Debt Dumpers - 2017

[Eureka]

Thanks for the detailed response!! I've heard a lot of good things about Toronto, and neither DH nor I have been there. We are slowly putting our feet into the water for travel hacking with our new CSP; we've been Marriott rewards members for a long time and use a lot of those points to pay for our horse show hotel stays free. We got a week in a suite with a full kitchen in Columbus this month for free! I checked out some Airbnbs for Toronto too and there are some pretty decent prices on those if we decided to pay out of pocket. I'll have to look around closer too and see how flight prices look. Our other thought was to go to Philadelphia and do that and some of Amish country and Hershey. PA is driving distance for us (5 hours) so I think it'll just depend on how the travel budget looks next year.

We are definitely doing Asheville, NC in April, so I'm really looking forward to that! DH is less than thrilled about touring the Biltmore, but there's an outlet mall nearby that I've promised him we can go shopping at while we're there Yes, we like to defy stereotypes in this relationship!

If you end up doing Philly, we stayed (a couple years ago now) at the Wyndam at 400 Arch Street. Great location for walking to the Liberty Bell, Independence Hall, Betsy Ross House, etc. We did have to drive to the art museum and all the other museums near there. Again, get the City Pass. It included a submersible tour. We also splurged on a horse drawn carriage tour around the historic district, and our tour guide was amazing.

 

[Jen and Ashwin]

I second the City Pass. We went last summer. I loved Casa Loma.

The City Pass was great. Of all the places that we went, DH had actually only been to the ROM on a school trip. I found that a bit funny, since he lived there but it is often that we don't do the things that are right in our backyards. When we went, the ROM had a special Chinese Terracotta soldiers exhibit and the Ontario Science Centre had a special Harry Potter exhibit, so it was a really awesome time to go for both places. I enjoyed everything that we did and have really fond memories of that visit.

I also wanted to mention, when DH and I used the City Pass, we drove each day from Bolton (where his parents live) into the city. It is about a 50 minute drive from there to most of the City Pass attractions, but we still made it work just fine. If you are looking for free parking and cheaper hotel rates, definitely consider hotels in some of the suburbs, like Vaughan, Markham, etc. Once we were downtown, we found reasonably priced parking and didn't end up spending too much money overall. I think we had packed our lunches, which helped. Crazy to think that was over 7 years ago!

 

[njmom47]

Paid off the flooring (for a house that I don't even live in anymore ) but at least it's done! One year down on my loan, two to go. Will pay that off early when it gets closer to the end. Have not been spending frivolously because I bought my own place a year ago!

 

[Aurora_Australis]

Well we got back from Fiji and it was amazing! Totally over spent but as a big family wedding and un likely to be doing a trip like that again, ever, we just went with the flow. Hubby hates it when I'm penny pinching on trips and it was only 7 nights all up, biggest costs came from spa treatments and cocktails, both things we never do at home!

So, to update...

Started
Travel CC $4376
Everyday CC $0
Emergency fund $1000


Finished
Travel CC $6747 (I don't wanna know! Will put that $250!from below straight on there. I'm due another $345 of work expenses at the end of the month too)
Everyday CC $92 up ($250 medical stuff I need to send in receipts for still so will put this $$ on our travel card)
Emergency fund $1000
Savings nil
Bills fund $1500 (mostly accounted for over the rest of this month already. )
Mortgage extra $892

 

[Jen and Ashwin]

Well, I just bought that Apple watch that I didn't really need, but Apple convinced me that I had to have. But I feel a little better about it because I waited until Nike had the watch for sale on their website, and then used Chase's shopping portal to get 13.5% back that we can use towards travel expenses. That is a savings of $57.

DH's Apple watch just arrived today, but when I told him that I was saving $57, he decided that he could wait another week and had me order another watch for himself through Nike. We will save $61 on his watch. And that means that we will have to go to the Apple store to return the one that arrived today.

Funny this is that the watches are supposed to arrive on my due date.

 

[Alexle2007]

Well, I just bought that Apple watch that I didn't really need, but Apple convinced me that I had to have. But I feel a little better about it because I waited until Nike had the watch for sale on their website, and then used Chase's shopping portal to get 13.5% back that we can use towards travel expenses. That is a savings of $57.

DH's Apple watch just arrived today, but when I told him that I was saving $57, he decided that he could wait another week and had me order another watch for himself through Nike. We will save $61 on his watch. And that means that we will have to go to the Apple store to return the one that arrived today.

Funny this is that the watches are supposed to arrive on my due date.

