Women in Red Racers - South Region

[3jsmom31]

Good going, muffy.  Slow and steady is a good strategy, it can be hard not to go backwards when there are so many things we have to get done.  How is everything?  Did you make a trip recently?  Hope you and your family are doing great

speech, good update.  How long do you have 0 interest on your loans?  Good job making progress even in your situation.  So what are you charging?  Is it necessities?  

[speechchick71]

3js: 0% on Chase until like the beginning of November. Tire Kingdom is 0% until December. GE is until May 2014 or so. As soon as those first two are paid off (and I'm hoping for a new job at that time or soon after) EVERYTHING is getting thrown at that other card. I use it occasionally, maybe 1-2x per cycle, but I've only really been able to pay the minimum. I have an AmEx that I pay off in full every month that I put almost everything on every month.

Our owner has a good friend who is sort of his "eyes and ears" as he (the owner) lives out of the country. I told the friend that moving to FL and taking this job as an independent contractor was the worst financial decision I could have made as a single girl in her 40s. He understood and knows that I will be leaving at the end of the year. I'm just tired of being in debt again! It was so nice not to have any payments that NEEDED to be made. It was nice not to think about how much something was if I needed (or wanted) it. I was going to not attend my niece and nephew's graduation party because flights were so expensive. I knew it meant a lot to them for me to attend and so I got a ticket but before, I would have complained about the prices but still knew I could afford it.

<sigh> I want to be able to enjoy that life without having to be on the road. Maybe I need to marry "money"! Hah! I'm no gold digger. There is no easy way to becoming financially fit, right? And at least I've been able to dig myself out of more debt than I'm in now, right? And my interest rate isn't that high, right? And 1/3 of my debt, at least, is 0%, right? I can do it.

I tried looking around for some challenges and couldn't really find any. Maybe we should make a challenge to have everyone get more members! If everyone could bring one more person in, that would hopefully make this an active board again!

[bramoney]

Great Job everyone!  Thanks Speechchick71 for the update!

[bramoney]

Where is everyone, what'g going on.......is my system not working or what? Helllllloooooooo

[3jsmom31]

Hey bramoney.  I would have shouted back sooner, but I was busy all weekend .

It looks like you have time to get it all caught up before the interest kicks in, Speech.  I'll enjoy seeing you whip up on debt again .  

I'm going to go play in the yard, then run out to return an I-pod we found at the fair this weekend.  I was glad it was easy to find the owner through their facebook app .  Hope everyone enjoys good deeds today, either giving or receiving!!!  

[bramoney]

Hi 3jsmom31
That is such a good deed you are doing, hope they play it forward. Thanks for shouting back, peace to you.

[forwardwego]

Hola WIRRs
I've been out of state, but home again, home again jiggety jig
Hope to catch up soon. 

[bramoney]

Welcome back home Forwardwego, hope you enjoyed your time away from home.

[deepintx]

Hi there!  Sorry I have been MIA.  We have been so busy with the kitchen remodel and getting the kids ready to head back to school.  They started back to school yesterday so hopefully we will be back into a routine soon.  They are moving into middle school and high school so big changes this year.

Welcome back Cleanslate!

I hope everyone is doing well.  I will get my update ready and post in a few days.  Have a great week!

[ffflex]

Ffflex: 8/29/2013 $7,052.00 (6/29/2010 $27320 SU352/SU372/STP26)

Hi'ya speechchick and thanks for the updates, and good evening to all the WIRRs


Well here's my second-to-last update. DW & I moved to Ohio. So when my final money arrives from my past employment in Florida I'll have enough to zap the last of my race, should be soon   My lovely wife, loyal friend Rambo, & I will be in a paid for truck, &  no CC debt. 

DW has a lot of student loans, and now a car payment, but we plan for her to devote all her income to accelerating those, and we'll live off my paycheck.

Thanks for the help here ladies, don't know how I would have done this without you.

[3jsmom31]

That's what I hope, bramoney!!! I hope they pass on the good deed They seemed very surprised to get it back.... Peace to you, and love.

