Lately,
I have had nothing but finances on the brain. Every day, I check our account
balances to see what bills finally came through and, if there is something new,
then I check to see what the remaining balance is on what payment processed.
Essentially, it’s another way that my OCD is playing out right now, but this is
a good thing. After we were side-swiped on our home loan application in January
I have made it my mission to repair what damage was done. It essentially forced
me to sit down, do some reading on personal finances, and put a plan in place.
Having done that and utilizing a couple new tools online with our bank we’ve
already seen a significant drop in balances owed and I was able to raise Pat’s
credit score by 35 points in one month.
I’m
getting us there. I know it’s not an overnight thing to make happen, but the
progress I have made so far is pretty good. Our bank has a debt management
program that I used the first month and then it dawned on me that it was making
me crazy by taking so long to pay off the FIRST thing. Then I understood that
it was prioritizing debt payment based on interest rate from highest to lowest.
Yeah, that didn’t work for me. So I decided to use the debt snowball system
talked about by Dave Ramsey and Clark Howard. Once I made the switch, which
threw our banks program for a complete loop, I have paid off one credit card,
another one will be paid off at the next payday and a third one will be paid in
full in April. Using the debt snowball system, I figured up today that by the 1st
of September, we’ll be responsible for the car payments, student loans and our
largest credit card. Take that bank program! I will have 7 things paid off
while your program didn’t have a SINGLE thing paid off until June. KAPOW!
It
will be nice to be able to put a good amount into the savings account each
month AND make a sizable dent in the last credit card. I’m not worried about
the student loans because they really are small amounts left and the interest
rate is so low, that I’m okay with taking a couple more years to pay them off. I
may be able to have mine forgiven once I get the disability paperwork filled
out by my doctor and turned back in. If that happens then that’s two more
payments we won’t have to worry about. It’ll just be nice to have some
breathing room financially since we’re a one income household. I really wish I
had sat down and done this before now, but everything happens in its own time. It
just needs a catalyst to get it started and that home loan application was my
wake up. Not knocking my husband in any way, but he doesn’t pay the household
bills, so he has no clue. With one of the other tools we found, he can now see
what bills are coming out and for what amount, in a section of our bank information.
No
more keeping anyone in the dark about anything. It’s all plugged in there. The
good, the bad, and the ugly. It’s just really nice to see bills disappear and
know that it is gone. As we said recently, we’d like to do just two more moves
and be done. The next one is our PCS, with the goal of renting for a max time
of 2 more years, and then buy a place and just settle down. We’re getting older
and we’re both tired, he more so than I. I have a goal in sight and I am going
for it full gusto! Somehow, someway…we will make this happen.
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