that off with less then 1k going to servicing an interest free debit. I'm pretty sure I can clear it all in less then a year.
My next year smack down will be working towards this medical debt and squirrelling away extra money to pay my LOC. I didn't do so great with the LOC. But honestly, I shouldn't be too hard on myself. I have maintained a consistent payment of $200 to it, which is over my min payment. The next goal will to be to fully cover interest costs. Which I will start doing latest by Jan.
It sucks to have all this money, that I could just use to clear the LOC. It hurts in that oh man, if only way. But, I have to now focus on this year increasing my income, so I'm pretty confident.
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ISuckatMaths I love this post - looking at how far you’ve come since some of your earlier in the year posts. What a great update.
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WairereRose Thank you! haha how shy I feel that I know someone is reading and remembering my posts😳
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ISuckatMaths it’s because yours resonate with me. 🙂
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September check-in: paid $2045.39 toward debt.
October check-in: paid $3219.93 toward debt.
At 80%, and staying optimistic about our original goal! It's a thrill to see the student loan balances go down.Reply-
Nicole
You are doing a wonderful job. Go go go. The 2019 finish line is in sight.
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Car loan - gone! It was at 0%, so I've never been in a big hurry to pay it off, but wow it feels good. I'm at 93% of my goal for the year. Two more payments on a 0% credit card and that will be done, too. C'mon 100%!
This group is a big help in staying focused. I check it all the time and it's inspiring to see people working hard to meet their goals. Sometimes it's a big chunk and sometimes a lot less, but we're all trying to move forward. Thanks, all.
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TC Jackie congrats!
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TC Jackie Congrats!! I do believe they ride better when not dragging a loan! Our goal is to pay off our car this year as well. Almost there with ya!
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TC Jackie Congratulations! One down... and more to follow. You're so close to that year goal!
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TC Jackie
Nicely done!
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