Debt Dumpers 2021

[afan]

Hello everyone, long time reader but first time posting on this board (I think ). I'm almost ready to share my goals for 2021. I wanted to ask if anyone got a stimulus deposit today. We did and I can't figure out how they came up with the figure. It's not $600 pp and it's not even a whole number- like it had cents. Anyone else get a weird number?

The cutoff this time was 75k for single and I think 150k for couples, then it starts going down by however much over those numbers you are until the lowest you can get I think the news said was 6 bucks. I would guess that would be the reason, if not that, then I've no idea. Haven't gotten mine yet.

 

[imbatman]

I wanted to ask if anyone got a stimulus deposit today. We did and I can't figure out how they came up with the figure. It's not $600 pp and it's not even a whole number- like it had cents. Anyone else get a weird number?

Still snake eyes on my deposit, but my friend had hers hit yesterday and it was an odd number. If you make over the threshold, there is a formula the gov't uses to come up with the amount. Here's the quote: "This round of checks is then reduced by 5% for every dollar of income over those limits exceeding the phaseout threshold." Might explain the odd number. But it might not because this thing is a whole lotta I-have-no-idea-what's-going-on-today.

**edit: mine just deposited and we still didn't get anything for our dependent, full-time college student **

 

[FQLover]

True--kids over 16 do not get anything, college student or not. Same for me. :-(

 

[Tygerlilly]

We originally had plans for a 2 week Disney/Philly trip in May. I tried for hours to work out how to make that trip work to where we weren't going to rush either part and couldn't figure out how to make it relaxing at all, especially since I'll be 7 months pregnant. So we are splitting it and doing Disney in the fall while I'm on my (fully paid) 16 week maternity leave. Baby should be around 4 months when we go and will have his shots and we both decided we feel comfortable doing that. I'm actually a lot more happy with going in mid-November vs end of May. For one, it won't be as hot and two, food and wine festival.

Still no sign of our stimulus checks. I was really hoping for today so I could go deposit rent early. Oh well.
So far my plan for the extra money (I should receive $1800) is to put the deposit down on our fall Disney trip, pay for the tags on our car,, and pay off almost all of one personal loan.

We also apparently got small work bonus of $300 if we went to work and didn't call in the 2 weeks before Christmas. I missed one day due to a horrible pregnancy migraine, so I only get $150, but hubby gets the full $300. So I'm thinking I may be able to pay the rest of that personal loan off with that extra.

 

[wannabee]

I am working on 2021's budget and just switched auto insurance companies. Our rates were so high after adding DS21 a few years ago. I am thrilled to save $182/month. Also finally got DH to agree to cut the cable. I think the new savings will be around $120/month as we will likely add to the Hulu we already pay for. $300/month savings with just a few calls. All going directly to the mortgage.

 

[WDW_fan_in_TX]

I see several people saying they've shopped around for their car insurance. How does one do that? Do they just call their company and try and get a lower rate? Or do you have to call all of the companies individually?

We use an insurance company here in town that supposedly has access to lots of different companies. So should I call our agent and ask him to shop it around? Not really sure how shopping around insurance works.

 

[wannabee]

I called myself as I don't have an independent agent. I would call your agent to see what he can find. then ask which companies he looked at. I would then contact any others that I could think of myself.

 

[wannabee]

I said I called above but I really I actually called only my current to see if they could lower and then went online to get quotes. I don't recommend doing it online unless you really understand how insurance works because you may not get everything you need.

 

[pblack]

When I shopped around for our car insurance I did everything online. When I asked my old agent about lowering our bill he basically said "yeah sorry we don't do that." So I went online and shopped around and just compared their coverage to what we had. We dropped our insurance by almost $100 if I remember correctly.

 

[barkley]

I am working on 2021's budget and just switched auto insurance companies. Our rates were so high after adding DS21 a few years ago. I am thrilled to save $182/month. Also finally got DH to agree to cut the cable. I think the new savings will be around $120/month as we will likely add to the Hulu we already pay for. $300/month savings with just a few calls. All going directly to the mortgage.

if you can set a bit of those savings aside such that you can create a nest egg of 6 months of your auto insurance premiums you may be able to net some extra savings. when we started paying our premium every 6 months vs. monthly we got another discount on top of the ones we already get. once we had the first 6 month amount saved up we began paying ourselves the premium into an earmarked savings account each month so when the next came due it was already set aside.

p.s. anyone looking to lower their premiums make sure to ask about EVERY discount a particular company offers. if you're working from home these days and your mileage has dropped below a certain amount-that's a potential discount, if you have a new firehouse that's opened near your home-that's a potential discount. heck-we used to get one b/c there was a fire hydrant on the sidewalk in front of our former home.

