So last year started with mortgage debt of $640,000. Ended with debt of $587,296. 2021 stretch goal is to get mortgage below $532,000.

Aussie Beachlife That is AWESOME! Way to go in beating your goal last year! It's certainly some good mojo to carry you into 2021... 

Aussie Beachlife Wow!!! 🤯 You took a huge chunk out of that debt last year and I can't wait to see just how far you're able to push the envelope this year!

Rocket Queen Thanks! This thread certainly helps to keep the focus going! 😄

Faness It's certainly a stretch goal this year that's for sure! Here's hoping we make it 🤞🙏

January 2021 check-in (line ID #2)

Great start to the year with a 3 pay month 🤑

$587,296 January opening balance

$5,197 paid off principal

$1,303 paid in interest

$582,099 balance owing

2021 goal $55,000 off principal

Actual amount $5,197 off principal

9.45% of goal met

Aussie Beachlife 

Fantastic way to start the year! I LOVE 3 paycheck months :)

February 2021 check-in (line ID #2)

$582,099 February opening balance

$3,905 paid off principal

$1,295 paid in interest

$578,194 balance owing

2021 goal $55,000 off principal

Actual amount $9,102 off principal

16.5% of goal met

Rocket Queen It may not be your total debt, but it's an impressive goal all the same! Looking forward to seeing you crush it! 😁

Gnarwhal We'll all be here to help you wave goodbye once it's gone for good! 🎉

Gnarwhal  that's awesome and I'm sure you'll smash it out. I'll be paying off my car loan this year too, going to be so liberating! 

January check-in

I paid $1,000 toward our car loan this month. After interest, it came out to $975.99 toward principle.

My goal is $10,667.01, which is what I have left in principle.

Progress: 9.15% of my goal 

Gnarwhal YIKES. principal*

Gnarwhal lol. I thought the same thing in my head! But knew not to be THAT person to correct it. 😉😄

Navy Blue Pegasus You're a gem

February check-in:

I paid another $1,000 toward the loan, which included $24 in interest and $976 toward principal.

Progress: 18.3% complete

I didn't mention this last month but now that I'm below 5 figures, it feels soooo clooooose. I love it.

Gnarwhal Amazing!!! Being below 5 figures deserves a celebration. 🎉

Gnarwhal wahoo!!! I hope you are celebrating! That's awesome!!

Buckeye By chance, are you a Buckeye? Asking from one student loan debt-crushing Ohioan to (possibly) another. 😉 Either way, wishing you all the luck and progress in 2021!

Faness yes! Born and raised in NE Ohio (Just A Kid From Akron). I live in Texas currently though ... thank you and good luck fellow Buckeye :) 

Buckeye University of Akron graduate here!

Buckeye Feb payment sent ... another $250 :) 

Buckeye March payment made: another $250 ... :) 

Hot Pink Admiral good luck to you in 2021. I'm sure you have put some thought into this, but I thought it was still worth mentioning ... with that amount of debt, it might make significant financial sense to avalanche the debt rather than snowball. Odds are that your car loan has a significantly lower interest rate than the credit cards. If you are disciplined enough to be using YNAB, it seems worth consideration. Good luck whatever way you decide!

Buckeye Thanks for idea! I'll take a look in undebt it to see various scenarios.

Hot Pink Admiral Happy to see you joining us again this year! I'm doing the 34 Day Reset as well and my biggest objective is to stay away from fast food. Meal planning here I come! 

Tan Banjo (c031bfdaebb1) 

January 2021 Check-in: Paid off $1,830 as outlined below

CC1: $659 (Payment higher than original balance due to a purchase during the month)🤦🤦

CC2: $300 (Hoping to increase this in following months due to snowball from CC1)👍👍

Land Loan: $871 (Payment less interest)🤷🤷

Total debt paid down YTD: $1,830

Below are the remaining balances

CC1: Nil 🎊🎊

CC2: $7,850

Auto Loan: 61,000 ( first payment not yet due)💁

Land Loan: 145,000

Here's to seeing the total debt pay down get into 5 digits this year🤩🤩

Tan Banjo (c031bfdaebb1) That's awesome progress for January!

farfromtheusual 

Thank you. It was a bit of a bummer to increase the balance on the first CC but I'm still proud of the nil balance going into February.