Forward is home... Yay!!! We've missed you.

Hi, deepintx! So how's the remodel coming? Good to see ya!!

That is great news, Ffflex. You know, she can race her debt, lol. So how's the Buckeye State treating you?

Working on the barn (yes, still) a bit each day, plus getting some things wrapped up in the garden. We're working on a greenhouse frame. If that goes alright, then we'll actually stretch plastic. I'm so excited I've been working myself to exhaustion. I love those days... Tired, but happy with what we did...

May God bless everyone with enough, some wisdom, and plenty of joy!!!

[goalofzero]

I have a question: should I close the -0- balance credit cards or leave them open? And before you ask THEY WILL NOT BE USED AGAIN

[movinonup]

Aug 29, 2013 20:59:07 GMT -5 goalofzero said:

I have a question: should I close the -0- balance credit cards or leave them open? And before you ask THEY WILL NOT BE USED AGAIN

I'm jumping in from the Northeast to offer my opinion.  If you plan to apply for credit anytime soon (car, mortgage?) leave them open.  Closing the accounts will bring your credit score down.  Even if you don't plan to get new credit, I would close the accounts over a long period of time.  Maybe one every few months.  The big reason that I think this way is that I have seen many articles recently about employers using credit reports/scores in evaluating applicants.  If you do need to seek work for any reason, you don't want to be disqualified because you closed a bunch of accounts at once. 

-movinonup

[jdnstl]

UPDATE

Aug 1 13           Sept 1 13
CC1 – 0.00         0.00
CC2 – 1000.00      0.00
CC3 – 0.00           0.00
CC4 – Closed
CC5 – 0.00         1000.00
CC6 – 4350.00     4300.00
CC7 – 0.00           0.00
Auto1 – 0.00        0.00
Auto2 – 0.00         0.00
TOTAL- 5,350.00    5,300.00 Difference of -$50.00

EF/Savings – $2,750.00 $3,000.00 Difference of $250.00
jdnstl: 9/1/13 $5,300.00 (1/9/08 $40,366.26 S34)
Total ptd - $35,066.26
Percent ptd – 86.87%

hey WIRR friends. i'm updating early because of the long weekend - don't know when i'll be back on the boards. my schedule during the week limits my play time on the computer so i don't check-in as much as a i used to or should. i'm kind of shocked at the low pay down this month but i'm not surprised. i put more into savings & i caught up on some larger purchases that i charged on a card i'm not racing. i don't have a new zero, i did a balance transfer because of a 0% expiring this month. yesterday i had a 90-day review at work. i did get a decent raise & i was told that instead of waiting 1 year, i'll be able to have 100% of employee-only medical covered starting jan.1st. i've got to figure out what to do until then. i was also told that i'll get another review & raise end of nov./beginning of dec. as ex-DH said - it's very different working for a company with income versus one still in start-up/research phase. due to how pay periods fall, i won't know the full effect of the raise for 2 pay periods.

FFflex - congrats on the move & we can't wait to see you post when you finally reach the big fat ZERO! you wifey is one lucky lady.

cleanslate - welcome back girlie! so glad to see you post again. oh & congrats on completing boot camp.

speech, 3jsmom, bramoney - hiya!

[paynointerest]

Pay-no-interest: Update!  09/01/13:  $99,500.00 (05/07: 369,884.00)

%paid total: 73%

%paid on the Mortgage: 47%

Speechchick:   Thanks for the great updates!  I appreciate the work that you and all the co-captains do to keep this board going.

FFflex:  Great update!  You are making good progress and your plan to eliminate your wife's debt is right on target.

Deepintx: It's great to hear that your remodel is making progress.  All of the inconvenience will be worth it once you have your shiny new kitchen!

Welcome back Forwardwego, I'm looking forward to seeing your next update!

