Debt Dumpers 2020

I worked for a credit card company for 2 years in their support department, I can assure you that for at least some banks it is true. To be fair I should have (and meant to!) put that this was true for many credit cards, though I don't personally know if it is for all. Seems yours at least does not go by this. If they aren't doing it and the agreement says they are than there could be potential legal ramifications involved. I personally have 4 credit cards and 2 of the 4 even show the breakdown of daily interest on my statements.

Double check the math on the statement.
 
I got my settlement from the VA yesterday. By the end of the week, I will be debt free except for my mortgage AND have a decent chunk set aside for emergencies and retirement. My snowball is now divided between fully funding my Roth IRA, saving for my next vehicle (cause I know I'll need one in the next couple of years), my vacation and happiness fund, and beefing up my emergency fund.

Now, if Disney will just open up their reservation system so I can get my reservations modified. I have exactly one week I will be able to go this summer based on their new timeline to reopen, and dang it, I need some escape and celebration.
Yay! That's great news! So happy for you!
 
Sorry to hear about the layoff must be so stressful. On the roads, that's something scary to think about, just driving down the road to get from point A to B, and being down the highway and being trapped or things hurled off the sides or bridges. I'm not quite a stone's throw from DC here, but I could bike there if so desired, but not doing that. Makes me think of Sarah Palin "I see Russia from my house!"

There's been violence and destruction near my job. Very close. As in, I can look out the window of our lounge and see police guarding the closed roads that lead to the hospital. It figures, I'm home for 2 months and have to come back to this. I will not hesitate to stay home again if I don't feel safe.
The retail pharmacy affiliated with my hospital had its glass shattered; luckily no one was present at the time. Yesterday, all public transportation closed down early and we left early. I was just happy to get back to NJ before they closed the bridge again. Philly has curfews in effect each night and National Guard is assisting. South Jersey is very quiet but I did hear rumors that someone was dropping cinder blocks off of overpasses. This is crazy.
Stay safe everyone.
 
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There's been violence and destruction near my job. Very close. As in, I can look out the window of our lounge and see police guarding the closed roads hat lead to the hospital. It figures, I'm home for 2 months and have to come back to this. I will not hesitate to stay home again if I don't feel safe.
The retail pharmacy affiliated with my hospital had its glass shattered; luckily no one was present at the time. Yesterday, all public transportation closed down early and we left early. I was just happy to get back to NJ before they closed the bridge again. Philly has curfews in effect each night and National Guard is assisting. South Jersey is very quiet but I did hear rumors that someone was dropping cinder blocks off of overpasses. This is crazy.
Stay safe everyone.
That is scary, and I hope your area will be safe.
 


There's been violence and destruction near my job. Very close. As in, I can look out the window of our lounge and see police guarding the closed roads hat lead to the hospital. It figures, I'm home for 2 months and have to come back to this. I will not hesitate to stay home again if I don't feel safe.
The retail pharmacy affiliated with my hospital had its glass shattered; luckily no one was present at the time. Yesterday, all public transportation closed down early and we left early. I was just happy to get back to NJ before they closed the bridge again. Philly has curfews in effect each night and National Guard is assisting. South Jersey is very quiet but I did hear rumors that someone was dropping cinder blocks off of overpasses. This is crazy.
Stay safe everyone.

Stay safe.
 
I feel so much better after putting everything down into a budget sheet.
I've faithfully put $50/week into a credit union. I have a baby emergency fund of $1200 in the bank and $500 cash on hand. I think I'll stop for now and utilize that money as part of the stopgap until DH's unemployment starts up again. Reworked my budget sheet just now and sent a screenshot to DH. If I can swing it, I'll try to have the first CC paid off in Nov. Then the other is only 3 months behind that one. Almost there, when I look at it on paper, which is wonderful after this last month and a half. Five months until a banana dance for me!
imbatman
Hi Hon
You have gone through so much and you have been so strong!
I admire you very much. (your posts are always so encouraging for others).
Lean on you family and friends right now and know we care very much about you.
Under 50K is just awesome!!!
Safe travels!
Hugs to you
Mel
Thank you @bababear_50 ! I'm nervous about tomorrow, the drive and the appointments where they won't let my DH in with me. But it'll all work out and soon I'll be annoying him from my pillowed perch.
 