Where do you see it on sale on the Nike website? The ones I see are the same price as the Apple Store. DH made me wait for the new one for birthday gift from June but it would be great to save on it.

 

[Jen and Ashwin]

Where do you see it on sale on the Nike website? The ones I see are the same price as the Apple Store. DH made me wait for the new one for birthday gift from June but it would be great to save on it.

They are the same price as the Apple store, but I am getting rewards points back by shopping through Chase that will equal $57 in travel money. The Chase portal and all other portals that I looked at specifically excluded the Apple watch from earning cash back through the Apple Store. The terms for Nike through Chase had no such exclusion, so I jumped on it when I saw that the rate was 8 points/$1 at the Nike store.

ETA: By "for sale at the Nike store," I meant that Nike is now selling the watch. They weren't until yesterday.

 

[OneThree]

I haven't posted much on here but figured I would share an update since its exciting (to me anyway)! The DW and I have finally paid of our $7K home improvement loan we took out to finish our basement, a $1K credit union CC we have had forever but the big one is a $15K balance on our Capital One is paid in full!

Like others we used a snowball method plus put every extra dollar we have towards debt. Tax refunds, pay increases, etc...

Now its on to student loans. Ugh, student loans!

 

[amalone1013]

I haven't posted much on here but figured I would share an update since its exciting (to me anyway)! The DW and I have finally paid of our $7K home improvement loan we took out to finish our basement, a $1K credit union CC we have had forever but the big one is a $15K balance on our Capital One is paid in full!

Like others we used a snowball method plus put every extra dollar we have towards debt. Tax refunds, pay increases, etc...

Now its on to student loans. Ugh, student loans!

Congrats! A big accomplishment! It's so nice to have people to share it with

 

[amalone1013]

We made it back! All married and honeymooned and everything.

I think I got all of our wedding/honeymoon costs figured and even though we went over on the honeymoon part, we were under on the wedding so it evened out. I think we'll be around $500 under globally. Plus I had been squirreling away a little each paycheck because I was going to surprise DH with a 65 Mustang to shuttle us around on the wedding day... but a few months out that company sold all of the vehicles they had like that and kept only their traditional wedding cars. So now there's an extra $800 to play with.

I'm hoping to do another recap to see where we're at soon. We had some extra leftover last month, and hopefully some this month (though this is when all my vacation will hit so 80hr weeks with no overtime). Last month we were too busy to apply it to anything with getting ready to leave, especially with our student loans being paid off made it less of a priority. And it's nerdy, but I was playing with insurance today to see how it changes - looks like we'll save about 20% on auto insurance when combining it, and should save a little by putting him on his health insurance (his isn't very good, so we save a teeny bit but his coverage will be way better). We'll also get $500 back on our health premiums with adding him, and $500 in my HSA for him being on there. Can't wait to plan our next steps!

 

[Jen and Ashwin]

We made it back! All married and honeymooned and everything.

I think I got all of our wedding/honeymoon costs figured and even though we went over on the honeymoon part, we were under on the wedding so it evened out. I think we'll be around $500 under globally. Plus I had been squirreling away a little each paycheck because I was going to surprise DH with a 65 Mustang to shuttle us around on the wedding day... but a few months out that company sold all of the vehicles they had like that and kept only their traditional wedding cars. So now there's an extra $800 to play with.

I'm hoping to do another recap to see where we're at soon. We had some extra leftover last month, and hopefully some this month (though this is when all my vacation will hit so 80hr weeks with no overtime). Last month we were too busy to apply it to anything with getting ready to leave, especially with our student loans being paid off made it less of a priority. And it's nerdy, but I was playing with insurance today to see how it changes - looks like we'll save about 20% on auto insurance when combining it, and should save a little by putting him on his health insurance (his isn't very good, so we save a teeny bit but his coverage will be way better). We'll also get $500 back on our health premiums with adding him, and $500 in my HSA for him being on there. Can't wait to plan our next steps!

Congratulations (again, since I said it in another thread)! I am so glad everything went well and that you even came in under budget. Very impressive!

Figuring out how you want to combine things and then actually going about doing it all takes some time. It took us a year or so to get everything really figured out. Some things to consider: You could put extra savings towards an emergency fund or if you guys are thinking to buy a house at some point, this is a perfect time to start saving towards down payment.

 

[amalone1013]

Congratulations (again, since I said it in another thread)! I am so glad everything went well and that you even came in under budget. Very impressive!

