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Home > First Entry - I've got to be honest...

First Entry - I've got to be honest...

May 15th, 2015 at 05:46 pm

... with myself. We have waaayyyyy too much debt. The cause... overspending of course. But there is one extenuating circumstance that attributes to a large chunk of it. I was self employed for almost 5 years and making very low income during the whole time. Now I am employed and making a decent salary as is my husband. But we still don't seem to be getting anywhere.

We have a 9 year old daughter who is active in a number of sports/activities. Kids are expensive!

I'm admittedly also a spender on silly things that I need to curb. We have lots of room for improvement.

Here are the numbers:

HELOC - $260k
LOC - $55k
CC #1 - $1,200

I recently applied for and obtained the increase to my LOC to pay off all CCs but $1,200 of the one listed above. This will give us a lower interest rate but overall monthly payments won't change a huge amount at this point. We are set up for auto minimum payments on the LOC so it will go down over time. But the intent is to throw more $$ against it every month. It should also simplify things for us - we were balancing too many card payments, etc.

The HELOC is where we do everthing - all income goes in and all expenses come out. As a result, we are really only paying the interest on this and it doesn't go down. Again, focusing on this but it's at a lower rate than the LOC so want to focus more on paying that off.

That's my update for now. Hi to everyone.

9 Responses to “First Entry - I've got to be honest...”

  1. NJDebbie Says:
    1431716763

    Welcome! You've come to the right place for support and good advice. Speaking from experience, children are sometimes involved in too many extra curricular activities with no down time. You might want to have an honest conversation with your daughter to see how she feels about doing so much. Her answer may surprise you. Also, may I suggest Dave Ramsey? I followed a lot of his advice but not everything and as a result we were inspire and able to pay off a $240K mortgage, 2 car loans and pay cash for our sons college education in a span of five years. It may take you longer or less time; the key is reducing debt to have a less stressful and fruitful life sooner than later.

    There can be an end to your debt but it takes persevere, sacrifice and falling off the wagon a few times. Good luck in your debt repayment journey. Again, Welcome!

  2. scottish girl Says:
    1431717737

    Welcome! You've definetly come to the right place Smile

  3. Petunia 100 Says:
    1431722028

    Welcome to SA. Smile

    Is the HELOC the only debt on your home? No traditional mortgage?

  4. Tabs Says:
    1431722169

    Welcome to the blog community.

  5. Laura S. Says:
    1431725030

    Welcome!

  6. Ima saver Says:
    1431727877

    Welcome, glad you have joined us!

  7. snafu Says:
    1431734835

    Welcome to SA. You'll find we've all come with different backstories and different life experiences but we truly want to help you reach your goals as efficiently and painlessly as possible.

  8. VS_ozgirl Says:
    1431736944

    Nice to meet you & best of luck with your goals! We hope you find much inspiration, this site is also very helpful with achieving goals because we try to stay accountable & it's great to have people with the same mindset

  9. Down with Debt Says:
    1432040800

    Petunia,

    Yes, that is correct. The HELOC is in place of a traditional mortgage - which is a curse and a blessing.

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