Thanks! I feel so much better after putting everything down into a budget sheet. I made it super conservative in case he doesn't get approved. Right now, there is such a massive back-up. Figured if I erred on the side of not getting it, we'd be better off. Good news is that I should still be able to pay new medical bills and still become debt free by January! AND our mortgage statement was delivered yesterday and we're under $50K!

Stay safe, everyone. I have a CHP officer friend who will be helping me get to Stanford if he's not on calls. Never did I think I'd have to ask him to plot me a course on back streets to avoid violent protests.

Sorry to hear about the lay-off- does he have any idea when he may go back to full time? So stressful but good on you carrying on! Under 50K is amazing! We still have like 15.5 years and 300K to go...sigh...

Stay safe!
 
Stay safe, everyone. I have a CHP officer friend who will be helping me get to Stanford if he's not on calls. Never did I think I'd have to ask him to plot me a course on back streets to avoid violent protests.

stay safe! it's crazy what's happening in areas between you and standford. out of curiosity this week i looked at the on-line area newspapers for what used to be my daily commute up near sacramento into the bay area-i would have been driving through at least 6 near freeway or freeway adjacent hot spots for riots and or heavy looting :scared:


I've faithfully put $50/week into a credit union. I have a baby emergency fund of $1200 in the bank and $500 cash on hand. I think I'll stop for now and utilize that money as part of the stopgap until DH's unemployment starts up again. Reworked my budget sheet just now and sent a screenshot to DH. If I can swing it, I'll try to have the first CC paid off in Nov. Then the other is only 3 months behind that one. Almost there, when I look at it on paper, which is wonderful after this last month and a half. Five months until a banana dance for me!

good plan but don't kick yourself if you have to put total payoff on the back burner for the time being. i was listening to the dave ramsey show yesterday for the first time in a couple of months and was surprised (but glad) to hear that there's been a shift in the mindset of his method for the current times. instead of push, push, push to pay off the debt, when someone calls and talks of having more than the emergency fund in place or having it in place/in the process of doing the debt snowball and having come into some extra money-dave and the others he has on are inquiring how stable a person/their spouse's jobs are during the pandemic and if there's some insecurity suggesting that they build a larger fund while they can or setting aside that extra money they've come into and just continuing with minimum payments while they are able to build larger emergency or stop-gap reserves. like they said-the debt will still be there when people's incomes become more stable and they can always do big payoffs then but with everything so cattywampus right now it can benefit a person's mental health to know they've got more than that $1000 emergency fund to fall back on (or like you've pointed out-to use in the time it takes for unemployment to kick in-hopefully it won't take long for your dh's).

take care all. stay safe.
 
Sorry to hear about the layoff must be so stressful. On the roads, that's something scary to think about, just driving down the road to get from point A to B, and being down the highway and being trapped or things hurled off the sides or bridges. I'm not quite a stone's throw from DC here, but I could bike there if so desired, but not doing that. Makes me think of Sarah Palin "I see Russia from my house!"

