My Debt Blog

At the end of July now and it is hotter than hot, but soon it will cool down and leaves will start to turn. My wife found out that her summertime job will come to an end in two weeks (8/15) so things could get real tight this month. The last thing we need to do is continue our current spending habits if the income goes down. I hope these schools she has applied to start calling soon so she can secure a spot in time. If she’s not going to be a teacher she has got to find a job doing something, even being a teacher aid again.

When it comes to paying off debt, I am keeping everything current in order for our heads to stay above water. Since her car repair wiped out the EF, that needs to be built back up before I can pile on debt. I haven’t cashed my IRA yet, partly due to fear but at the same time it’s also a safety net too. Our overall debt is going up since the student loans are adding hundreds of dollars in interest each month. Even if the credit card balances go away, the progress is lost in the student loans. We have more debt than I alone can handle.

I’m starting to wonder if I should start considering a higher paying job. While I currently make a decent amount of money, my earning potential out there is probably higher. I’ve hit the three year point and am fully vested in my retirement fund, so I wouldn’t be taking any financial loss to go somewhere else. I think what makes me nervous is that I am comfortable with what I know is stable. All the basics are met with my income alone on a day to day basis, why change that? I’m also not sure where my wife will get a job and was waiting on her to determine where a good pivot point for us would be if we had to relocate.

The charts on the right side of the blog need to be updated, but I haven’t looked at the numbers lately. I will try to update those this week so I’m being honest with everyone. Sorry the latest posts have been so depressing lately, however that’s my current mood as of late.

Comments(8)

I survived the vacation and had to come back to reality. Our spending on vacation was pretty close to where I thought things would be, so that’s a positive. On the other hand my wife’s car was being repaired over the week we were gone, so that expense has wiped out our EF. We also have a bill coming from the kennel that took care of our dog while we were gone that has to be paid. Everything is current except for one thing: my wife’s student loans.

We are having a really rough time getting a forbearance on her private student loans. They are expecting a large payment next week and we have no way to pay it. When she called them to explain that there’s no way to make this payment, they act like they could care less. I’m glad her other student loans are on a deferment, although the interest on them is building each month, these private loans have blindsided us. I am at a complete loss on what we’re going to do about that payment.

She is still interviewing for various schools to find a full time teaching job with decent income. Right now she has one offer for a school an hour and a half away, in a really bad area and for the lowest pay I’ve seen so far. I don’t want her to have to take that job and feel like she mad a bad choice to become a teacher. We need her to have a good first teaching job with a decent income so a large chunk of it can get rid of her student loan debt quickly. I’m confident something good will come for us, it just takes time.

August is soon coming and we have to really watch where the money is going. My wife doesn’t get paid for the week she took off for vacation, or any other day she has off like holidays, so her paycheck is going to be reduced for the first half of the month. The two weeks to the middle of the month will be a struggle but I think we’ll make it. We just have to watch where the money is going instead of wondering where it went.

Comments(15)

I’m going to be on vacation for the next week but still need to keep our ship floating while we’re gone. The bills that are due while we’re gone have been paid. There are some others that will have to be paid when we get back. The reason I bring this up was last time we went on a trip some bills were simply not paid on time. I have made every effort not to repeat this problem so everything stays current.

My number one concern with this vacation next week is our spending. This month we’ll see a reduction of income for the week my wife will be off work. At the same time, that’s a week of groceries, gas, and household expenses we don’t have to consider. At the same time that doesn’t mean overspending on vacation should happen, or we’re going to have a problem paying the rest of the bills this month. I’m already seeing an increase in spending which is making me nervous.

We set aside some money to pay for our trip from that stimulus check. That has been spent now with the costs of our trip, so I hope any additional spending will be minimal. We have to bring a little cash for tips and some eating out, but most of that expense is covered as part of our trip. I’m not a huge fan of souvenirs, crap they sell you while you’re on the trip that you don’t really need and will eventually get rid of anyway.

Don’t get me wrong I am excited about going on a vacation. We have not been on one in 3 years now so this week of pure freedom from responsibility will be much enjoyed. I’m also glad we don’t have kids yet, because family vacations are probably stressful for parents. The other part I’m excited is to come back and get back to attacking the crap out of the debt. I’ll also update everyone with what happened with the IRA.

Comments(4)

So the good people at Fidelity informed me that an existing pension plan has rolled into my new IRA. Right now I have $4723.97 sitting in a cash reserve account not doing anything. There’s a number of various investments I could do with this money. The other option would to take a hit and cash it out. There are things to consider though in order to withdraw money from an IRA.

