My Challenge To Take On Debt

My wife and I were spending money like crazy a year ago. We had student loan debt, two auto loans, and some other odds and ends. Over the past year we have lived on a very strict budget and have cleared all $40,000 in debt. We make a comfortable living and now are able to travel and save to pay cash for everything. I have closed every credit account that we previously had and we pay cash for everything! Not trying to boast, just saying that it can be done!

 

Ah, there we go. The guy who wants to blame everyone else for the people who don't want to put in the effort. You get out of life what you put into it my friend. As someone who worked as an auto mechanic, drove tractor trailers, and did every job anyone needed done that nobody else wanted to do, I can tell you the hard work pays off. I am now a head manager at a large corporation making more money then I've dreamed of. All I can tell you is that you get out of life what you put into it. I don't feel sorry for anyone making minimum wage that isn't in high school or doing it as a second job to get ahead.

 

I could say a lot about your last sentence, but I won't.

Don't ruin this guys thread.

 

I would be the guy you are talking about...Once I was out of college and starting working, I worked full time and was a graduate student for years, using my vacation days so I could do "non-class/research" grad student duties like teach and run labs, usually for no pay. Now college and grad school is well behind me and we are working to pay off my second wife's student debt. We expect to be free of all consumer debt aside from student debt and primary house mortgage in the next 18 months or so, and pay off the remaining student debt in five and mortgage in ten, while setting aside substantial sums for retirement. However, we are a two professional couple, both with advanced degrees in the sciences. Not you usual family who lives in rural America.

Very few people can ever pull themselves up by their bootstraps and to say that everyone can is pure fiction, brought to you by the masters in the boardroom. I like the Dave Ramsey system, and did you know that Dave once went bankrupt? Do me favor, read MLK writings on "economic slavery".

 

Man this thread seemed to open a lot of doors and took off pretty quickly. To the people who went from tons of debt to little/none, congrats on that. One day, maybe sooner than later, I'll be on that list too. I'm not going to blame the economy, I'm not going to blame my employer, I'm not going to blame anyone else. The fact is, I had the cards, my wife had hers, we agreed to the student loans when we took them. Nobody told us we had to have all that. We signed up for this so we are going to handle it one day at a time.

Someone else said this site doesn't help with being on a budget. That's very true because it's given me a lot of ideas I wanted to do to my truck. At least it does have a cheap/free sections to dig through with some good stuff in it.

 

^^ That's one way to do it.

 

I would rather be in debt than to get laid up on a bike accident. Our riding time is severely reduced this season and our bikes are collecting dust due to my wife breaking her foot the first week of June. Surgery was last week, cast went on yesterday, perhaps she can put weight on it August 1st, if things go well.

On the other hand, we are saving money on gear and bike trips, I was scheduled to leave for a month to go to Alaska via BMW GS Adventure.

Howard

 

Ah man sorry to hear about the accident and foot being broke for you two. My grandfather in law was in a bike accident a few years back. Thankfully he wasn't injured but the bike......well it wasn't so lucky. I agree, I would rather be in debt like I am then to have an accident like that but I guess there is always a bright side to everything. You're right about not giving up everything I enjoy. I've just cut back some instead of all on some things. The coffee though, man it's rough. At least I'm down to one or two mug fill up versus a lot more like I used too.

 

Well, little bit of good news. I called up customer service for CCard 2 just to speak with them about the interest rate. We all know card rates are high and adjust. I've been with them for over 2 years and always paid on time or early. I usually always pay a few dollars extra as well versus the minimum payment. They took all that into account and actually lowered the rate by 4% on the spot. That should help knock it out a little faster as well hopefully.

 

Minor update since the interest rate dropped. I got the new statement with the lower rate and the payment dropped $10. Not bad to me. So I'll be taking that $10 and still putting half towards the payment and the other half back in savings. Granted $5 isn't much, but it's better than nothing in my eyes. The wife and I finally sat down with a calendar and mapped out every bill, credit and utilities, and wrote them down as well as pay days. We figured out the best way to handle it all. I even got my student loans payment date moved to the middle of the month versus the beginning, and her highest CC to the middle as well to help balance out the load evenly across the whole month versus 2/3 at the beginning. We were getting hit with overdraft fees like crazy at the beginning of the month, so hopefully this will help that out. We also managed to start getting our grocery bill down $20-$30 less every time we go shopping now. That should help out in the long run. I've picked up a new task at work that will allow me to get an additional 5-6 hours of overtime, I'm paid hourly so that's time and a half, every week. All of these are minor changes but they all add up to a big change.

 

For me, the key was mapping out expenses vs income. The wife and I have the same pay day, every other week. Our checks get split between a common fund for mortgage, utilities and other joint expenses, with the bulk of our checks going into our personal accounts. Car loans, student loans, credit cards, child expenses, and personal day to day expenses come out of personal accounts. And we do not have access to each other's personal accounts. So in our case, the common account pays our common debt/expenses, our personal accounts handle our own. We don't affect each other's credit!

Howard

 

We have a joint bank account, but as far as credit cards and student loans, they are separate. Both of our pay checks go into the same account. We have always helped each other financially even before we got married and had a joint account. Mapping it out and seeing everything split up visually seemed to help us get a stronger grasp on the best way to attack it all. I get paid every other Thursday and she is the 1st and 15th. Most weeks at least one of us is paid but every now and then it'll line up where neither of us get paid.

 

Well, I sold my ipod classic on ebay that I got a few years ago. It still worked no problem but didn't need it. Sold that bad boy and managed to pay off a small card that we had a vet bill on. It wasn't a lot, but that's one less thing to worry about now. Working on what else I can find to get rid of for some spare cash.

 

Keep at it and constantly remind yourself of the end goal.
Most seem to revert back to bad spending habits once they begin to get ahead, don't be like most. Eliminating debt is an amazing feeling that is far more rewarding than buying some random material possession you can live without.

 

Agreed. I've seen plenty of people, my mother included, who eliminate it then get back into it. Unfortunately I'm about to have to drop my truck off at the dealership for some work on Thursday. That's going to cost me $100 for the extended warranty deductible. I wish I could put that money towards something else but I've got to have a truck to get to work. At least it'll be paid with cash so it won't add to the existing problem.