Hope he is better after that. Glad you caught it early. I haven't had a large vet bill since Jan/Feb, so I've had a chance to get my vet bill savings up, knock on wood no further things for some time. Mine had a bad streak for a while with what seemed like constant vet bills and health issues, one thing after another it seemed, and then a turnaround. Has been having good health for the last several months!
I am so glad your pets are doing better! I just wanted to add a quick word about pet health insurance. My husband and I learned the hard way that a perfectly healthy looking dog could suddenly become terribly ill with no notice when he developed pancreatitis (the vet said he must have eaten something we didn't know about-he was a bit of a thief). We ended up spending thousands of dollars on him before he died but we felt we had to give him every chance we could (he was only 8). This put us in a financial hole that took us years to recover. We signed up our rescue kittens for insurance at their first check up and we are so glad we did! One of them stopped eating for some reason and after 2 weeks of vet visits, bloodwork, and imaging studies we realized that the money we saved by having insurance, covered her insurance premiums for the next five years. (It ended up being just really bad constipation BTW -lol). Small monthly payments are definitely better than huge ones when bad things happen.
 
I am so glad your pets are doing better! I just wanted to add a quick word about pet health insurance. My husband and I learned the hard way that a perfectly healthy looking dog could suddenly become terribly ill with no notice when he developed pancreatitis (the vet said he must have eaten something we didn't know about-he was a bit of a thief). We ended up spending thousands of dollars on him before he died but we felt we had to give him every chance we could (he was only 8). This put us in a financial hole that took us years to recover. We signed up our rescue kittens for insurance at their first check up and we are so glad we did! One of them stopped eating for some reason and after 2 weeks of vet visits, bloodwork, and imaging studies we realized that the money we saved by having insurance, covered her insurance premiums for the next five years. (It ended up being just really bad constipation BTW -lol). Small monthly payments are definitely better than huge ones when bad things happen.
Thank you for sharing your experience with pet insurance. I did quite a bit of research recently on pet insurance as I was carefully considering it, and got many quotes. I then did a cost/benefit analysis with the quotes, age of my pet, deductible/coverage of each offered quote, life expectancy, current age and health conditions, quality of life, assumptions, what I was willing to pay vs. quality of life/life expectancy, what would be covered vs. what's not, and some more variables I'm sure. I concluded that paying out of pocket would be best in my situation. My dog is 7 years old with a few noted pre-existing medical conditions, and typical life expectancy is 8-10 or 10-12 depending on the source. The numbers I ran could go in my favor IF nothing happens to her in the short term, as the older my dog gets (yes, likely it's not a popular shared opinion with many animal lovers) the less likely I am going to choose any invasive procedures.

Now, I've since tossed all those notebook pages I had everything written down on (I think I ran all this back in January or thereabout). But, suffice it to say, I don't think all my numbers and speculations I ran support getting pet insurance in my particular case. I can't put my notes back up verbatim since tossed, but I think it was about $110 a month on the policy I liked best from all the quotes I got. Roughly can say $110x12months, x number of years expected to live equaled "x" that would be what I put out in pet insurance. Then, considered deductibles in each potential medical visit, procedure, and then all the other considerations earlier. It's very precarious, IF nothing large happens in the short term, I think I'll make out better out of pocket. So, in the mean time, knock on wood, continuing to save. Also, I should add that we aren't very cash strapped, but most certainly I don't like large vet bills (who does?).

Now, if I could do it all again and she was a puppy, I'd likely go with the insurance and think the numbers would then be in better favor for pet insurance. That's where my numbers seemed to support best. I do appreciate your take on the insurance though.
 
Thank you for sharing your experience with pet insurance. I did quite a bit of research recently on pet insurance as I was carefully considering it, and got many quotes. I then did a cost/benefit analysis with the quotes, age of my pet, deductible/coverage of each offered quote, life expectancy, current age and health conditions, quality of life, assumptions, what I was willing to pay vs. quality of life/life expectancy, what would be covered vs. what's not, and some more variables I'm sure. I concluded that paying out of pocket would be best in my situation. My dog is 7 years old with a few noted pre-existing medical conditions, and typical life expectancy is 8-10 or 10-12 depending on the source. The numbers I ran could go in my favor IF nothing happens to her in the short term, as the older my dog gets (yes, likely it's not a popular shared opinion with many animal lovers) the less likely I am going to choose any invasive procedures.