DH and I are plugging way at our mortgage.  We have a 4% interest rate and so we've decided to focus our energy on saving money rather than paying down or mortgage faster.  We are on target it have it paid off in 10 years (it's a 30 yr mortgage).  I'm working to revamp how I'm investing my $$.  I tried the individual stock thing and have realized I'm too busy with work to monitor everything so I'm taking some losses and putting new contributions into a high dividend yield ETF with Vanguard and some money in Vanguard's total stock market index fund.  They shouldn't fluctuate too much.  My plan is to reinvest the dividends and build the funds and hopefully build my savings so I can invest later when I have more time to study investing.

Work is busy -- school has started and I'm the chair of a lot of committee's.  It's great experience but time consuming.  I'm grateful my Dept. head relieved me of teaching one course so I have time to do this extra work.  I heard from the rumor mill that we will be getting a 2% raise across the University.  That's one reason why working at a University is not good - our raises never keep pace with inflation.  I heard that there might be some discretion for the Dept. head to add an additional 2% for merit so I might get lucky and get a 3% raise.  I guess every bit counts right?

I hope everyone enjoys their Labor day weekend and continues to make progress with paying down their debt!

[redracerris]

ATTN Captains UPDATE Red Racer Ris 7/29/2013 $96,399 (3/20/10 $134,409 SU220 OK/AK)
 

	Original Amount	Last Month	This Month	Difference	% Paid
Student Loan 1	$34,236	$20,432	$20,126	$306	41.2%
Student Loan 2	$31,691	$28,594	$28,496	$98	10.0%
Student Loan 3	$30,730	$24,803	$24,707	$96	19.6%
Student Loan 4	$37,752	$23,335	$23,070	$265	38.1%
Total	$134,409	$97,164	$96,399	$765	28.3%

Ffflex: Congrats on the move and the big zero coming up! I also agree with 3jsmom that she can race on here

Speech: The trick is to not get back into debt. You really need to take a hard look on how you are spending your money. If you really are at the bare bones in your budget, get more money. Take that traveling job. If you do not take a traveling job, get another part-time job. Even if it is working at McDonalds. <warning start rant> I am tired of hearing people (I am not talking just on here, but where I live) say that they should not have to take a part time job at McDonalds or some fast food restaurant or retail job, just because they have a degree and they think it is beneath them. I took a summer job working retail because DHs car completely broke down and we needed another one. I took it so we would not have to get a car loan, to stay out of debt. But if you are looking to change your job because you are not happy with what you are doing, go for it. But do not do something just because it pays more. Do something that you are going to like. My husband and I have been talking this over recently. He is going to go after his dream of becoming a neuro-psychologist. He has the GI bill, so that will take care of school and not put us into more debt. For me, I am waiting to get my degree as a Holistic Practitioner until we have all of our current student loans paid off and I can pay as we go. So, what is your dream job Speech? <end rant>

CleanSlate: Welcome back! Can hardly wait to see what you do.

goalofzero: Woohoo for all of the zeros! I am envious. Also, my first reaction to the credit card thing is to close them so you do not have the temptation to use them. If you are going to do anything that movinonup mentioned, cut up the cards so you cannot use them and slowly close them down as suggested.

jdnstl: Yea for job raises! That is really cool, and i hope it will help you out. You are sooooo close!

Pay-no-interest: Pay raises all around! It is good to hear some great things going on! I hope you will still update, even though it sounds like you are kind of going on auto pilot with the mortgage.

[redracerris]

So my personal update:

I have been super busy doing my promotion at work. But it is worth it. The money that we spent on the car drained our EF. The good news is that with my pay raise and the extra hours DH was doing we are already over halfway there! By the end of October, we will have our EF filled up, because that is when the Permanent Fund Dividend is released. We have agreed to fill up what is left of our EF with our PFDs. Then we came up with a neat little system for extra money at the end of the month. Each of us will get 15% of what is left to do with what we want, totaling 30%. Then 35% will be saved for a house, and the other 35% will go to paying of loans. That is the compromise that DH and I came up with, because he does NOT like going without anything. At first, my 15% will go to saving up $1,500 for summer, so I do not have to take another job. I can just go to fairs and do my 15 minute portraits for $10.