Tan Banjo (c031bfdaebb1) You have to appreciate the wins when they come. Sometimes things have to move laterally before they move forward, and that's totally ok. I would LOVE to have the zero balance, too! That always makes me feel SO good!

Tan Banjo (c031bfdaebb1) 

February 2021 Check-in: Paid off $981 as outlined below

CC1: $110 (Annual Fee)🤦🤦🙃🙃

CC2: $0 (Bank offered a payment holiday to customers so redirecting this to true expenses)👍👍

Land Loan: $871 (Payment less interest)🤷🤷

Total debt paid down YTD: $981

Below are the remaining balances

CC1: Nil 🎊🎊

CC2: $7,738

Auto Loan: 61,000 ( first payment not yet due)💁

Land Loan: 144,000

The amount paid is a bit below plan and I think taking advantage of the payment holiday will lead to a higher interest amount. However, I am looking forward to having all my true expenses funded so that dipping into emergency funds and credit cards won't be needed. That way my budget gets a little future proofing even though right now it feels like a step back.

On a happy note though, no new debt added for February. So I feel like that is also a win.

Tan Banjo (c031bfdaebb1) Woot! Those are wins!! Congrats!

Purple Foal Love your artwork!!

Purple Foal Woot! Yay for crushing that goal for 2020 and here's to doing the same in 2021! I love how colorful your artwork is getting! 🌈

Faness Thanks! It's becoming a guilty pleasure! :)

Purple Foal This is ABSOLUTELY AMAZING!

Wyvern Nick True is one of the nicest people I know - I had several personal calls with him last year when I was really struggling to understand YNAB and he was super sweet.

Oh maaan. Credit card payment plus interest _plus extra card fee plus annual fee_..... that means a reduction of a whole $30 for the month. This thing needs out of my life!!!!!! 😡😩

Better month. No hidden surprises. Another $240 or so gone. Nothing exciting but I am still working on consolidating my budget and getting ahead there; debt smackdown will be able to be prioritised after that. Also not going backwards yay!

Orchid Moose Not going backwards counts!  Even small steps move you closer to the goal :-)

Orchid Moose Small steps are STILL steps. Way to go!

mandiferous Be gentle with yourself in the beginning, things do tend to crop up that you didn't remember only because you're not used to thinking about them in this capacity. But the clarity that YNAB gives you will enable to you to work it all out! Welcome to the party!

farfromtheusual fair points, and thank you! I'm sure I have forgotten some True Expenses simply because I don't have any history in YNAB to use for planning, though over the next month I'll be examining last year's statements to improve accuracy there. Honestly I will be happy to make any progress and to use this challenge as a historical record for me to compare my goals vs realistic abilities :)

mandiferous Yup, it happens to all of us, so I figured I'd warn you! Getting the first 3-4 months under your belt helps because then you can start to see trends in spending patterns, like how much groceries, fuel, and the power bills are averaging. 6 months is even better, and the first full year gives you LOTS of info. Just take your time and just plan on having forgotten some things! LOL

January Check-in: ✅Goal Met!

CC 1 is paid off. 2 and 3 are consolidated with a little bonus extra payment added on. Also paid the balance transfer fee, which I had factored into my total debt amount when starting the challenge. Accounting for interest accrued, I have paid off $1,180.69 of my debt this month - right on target for this smackdown.

mandiferous WAHOO! Way to go!

farfromtheusual thank you! I'm exhausted just thinking about how much of my monthly income is currently going to debt payment, but the flip side of this is the anticipation of getting to use that money for... literally anything else in about a year and a half (after snowballing this money into my car payment). Hope your paydown is going well!