Now, I've since tossed all those notebook pages I had everything written down on (I think I ran all this back in January or thereabout). But, suffice it to say, I don't think all my numbers and speculations I ran support getting pet insurance in my particular case. I can't put my notes back up verbatim since tossed, but I think it was about $110 a month on the policy I liked best from all the quotes I got. Roughly can say $110x12months, x number of years expected to live equaled "x" that would be what I put out in pet insurance. Then, considered deductibles in each potential medical visit, procedure, and then all the other considerations earlier. It's very precarious, IF nothing large happens in the short term, I think I'll make out better out of pocket. So, in the mean time, knock on wood, continuing to save. Also, I should add that we aren't very cash strapped, but most certainly I don't like large vet bills (who does?).

Now, if I could do it all again and she was a puppy, I'd likely go with the insurance and think the numbers would then be in better favor for pet insurance. That's where my numbers seemed to support best. I do appreciate your take on the insurance though.

It's also good to evaluate any pet insurance you have as things change as they age and the policy you'd get when they are a puppy or kitten isn't the same you need when they are 5 or 10.

I've had it since my doxie was a puppy and used it twice. Once to cover a trip to emergency vet when his foot was bleeding, thank you allergies. Benedryl took care of it as it was seasonal and he grew out of it or the itchy feet part went away.

Also used it when he needed neck surgery. He's a doxie but far from normal so his herniated disc was in his neck and not his back. Had I realized I should have looked into his ins again as he aged I'd have gotten more of it covered but at 9 he was still on the same policy. I did change it after and knock on wood, haven't needed it sense.

Also note that they generally don't.cover dental work so all the teeth he's had pulled over 2 dif times, were all out of pocket. The 2nd time I signed up for the paw plan the vet offers that covers a teeth cleaning, bloodwork, vaccines, jnlimited office visits and stuff at a better rate than paying oop for each item. In a normal year none of these plans work for me but can be a good option if your vet has it.
 
Thank you for sharing your experience with pet insurance. I did quite a bit of research recently on pet insurance as I was carefully considering it, and got many quotes. I then did a cost/benefit analysis with the quotes, age of my pet, deductible/coverage of each offered quote, life expectancy, current age and health conditions, quality of life, assumptions, what I was willing to pay vs. quality of life/life expectancy, what would be covered vs. what's not, and some more variables I'm sure. I concluded that paying out of pocket would be best in my situation. My dog is 7 years old with a few noted pre-existing medical conditions, and typical life expectancy is 8-10 or 10-12 depending on the source. The numbers I ran could go in my favor IF nothing happens to her in the short term, as the older my dog gets (yes, likely it's not a popular shared opinion with many animal lovers) the less likely I am going to choose any invasive procedures.

Now, I've since tossed all those notebook pages I had everything written down on (I think I ran all this back in January or thereabout). But, suffice it to say, I don't think all my numbers and speculations I ran support getting pet insurance in my particular case. I can't put my notes back up verbatim since tossed, but I think it was about $110 a month on the policy I liked best from all the quotes I got. Roughly can say $110x12months, x number of years expected to live equaled "x" that would be what I put out in pet insurance. Then, considered deductibles in each potential medical visit, procedure, and then all the other considerations earlier. It's very precarious, IF nothing large happens in the short term, I think I'll make out better out of pocket. So, in the mean time, knock on wood, continuing to save. Also, I should add that we aren't very cash strapped, but most certainly I don't like large vet bills (who does?).