I just realized that I have not done goals for this year! Dear me oh my. I will do some goals right now. Most of these will be for the end of December 2013
1) EF to $2,000. We are currently at $1,540 woohoo! It looks like we will get this done at the end of this month!
2) Save up $1,500 for summer next year. This one will continue through the new year.
3) Get another one of the mini loans in SL 4 paid off. (I have two paid off currently!) It is currently at $1,096 and with the extra money we will be putting towards loans after this month, we should be able to do it.
4) There is one PLUS loan that is not in our name but we are paying for it because it was for DH college. That puts us over $100,000. I want to get all of the loans under $100,000.

That should do it for goals. But that reminds me that I forgot to tell everyone that a couple of months ago I paid off another mini loan! Maybe I should put the breakdown up on here so you guys can see my progress too.

The business is doing well. It finally made enough to pay us back everything it owed.

On a personal note, the garden this summer was fantastic! Not once did I have to buy zucchini or lettuce. We did get some broccoli and cauliflower. Next year, no cauliflower or cabbage. The cabbage is almost done but you only get one head per plant and it needs a lot of room. I have also collected a lot of yarrow. I am hoping to be able to get enough that I will not have to buy any next year. I use yarrow for the seasonal affective disorder. I was using St. Johns wort in a pill, then it tried as a tea and broke out. I did not want to spend more money on the pills so I researched and found out yarrow works. I tried some of the yarrow I collected last year and it was like night and day! Next year I am going to grow some lemon balm to add to the yarrow.

Have fun everyone!

[forwardwego]

Good Sunday evening WIRRs

A lot of things I'd like to throw out there so 'scuse me if my thoughts hop around

Shoutout to debtfreeredux, time for another power paydown that you do so well

Hey redruby Are you getting settled back into the school year okay? Look fwd to seeing you here again soon.

Goalofzero (should be winner of the most appropriate screen name award)
How many zero balance cards do you have? You may want to keep the oldest of the accounts open because having a longstanding(old) account can help your credit score. So if you follow the other WIRRs suggestion of closing them down gradually you might want to start with the most recently opened ones first.

Welcome back "home" cleanslate

Yes bramoney The time away was good, and it's also good to get back home. DH and I are in our mid 50's and don't travel much, so even though it's relaxing I feel out of my element when I'm away. Maybe I could enjoy it more if we set up a little travel fund instead of cutting into money that would otherwise have helped that month's paydown. How are you doing? Really looking fwd to your under $10K update, and your post that says your rental house is working for you.

Sounds like DH just pulled in on his motorcycle so bye 4 now.

[forwardwego]

And Good Morning too

Hope you all are enjoying an "extra" day off.

shoutout to our captain team Speechchick, jdnstl, nasa
(please correct & forgive if i have left out anyone)

speechchick It does seem like the travelling work supported you much better financially. But maybe as you go you will find a "fixed" location that can support you, maybe it's this specific area or state that is so difficult. It will be nice to see you zoom in your race the way you did when you travelled before.   BTW, do you have your checkered flags handy? Looks like flex is on his final lap. Any suggestions for a victory song?

deepintx congrats on your graduation to the 5500 club, keep up the good work. I'll bet your home improvements are looking great. And though it costs, it's usually much cheaper to do that than to relocate.

jdnstl yea for almost 90% paid, you've come a long way. Alot going on for you, and sounds like a lot of good things in the pipeline. Good job keeping your cash flow positive while shoring up your savings too  

paynointerest nice update  You do a good job with balance and moderation, it's a good example for me to see. My next update will be modest in part because of the trip we just did and a couple future weekends planned, but we will chip away enough to go into the $12K range, and hopefully under $10K before end of year.   IMHO Vanguard is a really good company with proven performance and a good commitment to its investors. The founder John Bogle is interesting to listen to, and his approach cuts through a lot of the stuff that can cost people unnecessarily.

redracerris sounds like you & DH are finding a good groove. Congrats on the zero on the mini-loan and the upcoming milestones: SL1 soon to go under $20K, and paydown total approaching $40K and 30%

shoutout to muffyinthered, keep up the good work.