It just occurred to me that it might be helpful, as the year winds on, to start this off by listing all of my debt here. On the spreadsheet I'm only tracking accounts I'm making more than minimum payments on, but it'll be nice to look back later and see how much of the total debt has been chipped away at while focusing on the credit cards. It also is giving me reason to question my aggressive paydown, as I reckon with the fact that it has been largely possible because of my COVID mortgage forbearance. While that is still in effect, I'll continue with the current plan. Then... roll with the punches?

As of Jan 1, I was at:

CC 1: $700 (now clear)
CC 2: $5,120 (consolidated into CC 3)
CC 3: $8,400
Auto: $15,926
Mortgage: $28,075.01 (currently deferred, will resume payments later this year)

Total: $58,221 (as of Jan 20, I'm at $56,775)

mandiferous YES! I had that realization as I gained a little more breathing room at the end of this past year. I was sort of surprised at the fact that I had extra money and then it was like well what do I do with this?! This is new!

mandiferous I did a bit of the same time. I know how much my goal is to pay off this year, but that's not the totality of my debt. It will be interesting to look back and see how much of an effect this year has!

mandiferous Oh my goodness, your mortgage is so close! Add a 7 in front of yours and that's how far I have to go, ha!

farfromtheusual a few years ago (2015 I think?) I paid off my car and credit cards, and it was the weirdest feeling in the world. What do I do with it?!? I'd never really experienced a month where I brought in more income than I needed to spend right then. I wish I'd had YNAB at that time to help me figure out all these other hidden expenses. It would not have helped me stay out of debt entirely, but it might have minimized some of the damage I incurred from an expensive move and some damaging decisions I made to help out family members. I've lurked in your journal a bit and it seems like you've made amazing progress over the last few years - really amazing!

xgirlmama oh my!! For a few years I lived in an area where houses were minimum $700k, and could not have dreamt of owning a home there. Pre-payments make such a big difference though - you will get there!

mandiferous you don't want to know how much housing in CA costs. Let's just say there used to be another digit when we bought it. gasp

mandiferous I felt the same way when I was able to reshuffle my finances so that I did have a little extra. It was wild! I look forward to doing that more!!
Yes, we have made some pretty big steps forward in the past few years. I have to keep reminding myself of that because sometimes it feels like we are going nowhere fast. Thanks for the encouragement!

February 1 Check-In: My focus CC is due on the 6th and it was driving me crazy seeing the payment sit in YNAB, soooo, I went ahead and paid it. $870.16 down, including the interest payment.

After thinking more about what farfromtheusual said early in January, I attended the YNAB debt bootcamp and started considering a slower paydown to build up true expense categories. I also did the 34-day reset and have really, truly combed through my expenses to cut back. It was an exhausting process and I hope I am not spending this much time on my budget every month, but thanks to January's triple paycheck I am fully budgeted for February and have TE categories topped off for auto maintenance, insurance deductible, and vet bills. About 40% funded on a home maintenance/deductible category, and am also socking away money for an escrow payment I'll owe in April. It's driving me bonkers that I don't know exactly how much it'll be, and my mortgage escrow agent hasn't been responding to my calls or emails.

Most months will not be so flush, but since I'm no longer starting from scratch on several large true expenses, I think I can continue budgeting one month ahead. Current payment goal is $867 per month on the focus debt, for a payoff date of April 2022 - one month before the promotional rate ends. For motivation to speed it up, I created a separate category for a CC bulk payment due Dec 31st; at the end of each month, anything that did not get spent from my flex funds ($18.65 from January 😆) will go in there, along with any overages after budgeting my other categories. It'll be fun to watch that build up to a final "SEE YA!" payment when it reaches that golden tipping point.

mandiferous I have a similar account!  It is looking quite flush after the reset - so I'll be paying off a loan one month earlier than I was planning to.  It's a good feeling to build that up only to watch it go bu-bye (but for such a satisfying reason!)

mandiferous That's huge progress! Way to go!!

