Debt Be-Gone!

[Miyabi]

OK.  So right this moment I am struggling with some debt and the bills it creates.  I do fine paying them, but I got behind a while back for some extra expenses I didn't expect and getting caught up working normal-ish hours isn't cutting it.  (I tried cutting back from my ridiculous amount of hours and it didn't work.)

So this is the debt I have.

Car Loan - 13,500
Hospital  -   2,500
Loan        -   1,800
Loan        -      800
Card         -     450
---------------------
Total        -   19,050

So, until this is all paid off.  I am going to work every hour I can get, cover every shift that's offered to me, and only allow myself one day off a week, which be completely devoted to homework.

I am also not allowed to spend money on anything aside from things that are necessary i.e. food.

So, here goes nothing.  Tomorrow I work 6 AM - 1 AM.  19 hours.  Let's see how quickly I can pay off about 20k in debt.

The process I will follow is pay the normal bill on each of them, then pay as much extra as I can to the one with least amount left on it.


Other I would like to pay too, but it isn't necessary until I graduate.

Student Loan - 6,000
Student Loan - 4,000
-------------------------
Total                -10,000


Oh and these are the other bills I have every month.

Rent -        215
power -      50 (Not sure on this one, we haven't gotten the first bill yet.)
Internet -  90
Phone    - 100
----------------
Total      - 455


Anyway, that's my rantings for today.

[Eerongal]

In the financial world, this is called a "snowballing" plan. You're focusing all efforts to pay off one bill, and then focusing the freed up funds on the next and so on down the line until you're caught up

Student Loan - 6,000
Student Loan - 4,000
-------------------------
Total                -10,000

Your student loans are *CHEEEEEEEEAP*.  Seriously. I'm paying about 20K a year for mine.

Internet -  90

whaaat? What speed are you paying for? I get 5 MPBS for 32/month

[Nessa]

This is awesome. What a way to take charge of your money! It will be lean for a while, but you'll gain a lot of satisfaction when everything is paid off.

Eerongal's snowballing plan is good. Perhaps see which bill has the most interest associated with it and pay that one off first (usually credit cards are the highest). Waiting to pay off student loans until you have to works, but make sure first that they're at the lowest possible interest rate in the meantime. When my husband finished medical school we rolled all the loans together into a super low 3%.

[Eerongal]

Eerongal's snowballing plan is good. Perhaps see which bill has the most interest associated with it and pay that one off first (usually credit cards are the highest). Waiting to pay off student loans until you have to works, but make sure first that they're at the lowest possible interest rate in the meantime. When my husband finished medical school we rolled all the loans together into a super low 3%.

That's also a really good point. Paying off the higher interest loans/bills/whatever will, in the long run, save you the most money in general.

Credit cards are, generally like 90% of the time, going to be your highest APR, usually clocking in around 20~ish percent.

[Shivertongue]

Where do you find a job that lets you work 19 hours a day? I'm lucky to be scheduled for a 4 hour shift, and not allowed to go over 8 on a single day... hell, I'm lucky to get 19 hours a week...

[Miyabi]

I pay for a 12 meg connection.  That's why I pay so much.

I do tech support for DirecTV so they pay so long as the right amount of people are on the floor at the right times.  I pick up a lot of people's shifts, which is where most of my hours come in.  Plus if they don't have enough people for  a certain time they just let you work.

[Eerongal]

I pay for a 12 meg connection.  That's why I pay so much.

Yup, that would explain it. We don't even get 'em that high here. Max we get is 10 meg off of cable.

[Miyabi]

We have 20 meg coming in later this year.

[Eerongal]

We have 20 meg coming in later this year.

D:

Oh yeah? Well, we have 1 gpbs coming here when google comes here in my naughtiest of dreams *think positive, think positive, think positive >.< *

[Miyabi]

*drool*

1 gig connection would be absolutely  . . . . . omg I can't even explain how much that would make my life.

[ryos]

I don't understand the appeal of ludicrous speed in Internet connections. Here at work I can pull around 24 mbps peak, but most servers can't keep up with that. I don't notice much difference here from home, where my cable modem peaks at around 6 (most of the time it's more like 2 or 3, but I've been known to get as high as 8 out of it).

The only time it really rocks is downloading GB-sized files from servers that can keep up and being done in 10 minutes. But I don't do that very often...