Now, if I could do it all again and she was a puppy, I'd likely go with the insurance and think the numbers would then be in better favor for pet insurance. That's where my numbers seemed to support best. I do appreciate your take on the insurance though.
Yes, the key is to get it when they are puppies/kittens since your payments are based on how old they are when you start. It is also worthwhile to mention that, just like us, pre-existing conditions are not covered so that is why the sooner one starts, the better. I also priced out insurance for my older cat when my dog died and decided against it at the time. I agree that when they are older, it makes more sense to have a 'just in case' fund saved. We did promise ourselves at the time though that we would enroll all new fur babies ASAP, which is how we got them signed up within 24hr of their first vet visit (some companies give you a break when you do that too)
 
Back from the circus Stanford. My last appointment was at 2 p.m. and when the surgeon waltzed in at 4 p.m., I blew my cool. Thoroughly. Then I cried and apologized because I don't want to wake up from surgery lop-sided. :rotfl2: Two surgeries scheduled. Glad I had points hanging out on my one credit card to cover one of the stays. Figuring the other will be...interesting.

@barkley great suggestion! I will keep that in mind. We do have a bit of wiggle room that I budgeted in. Not sure how long the part-time gig will last until he goes back to FT. We are hoping for a July 1 "restart" and that would take a load off.
 
I am feeling so relieved—I found out this morning that the dated tickets from our Disney trip that was scheduled for late March 2020 have now been extended to Sept 2021. Originally they had been extended to Dec 15, and I was having a hard time trying to figure out when we could go before Dec 15. This gives us more time to figure it all out!!
 
I haven’t been doing a great job at posting here but here goes an update.
- we sold our house in Florida for a profit.
- I used a portion of the house money to pay off my highest balance credit card. *3 to go*
- Have put some money in to savings for if we decide to buy where we currently live (we’ve been renting)
- On track to have a 3rd card and a hefty medical bill paid off by September.
 
I am feeling so relieved—I found out this morning that the dated tickets from our Disney trip that was scheduled for late March 2020 have now been extended to Sept 2021. Originally they had been extended to Dec 15, and I was having a hard time trying to figure out when we could go before Dec 15. This gives us more time to figure it all out!!
That's great! To go or not go this year.
 
We are still swimming along here. Whew! I am so relieved that we had our giant tree taken down around 10 days ago.
We had an awful storm on Wed with so many trees down that we lost power until Friday night. It felt like an eternity. We also lost cellular/data on our phones. If we drove out of our neighborhood, we start receiving texts & internet again. So frustrating. We have a generator but then that died Friday morning. It kept stalling out. It isn't very old and only used it maybe 2-3 times in the past. Someday, I'd love to get a whole house generator. We lose power quite often. We drove past around 7 trees down in our neighborhood that we just happen to pass in our usual travels and there are probably more that we haven't seen. We weren't even out looking for more.

We came to a good compromise for our dilemma of long cruise vs. mortgage paydown. We have $8k set aside for the cruise. Instead of putting that on the mortgage, we decided to keep the cruise plans, but once our Discover card is paid off (or equivalent savings accumulated) we will start hammering out the mortgage, applying our snowball to it. The $20k we have in Vanguard is our emergency fund and it would be foolish to put that on the mortgage. Stuff happens and we should still keep that safety net.

My original plan after Discover card was to save for a bedroom set then save for a truck for dh. Both of these things will be much easier to save up for without a mortgage. It will take a little longer to pay down without the $8k added and the Vanguard but making it our next big priority is a good start. The amortization calculator estimates it paid off in 2.5 years without putting our savings down as a lump sum, just paying our snowball ($2500) toward it every month.
Calculators estimate 22 months if we were to put our savings toward it. So 8 months longer but I might reconsider putting the Vanguard on it down the road to pay off the last $20k.
We'll just have to wait and see.

Take care everyone! Be healthy and well!
:grouphug:
 
So we pulled the trigger today on a highlander. Not the the black on black 2017 I had been waiting to see, but instead on a 2016 grey hybrid with black interior. It's not the color I want (but dh likes it), and it's missing the digital speedometer that I want, but overall it's a really nice vehicle. Our payments are a bit more than I wanted, but that's because we opted to add on gap insurance and the extended warranty. We've never owned a hybrid so I liked the idea of having the extended warranty for anything that may go wrong.

Its gonna take me some time to get used to having a push start and not having to put a key in or take one out lol.
 

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