Figuring out how you want to combine things and then actually going about doing it all takes some time. It took us a year or so to get everything really figured out. Some things to consider: You could put extra savings towards an emergency fund or if you guys are thinking to buy a house at some point, this is a perfect time to start saving towards down payment.

Thanks! I was happy with it because I was worried last minute expenses would push us over, so I'll take whatever under

We've got some things to dig through. We've known the insurance stuff for awhile, from comparing our plans before. And now that we're not saving a large chunk of our income towards the wedding and honeymoon, we've got a lot to play with. Beefing up the emergency fund is on the list for sure, and we already talked about continuing to save towards a down payment. We had a goal to save $15k towards it this year and hit that last month I think the other big thing is deciding how to balance retirement savings. Right now I'm at 25% and get a 4% match, and he's at 3% to get his 3% match. My grandpa gave us a check for the wedding that he wants us to use towards retirement savings, and to try and save a certain amount each month with it, so we're thinking of using it to open IRAs because it would be an easy way to stay accountable with his wishes. Not that my grandpa wants to see our accounts lol, but we both really appreciate his gesture and would like to do what he's asked

 

[AmyAnne]

Thanks! I was happy with it because I was worried last minute expenses would push us over, so I'll take whatever under

We've got some things to dig through. We've known the insurance stuff for awhile, from comparing our plans before. And now that we're not saving a large chunk of our income towards the wedding and honeymoon, we've got a lot to play with. Beefing up the emergency fund is on the list for sure, and we already talked about continuing to save towards a down payment. We had a goal to save $15k towards it this year and hit that last month I think the other big thing is deciding how to balance retirement savings. Right now I'm at 25% and get a 4% match, and he's at 3% to get his 3% match. My grandpa gave us a check for the wedding that he wants us to use towards retirement savings, and to try and save a certain amount each month with it, so we're thinking of using it to open IRAs because it would be an easy way to stay accountable with his wishes. Not that my grandpa wants to see our accounts lol, but we both really appreciate his gesture and would like to do what he's asked

Roth IRAs are fabulous for people at your stage in life. The contributions are after-tax (so you wouldn't get a tax break now) but all of the earnings are tax-free, if withdrawn according to the rules. Super-easy to set up through a company like Vanguard. We opened a Roth for each of our kids as soon as they got their first babysitting/lifeguarding/grocery-store shelf-stocking summer job paychecks.

 

[Jen and Ashwin]

Thanks! I was happy with it because I was worried last minute expenses would push us over, so I'll take whatever under

We've got some things to dig through. We've known the insurance stuff for awhile, from comparing our plans before. And now that we're not saving a large chunk of our income towards the wedding and honeymoon, we've got a lot to play with. Beefing up the emergency fund is on the list for sure, and we already talked about continuing to save towards a down payment. We had a goal to save $15k towards it this year and hit that last month I think the other big thing is deciding how to balance retirement savings. Right now I'm at 25% and get a 4% match, and he's at 3% to get his 3% match. My grandpa gave us a check for the wedding that he wants us to use towards retirement savings, and to try and save a certain amount each month with it, so we're thinking of using it to open IRAs because it would be an easy way to stay accountable with his wishes. Not that my grandpa wants to see our accounts lol, but we both really appreciate his gesture and would like to do what he's asked

I agree with @AmyAnne on the Roth IRA. I opened mine when I was 16. When I was a teenager, everything that I put into the account, my dad matched one to one. It was his way of encouraging me to start thinking about retirement savings. Roth IRAs are a great investment overall, but especially great for younger workers because of the tax benefits later on. And I definitely recommend Vanguard. You only need $1000 to open an initial account and they have some of the lowest rates in the industry. When a single investment gets above $10k, then you qualify for Admiral shares, which have an even lower expense ratio. My expense ratio on my investments are just 0.04%, which means that my money keeps more of what it earns over the long term.

 

[ruadisneyfan2]

Thanks! I was happy with it because I was worried last minute expenses would push us over, so I'll take whatever under

We've got some things to dig through. We've known the insurance stuff for awhile, from comparing our plans before. And now that we're not saving a large chunk of our income towards the wedding and honeymoon, we've got a lot to play with. Beefing up the emergency fund is on the list for sure, and we already talked about continuing to save towards a down payment. We had a goal to save $15k towards it this year and hit that last month I think the other big thing is deciding how to balance retirement savings. Right now I'm at 25% and get a 4% match, and he's at 3% to get his 3% match. My grandpa gave us a check for the wedding that he wants us to use towards retirement savings, and to try and save a certain amount each month with it, so we're thinking of using it to open IRAs because it would be an easy way to stay accountable with his wishes. Not that my grandpa wants to see our accounts lol, but we both really appreciate his gesture and would like to do what he's asked

Congratulations!!