Right now my Bank of America credit card balance is sitting at $3738.50. This left over amount along with a little extra to the minimum payment already due would clear that card completely. I would really like to rid my life of this stupid credit card, but is it worth the temporary sacrifice of an IRA? This is the debt reduction side of the argument though because I have debt on the brain right now.

My other option is to take that money and invest it in something. Right now with the market actually being down over 20% it means everything is on sale! At some point the money put in at a low point will be worth more as the market comes back up over time.

The last option and sometimes best when you don’t know what to do is to do nothing. There are always two options to every decision in life, something or nothing. Nothing would just keep this money in the cash reserve not doing anything. I think this is where I am at this month, but still weighing my options as I described earlier.

Question for my readers: What would you do: clear debt, invest, or nothing?

Comments(18)

My wife is in the process of getting her student loans on hold, or forbearance, until she can get a full time teaching position in order to pay them. The student loan companies capitalized the interest and rolled it into the loans, so the total as of today is $123,800 rounded to dollars. Her payment alone is over a grand per month, even though it’s on a graduated system that will increase over the years.

We need to figure a plan of action on what is going to happen with these loans. The payment alone isn’t even realistic right now, which makes me wonder how she was able to borrow so much money in the first place. A few articles I read on student loan debt, most averages are anywhere from 15-40k which are manageable to say the least. Her debt is many times that and so is the payment, so how can she pay?

What I think we’re going to probably do is live off of my income alone, and use her income to pay the student loans off. Depending on what she makes, such as throwing 30k a year at them, they could be gone in less than 5 years. That is better than the 30 year payment plan which would require us to pay twice the amount of the loan in interest alone.

I’m not an advocate of bankruptcy and believe we should take responsibility for our decisions. Student loans are typically not something that can be bankrupt, unless you are deceased, disabled, or can declare undue hardship. Undue hardship makes a case that a debtor has little chance of earning enough to pay off the loan. We are married and she probably couldn’t pull this excuse off.

A quote I recently heard and like at the moment: When faced with a challenge, look for a way not a way out. I hope she gets a salary job soon so she is on her way to getting these loans paid off. Our credit cards still have to go in order to focus 100% on these.

Comments(12)

I’m not having a very good July even though it’s only been a week. We can’t pay down debt and on top of that it has gone up because the student loans are growing. My wife got in a car accident, she’s okay but the repairs to the car will clear our EF. I am financially and emotionally drained right now and not sure when I’m going to bounce back.

So where do we go from here? I looked at her student loan statements the other day, she refuses to even bother with them, and the payments make me feel defeated. They can go into a forbearance or possibly economic hardship but we still need to find a way to pay them at some point. I guess for now I will put that issue aside since we have so many other fish to fry.

I know I don’t mention it too much but I still contribute to my 401k plan. I’m down probably 1.5k which is a huge chunk of money. At the same time while it’s down at the moment it will eventually go back up. It is still depressing to see the numbers go down so far and quickly, but that is the risk of the market. I’ve also debated the idea of stopping my contribution in order to increase cash flow to pay down debt.

Our vacation is planned here in the coming weeks and I doubt we can afford to go. My parents are picking up the bulk of our cost but the $600 intended to cover our expense may not cut it. With no EF to fall back on I hope the damage to the credit card will be minimal if we have to resort to it at all. If my parents were not involved in paying for this trip, it would be canceled.

Sorry I haven’t posted as frequently lately but I’m trying to keep the funk to a minimum. I’ll come up with a strategy at some point but right now I’m tired. The stress of the situation could very well be leading to depression. It makes me wonder how much more crap I have to do before things will get better.

Comments(15)

For the last few months I have had a serious amount of dental work done. I’ve got really bad teeth and a few years ago some molars started to weaken and break down on me.

As you can see I had a lot of work primarily done on just two teeth. I will most likely have to get a crown on the tooth that had the root canal done next year. Right now I am very happy to have a full normal feeling tooth again. This tooth cracked in half and was rebuilt back in May. The pain from the tooth started to get worse and I guess the nerve was bad and root canal was the fix for it. In the middle of the root canal the tooth cracked in half again, the crown for the other tooth had to go in, and two more appointments later it was finished. My last appointment on this tooth was this past Saturday. I’m happy that I have no more planned until my regular cleaning later this year.

After 2.5k worth of work being done, 1k out of my pocket and 1.5k paid by insurance, I would do it all over again if I had to. These totals are only for the work I had done this year. I have had as much stuff done since 2005 when I first addressed my dental issues. In college I neglected going to the dentist for regular checkups and such and it caught up to me. I’m glad I have dental insurance to help me cover the costs as well as the money to pay my part of the bill. Never take your teeth for granted, (warning: totally intended pun coming) you might find yourself biting off more than you can chew.

Question for my readers: Has your dental insurance come through to help you cover a major procedure?

Comments(13)