 

[Tygerlilly]

Good grief. It's been 18 hours since we decided to change our Disney trip to the fall and hubby has already decided to raise the budget for that trip by staying at Yacht Club instead of Pop. Talk about a much more expensive trip. Lol. Now that we'll have an infant with us, he's pretty adamant about having a little more space, a better pool area for the mid-day break, and he's pretty sold on the idea of being a walk, boat or skyliner ride from two different parks. Especially since we will be there during (hopefully) food and wine and park hoppers will allow us to pop into Epcot several nights to snack around. Now to just rework the monthly budget I *just* finished this morning to include the additional $3000 this trip will cost.

 

[ruadisneyfan2]

--As I do follow DR's debt reduction plan, I would absolutely snowball the braces first, get that out of there, and then work on your larger debt. You will feel great to only be looking at one payment then!

--If you think that $1000 is not enough, I would adjust it just a bit, say $1500, and make saving that amount as your first priority with every extra penny going into that pot. It is not there to cover huge expenses, of course, just there to keep you from charging a car repair, a large dental bill, an unexpected vet bill, etc. Once you use it for something, the plan is for you to prioritize getting the account back to $1000 or $1500, etc. before you resume your debt snowball.

And you do have to examine your spending and find the fluff to cut so that you can come up with the savings for the emergency fund and the debt snowball. But if you over-estimate that amount, you can end up without enough cash to meet your real expenses, so try to be realistic about where you can downsize your expenditures. It becomes like a puzzle, sort of, and can be really gratifying to tweak and work!

Well said. I really wouldn't get too involved in trying to save up a "real" emergency fund. That is Baby Step 3, after you've paid off the debt. That is when you want to save at least 6 months of expenses.

The goal of the $1000 is just have something set aside and then get crackin' on the debt paydown. That's where you really see the exciting part. (My inner nerd is showing.) It's a great feeling to watch the debt drop down after each payday. Progress keeps you motivated.

 

[ruadisneyfan2]

I see several people saying they've shopped around for their car insurance. How does one do that? Do they just call their company and try and get a lower rate? Or do you have to call all of the companies individually?

We use an insurance company here in town that supposedly has access to lots of different companies. So should I call our agent and ask him to shop it around? Not really sure how shopping around insurance works.

If you're going to call around, have your Declarations Page of your current policy handy so that you're comparing apples to apples (same coverage). Any company can offer a lower price but if it's for a lot less insurance, that may be an unhappy surprise someday down the road.
Also if you own a home, you usually will get additional discounts on both policies if you have your auto and homeowner's insurance with the same company.
Personally, I like to wait until close to renewal time. If you're halfway through a policy, they say they pro-rate your discount for cancelling early but it usually works out in their favor.

 

[ruadisneyfan2]

Then I remind myself that I chose to live in a low-cost state. Beyond that, I live in one of the most impoverished regions of the entire country. I don't try to compare my $$$'s to other peoples $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$'s, I just work to massage my $$$'s as far as they will go.

This is a good point. We live in a high COL state so comparing numbers between us usually leaves both of us with our jaw hanging open like wow! that's amazing! Really just depends where you live.
Another thing to consider is that there is a wide range in ages here. Some are just starting out, buying homes, having babies, etc. Some of us are much closer to retirement. The "phase" of life you're in can alter how much discretionary income you have. Life gets a lot easier once you're children are grown. Well, I think that's not always true but for us it did.
@WDW_fan_in_TX We are not wealthy by any stretch. I'm an xray tech and dh is a welder/fabricator/industrial pump mechanic. We live in a small rancher less than 1800 sf with no basement and we're still using bedroom furniture I bought in the 80s.

 

[Eureka]

Still snake eyes on my deposit, but my friend had hers hit yesterday and it was an odd number. If you make over the threshold, there is a formula the gov't uses to come up with the amount. Here's the quote: "This round of checks is then reduced by 5% for every dollar of income over those limits exceeding the phaseout threshold." Might explain the odd number. But it might not because this thing is a whole lotta I-have-no-idea-what's-going-on-today.