Your grandpa is a smart man!
We've all been there but when we're young, we are eager to save for so many special big events like weddings and buying a home and it feels like retirement is light years away. Time is on your side and that will turn his gift $ into a huge amount by the time you retire. And time really does fly.
This is an amazing gift.

 

[amalone1013]

Thanks @AmyAnne and @Jen and Ashwin! I think we'll definitely go with Vanguard. I hope to open one for my kids some day at an early age. I saved some of my high school job earnings in my savings account, but ended up using it up for living expenses in college. It would be nice to have even a little to show from that, since my first job with a 401k didn't come along until I was 24.

Money was not discussed in our house growing up, other than my parents arguing about some spending, and as I got older, my dad having his 'whiteboard discussions' with me. Basically he pulled out the whiteboard in his home office and would write a salary number on it, and then tell me 1/3 goes to taxes and the rest to living expenses ie car loans, housing, food, vacations. Not very helpful. I started reading up on money and retirement etc when my student loans came due. I hope to help give my kids a better knowledge of money than I got.

@ruadisneyfan2 he is! I'm very thankful to him. The most I've heard of retirement talk among my friends is a comparison of what their 401k company match is. I haven't been shy telling them I had mine set at 12% or 15% but most are just surprised I have it so high. I haven't told any of them we paid off our student loans yet. We told the in-laws, and my grandpa, and I told a few people at work, but my friends are still seeing that as pretty impossible. One told me that earlier this year he had some extra money so he used it on student loans - but just paid ahead instead of paying them down so he wouldn't have to worry about them for awhile. I thought, but you had the money the next several months - you could have been ahead! DH has a friend that he told about our loans - the friend just says it's easier because we have two earners. DH tries to tell him we have twice the expenses too (minus living right now), two car payments, two cars for gas/insurance/maintenance, two people eating... Doesn't make a difference. I get that no living expenses helps, but we've been saving around $1500 a month for wedding/honeymoon/house down payment, so we don't just have a whole bunch of extra cash floating around from living with DH's parents.

 

[amalone1013]

2017 starting balances:
Student Loans - $12560 + $2075+ $12685 = $27,320
Car Loans - $22034 + $18100 = $40,134

Balances as of 2/8/17:
Student Loans - $10280 + $1052+ $9875 = $21,207 - $6113 change
Car Loans - $21584 + $17389 = $38,973 - $1161 change

Balances as of 3/15/17:
Student Loans - $9036 + $0 + $7685 = $16,721 - $10,599 change
Car Loans - $20685 + $17061 = $37,746 - $2388 change

Balances as of 4/5/17:
Student Loans - $6009 + $0 + $7702 = $13,694 - $13,626 change
Car Loans - $20685 + $17061 = $37,746 - $2388 change

Balances as of 5/15/17:
Student Loans - $5948 + $0 + $7505 = $13,453 - $13,867 change
Car Loans - $19785 + $16705 = $36,490 - $3644 change

Skipped June updates

Balances as of 7/4/17:
Student Loans - $3851 + $0 + $3550 = $7401 - $19,919 change
Car Loans - $19366 + $15994 = $35,360 - $4774 change

Balances as of 8/17/17:
Student Loans - $0 + $0 + $0 = $0 - $27,320 change
Car Loans - $18436 + $15768 = $34,204 - $5930 change

Skipped September updates

Balances as of 10/8/17:
Student Loans - $0 - $27,320 change from the beginning of the year
Car Loans - $17987 + $15057 = $33,044 - $7090 change from the beginning of the year


Goal Check-in!

• Pay off two student loans each before our wedding this Fall - Paid off LAST loan in August, so we paid off 10 loans!
• Work on eating out less - that's our budget buster - Getting back on the wagon with this one now...
• Save up enough for Wedding/Honeymoon costs, and hopefully come in under budget - $500ish under!
• Save $15,000 towards a house - Hit that last month! Will continue a steady contribution here while we decide what we’re doing
• Increase DF's 401k contribution, and move my old 401k (~$1000) to an IRA (then maybe I'll decrease my 401k contributions in order to max that out...) - haven’t messed with this yet
• Make a Christmas budget - Next on the list
• Get all financial stuff straightened out after getting married - Working on this now!
• Be more active on this thread
  
  - How am I doing?

