We have debt, and we are whittling it down at a nice pace. I write that and it’s true, all things considered. But sometimes I just want it to go faster. And I am tired of thinking that way. A guy down the street from me just passed away. He was 91 years old. I [...]
Let’s assume that you are frustrated with the way you are currently handling your money. have a debit card with > $20 balance. have an inkling that you’d like to change your ways. You might fit assumption (1) if you feel like you: spend too much money on x don’t save enough don’t invest enough [...]
I’ve recently taken a different approach to writing about my experiences with finance recently. With my recent posts how to payoff your credit card debt and how to save money on food I wrote down what I consider to be the bare bones framework that I used. Although there are a number of comparison sites, [...]
Our first home loan was an FHA mortgage at 6.00%. About a year later, rates dropped to 5% and we took advantage of an FHA Streamline refinance, with which ultimately: … saved $151.33 per month on our core loan payment and will save $36,061.80 overall. Rates are lower again. Saw 4.25% last week. On the [...]
Our highest balance card is a non-promotional rate of 6.99% and the balance is over $10k. And although this is nothing to sneeze at, we have come a long way over the past year and have cut our credit card debt significantly. When we first got serious about paying down our credit cards, we found [...]
I have a problem that I can’t seem to get over. Pay debt or invest? Lean hard one way, or strike a balance? If I choose to invest all of my excess income, then I feel like my debt is sitting there stagnant, being chopped away too slowly for comfort. If I choose to use [...]
I’ve surfed into Lending Club’s website before and recently started hearing ads for in on the local radio station. It was formed in 1999 but is new to me. On the radio, it sounds like it could be a scam, or at the very least another credit card consolidation company. But it’s not. Instead, it’s [...]
Student loan debt and credit card debt. While separately tough to swallow, for many of us the two combine to form a Voltron sized burden — a burden that makes getting ahead seem like a pipe dream. When I finally decided to create a budget, I found these two rows particularly concerning. I decided that [...]
I remember when I was a kid how much simpler the concept of money was. With no expenses to speak of, it was easy to make decisions about where to allocate my earnings. No credit cards, no credit lines, no liabilities, no food bills. My accounting pattern was generally simple: when I earned money I [...]
A common instruction set for reducing credit card debt is to stop using the cards begin overpaying the minimum payment We were deep in credit card debt, with minimum payments totaling over $600. Step #1 is easier said than done. We’ve cut our balances down by more than half by overpaying the minimum balance. While [...]