**edit: mine just deposited and we still didn't get anything for our dependent, full-time college student **

We got a very reduced amount, credited this morning. I didn’t expect to get any to be honest. The first time around, we hadn’t filed our taxes yet so got a much larger (than this time) yet still reduced amount based on our 2018 taxes and I was surprised we got anything then. Didn’t get anything for our dependent college student either.

 

[Eureka]

This is a good point. We live in a high COL state so comparing numbers between us usually leaves both of us with our jaw hanging open like wow! that's amazing! Really just depends where you live.
Another thing to consider is that there is a wide range in ages here. Some are just starting out, buying homes, having babies, etc. Some of us are much closer to retirement. The "phase" of life you're in can alter how much discretionary income you have. Life gets a lot easier once you're children are grown. Well, I think that's not always true but for us it did.
@WDW_fan_in_TX We are not wealthy by any stretch. I'm an xray tech and dh is a welder/fabricator/industrial pump mechanic. We live in a small rancher less than 1800 sf with no basement and we're still using bedroom furniture I bought in the 80s.

I agree with this. We are about to have an empty nest when DS17 goes to college next fall. Suddenly we can think about travel (when we can travel again) not tied to school breaks, home improvements etc. True, another tuition but both kids have 529s that we have not tapped into yet. We have pulled back on retirement savings to be able to pay tuition so that’s one of our main goals right now, increasing that when we can with raises etc. DH is older than I am, so closer to retirement age, and our priority has been throwing a lot into his accounts which we’ll be able to access before we can access mine (which also will help me have the option of retiring before I’m 60 if I want). We used to max out. But our non-retirement priority is getting both of them through college without loans. DS20 goes to a state school and has a renewable scholarship that covers roughly a quarter of his tuition each year, but he’s also living off campus so we’re paying for rent, food, utilities etc. Don’t know yet where DS17 will go or how much our cost will be.

 

[wannabee]

So true- its feels good to have more money to use as the kids grow up. DS21 is about to graduate college. He goes to a state school and scholarships cover half. Our plan was to cashflow the rest so he would graduate w/o loan dept. Happy to say we were able to do this but now all extra funds are going to the mortgage and retirement accounts.

 

[dreamer17555]

Stimulus hit and being responsible every penny went to debt, plus cutting down spending to pay off a bit more.

Starting the New Year off with these goals:

• Pay off all credit card debt (starting amount $7,250, currently $4,450, 0% APR)
• Pay off small parent plus loan (current amount $2,500)
• Increase emergency fund by $2,000
• Pay off a few old debts of $600

 

[ruadisneyfan2]

Good grief. It's been 18 hours since we decided to change our Disney trip to the fall and hubby has already decided to raise the budget for that trip by staying at Yacht Club instead of Pop. Talk about a much more expensive trip. Lol. Now that we'll have an infant with us, he's pretty adamant about having a little more space, a better pool area for the mid-day break, and he's pretty sold on the idea of being a walk, boat or skyliner ride from two different parks. Especially since we will be there during (hopefully) food and wine and park hoppers will allow us to pop into Epcot several nights to snack around. Now to just rework the monthly budget I *just* finished this morning to include the additional $3000 this trip will cost.

omg, I would sooo rather stay at the YC than visit Philly.
Don't forget, it's connected to the Beach Club which is closer to Epcot and also has Cape May Cafe which is a plus for us.
Just saying in case there are discounts for one but not the other.
Also BC has DVC Villas which means you could rent points and save a lot of money that way. Most DVC owners that rent their points don't offer any "cancellation policy" like booking with Disney would so I'm not sure I'd want a res I can't cancel if I were pregnant during a pandemic but everyone has their own levels of what they're comfortable doing. I admit I'm not much of a risk-taker.
All of the 1BR and larger have a kitchen, and washer/dryer which would be handy with an infant plus 2 little ones. The location is super convenient too. Boardwalk is on the opposite side of the lake so it's a further walk to Epcot but closer to HS. They also have DVC Villas but their main pool does not have the wow factor that Stormalong Bay offers.

 

[StephMK]

Hi, can I join all of you? I love working numbers and really need to stay focused this year.

I hit 50 this year and want to make this the decade of paying everything possible. Our kids will be done with college in 1.5(DD20) and 3 (DS18) years.

I'm trying to get their college and our consumer debts paid off then start throwing everything at the mortgage. My goal is to have it all paid off by 60 but we will see. Looking at a new job or picking up a side hustle to help make progress.