Since I had to go right back to working weekends, I’m trying to put my downtime at work today to good use. I’ve gone through the health insurance changes and just need to send in a copy of our marriage certificate, so that’s mostly sorted. We will pay $200 more OOP but pre tax for our insurance than if we kept DH on his company’s plan, but we’ll get an additional $500 in my HSA, so a $300 net gain. After the insurance status updates DH will have to take a health survey, and then stop in at one of those quick labs to get his blood drawn. Our company gives $500 off your premiums for doing this each year, and the employee and spouse can do it for $1000 off total (already calculated into above amounts). I changed the auto insurance too which saves us about $50 a month.

I'm going to keep my 25% 401k contribution until the end of the year. We're supposed to work 6 more weekends this year, plus I found out that a coworker is taking the next two weeks off so there'll be OT from covering. Then for the new year we can balance out 401k savings vs IRA and also update our W-4s... I check the IRS witholding calculator, and it looks like we'll overpay a little this year just leaving it as-is though we'll file jointly. I feel like the two earners worksheet is the most confusing thing I've run into so far

We have some extra income from August and September, plus leftovers in budget categories since we were gone half the month. Plus DH got a commission check while we were gone, and then there’s that extra $800, so we’ll have a good chunk to make a dent in something, maybe a car loan. We’re also going to dedicate some set monthly amounts for an emergency fund. We might be apartment hunting since the housing market here is still a little crazy and we’ve talked about moving out of state too. I'm excited to get in and play with YNAB

 

[DisneyMandC]

I'm going to keep my 25% 401k contribution until the end of the year. We're supposed to work 6 more weekends this year, plus I found out that a coworker is taking the next two weeks off so there'll be OT from covering. Then for the new year we can balance out 401k savings vs IRA and also update our W-4s... I check the IRS witholding calculator, and it looks like we'll overpay a little this year just leaving it as-is though we'll file jointly. I feel like the two earners worksheet is the most confusing thing I've run into so far

Ugh, I need to double check my withholdings. I'm really not great with taxes and I thought we had my withholdings set correctly, but apparently we did not. I don't like to get a huge amount back, but I wouldn't have received any back from last year's taxes if it wasn't for the job I had the first five months of the year. I think I received $300 back between state and federal this year. I upped my 457 retirement plan contributions from 5% to 9% this year though, so I'm hoping that helped.

 

[Ngwira]

Spendy weekend here! Painting is being done and I’m glad we paid professionals do it. It looks great and we are preparing the house to host Thanksgiving. While we had them here, we ended up spending an additional $170 to have them fix a wonky electrical outlet, towel racks and toilet paper holders in both bathrooms and also had them replace a pendant light in our kitchen. I also paid my $450 annual fee on my Chase Sapphire Reserve which I wasn’t expecting until Nov 1. Anyway, I love the card and plan to keep it, so paid it.

DH and I spent Friday night at the Borgata in Atlantic City. I spent a grand total of $5 on the penny slots, won $1.50 and lost the $6.50 entirely..lol I’ll take it as we had a great time. Other than that, just chugging along.

 

[amalone1013]

Ugh, I need to double check my withholdings. I'm really not great with taxes and I thought we had my withholdings set correctly, but apparently we did not. I don't like to get a huge amount back, but I wouldn't have received any back from last year's taxes if it wasn't for the job I had the first five months of the year. I think I received $300 back between state and federal this year. I upped my 457 retirement plan contributions from 5% to 9% this year though, so I'm hoping that helped.

I don't like to get a lot back either. Last year we each got just under $500 and it looked like we'd get $1000 back, so about the same spot. I just thought, I'll go with it and mess with it in January, then check it a couple months in. Plus I'll have to change my 401k then anyways, because if I work OT like I did in 2016 I'd be maxing it before my raise or bonuses, and if I work OT like I did this year I'd be way over (I'm projecting 225 more hours this year with the weekends coming up). Good problems to have at least?

I messed my withholdings up a few years ago. I had worked two part time jobs, one averaged 35ish hours a week at $10, and the other averaged 15 hours a week at $8. The W4 form confused me, and I think I filled out both as if I had only one job so I had too little withheld. I ended up owing $1300. And to add insult to injury, my dad had claimed me as a dependent so the $3k I paid in tuition out of my own pocket didn't count for anything.

On a positive note, when tax time rolled around again I realized that my dad shouldn't have claimed me because I didn't fit any of the conditions. I filed an amended return and got $1000 back, plus interest on it which was about $50. Though they counted that interest as income the following tax year... it's a never ending cycle!