February EOM check-in:

Focus CC payments: $920.34 (adjusting for calculation error sometime earlier this year), $12,144 balance. 14.75% progress!

Total Debt: $55,729.42 (including car and mortgage)

This month I got some "windfalls" from refunds and reimbursements that YNAB has helped me track and organize; these are going into my debt repayment holding category. I also had a huge win in being able to WAM any category overspending this month from other monthly flex categories without using my "forgot to budget for" funds. My cc payoff date is now March 2022 instead of April. I'm itching to dump this right away into the debt, but it helps to see the $ as working a temp job as an emergency fund on top of my TE, and also as practice for the mortgage forbearance repayment that I need to negotiate next month - this will probably end up being tacked on to the end of my mortgage as a lump sum payment that I'll need to save for over the next 4 years.

BritishMuseum Congratulations on clearing your balance sheet last year!! Thank you for leading the charge on this for so long.         

BritishMuseum Thank you for all of your work last year in the challenge!

SapphireSweetie January check in: $1645.02 sent to my private student loan this month. I have a goal of paying 5K for the year so this puts me about 32% of the way there. I recently switched careers and took a significant pay cut in the process so this will be the most I send to this loan all year. My most recent payment puts the  balance of this loan at around $2300.

SapphireSweetie Congrats! That must feel good to get that much of a jump on it right now!

SapphireSweetie February Check in: ZERO dollars sent to my student loan this month. Unfortunately my husband had an $1800 car repair and then our sliding glass door shattered which resulted in an $800 repair. Life sure comes at you fast! I'm thankful that I'm currently in school so I did not have to even put the minimum payment towards it, b/c let me tell you, I needed all of my free cash flow this month. Hopefully March brings no unexpected financial events b/c I'm ready to get back on track.

SapphireSweetie Not going backwards, and that means a lot! Great job 

SapphireSweetie Yikes! Feels good to be able to move the money around, even if you aren't making progress on your debt, you're not going backwards, either!

Charlotte Web awesome!! Sometimes looking at the numbers gives clarity which can help to move forward and get unstuck! Way to go!

Booth Family January check-in. Is this where we do this?!?!? Anywho, husband couldn't help this month,  as he used this month's debt payoff $ last month to say buh bye to his CC!! Paid off $1047 this month (2 minimum payments, 1 snowball). We have $200 in our reset ready for debt next month. It will be exciting to see if it stays there and goes towards it!

Booth Family 

Like you've done, I tend to post my check-ins as replies to my original posts. That way as the year progresses I have a single thread. It also helps at the end of the year when scrolling through your posts to see just how much progress has been made.

DeerMountain & Booth Okey dokey. February Check-in. Husband used his sprint for our Florida trip instead of debt. TOTALLY WORTH IT (woot woot!). Paid off $1420.36 ($277 interest). Small victories! For tracking purposes: Current debt payoff timeline (July 2024. Blue Dec 2021, Red Jan 2023)

January check-in (complete): Paid off $1,034.72 as outlined below. 

• Credit card = $650.00
• Auto loan = $384.72

Total debt paid down YTD: $1,034.72, which is 5.87% of total goal.

Below are the remaining balances for these consumer debts:           

• Credit card = $12,350.00 (0% promotional APR for balance transfer ending December 2021). 
• Auto loan = $13,029.95 (3.24% APR).

February check-in (complete): Paid off $734.72 as outlined below.  

• Credit card = $350.00
• Auto loan = $384.72

Total debt paid down YTD: $1,769.44, which is 10.04% of total goal. 

Below are the remaining balances for these consumer debts:            

• Credit card = $12,000.00 (0% promotional APR for balance transfer ending December 2021). 
• Auto loan = $12,680.87 (3.24% APR).