3jsmom how's your garden doing? I ate as many home grown tomatoes as I could manage on our little vacation to Ohio. Did you get a good crop? Looking fwd to your next update, under $40K and approaching halfway . 


 

[bankergurl]

$100K List Updated as of 9/2/13! Really spectaculor updates coming in! A whopping $12,012.22 paid off in the last 2 weeks!
One leapfrog, tobinikui(2) from the Northeast!!
Welcome and Congrats to chelsea727 from the Midwest who joined and graduated from the $100K List in the 2 weeks since the last update!!
Congrats to movinonup from the Northeast for paying off over $5K!
Congrats to tobinikui(2) from the Northeast for paying off over $35K!
www.notmsnmoney.proboards.com/thread/11187/100k-club?page=5#scrollTo=1708887

[deepintx]

** UPDATE ** deepintx(2): 9/3/13 $2,028.00 (5/3/2013 $12,369.94 PB156)

	5/3/13	8/1/13	9/3/13
CC #1 (0.0%)	$4,741.94	$-	$-
Home Depot (0.0%)	$7,628.00	$4,528.00	$2,028.00
		$-	$-
Balance Total	$12,369.94	$4,528.00	$2,028.00
Difference/month			$2,500.00
Difference Total			$10,341.94
EF	$700.00	$775.00	$800.00

[deepintx]

Hello Fellow WIRRs!

I hope you are all doing well.  There have been some great updates.  It is good to see people talking on the boards again.

fflex - Congratulations on the move and the upcoming win!  I can't wait to cheer you on with the checkered flag!

Speech - I'm sorry you are frustrated with how your job(s) are going.  You did seem to make alot more money while traveling but you weren't settled in your life.  It is a hard balance to keep.  I wish you the best in whatever you decide to do.

redracer - Awesome goals for the year!  I know you will achieve them and then some.  Makes us all think about our goals and where we need to be.  I have certainly derailed our goals for this year with our remodeling project but we are getting back on track and I know next year will be so much better.

forwardwego - Hi there!  I totally understand what you mean about travel.  It is nice to get away but so nice to come home.  We are homebodies so there is no place like home.   You are so right about the home improvements being cheaper than moving too.  You know that show "Love it or List it"?  I love that show and that is so me wanting to list our house and the rest of my family loving it and not wanting to move.  So this remodel I think was my DH's attempt to get me to "Love it" so I won't want to move.  Our boys are settled into their schools and they are in a very good school district and at an age that is hard to make them change schools.  So I am "loving" our home now and we are settling in until our boys graduate from high school at least.  Then we are heading to the boonies and living on a mini farm like 3jsmom.

3jsmom - Hi there!  How is your garden doing?  Are the kids settled back in school?  To answer your question, we are just about done with the kitchen remodel.  We still need to measure and order the backsplash and do some painting but it has been functional for weeks so we have been enjoying some down time.  My DH moved his office to our garage apartment (he works from home) and thought about just staying up there but realized he didn't like being so isolated from the rest of the family so we are working at finishing his office in the house now.  That was the one room we didn't stain the floors originally because we needed a room to move the rest of our furniture so we didn't have to hire movers to move them into the garage.  Plus our garage was full with our Ikea kitchen boxes (285 boxes!!!).  Then his old office was the staging area for building the kitchen cabinets once our flooring was done in the living room, kitchen, dining room, and laundry room.  So this weekend we finished sanding the office and stained the floors.  Tonight we will be sealing the floor, tomorrow we will wax the floors, and this weekend we will paint his office so he can move back in.  Yay!  Then we still need to refinish the entry way and hall bath that we gutted and haven't put back together since the remodel.  Baby steps!  But we are loving how everything has turned out and are so glad we did it.

So next month will be our last payment to Home Depot for our HVAC loan.  Then I will total up our remodel project and race that for my race #3.  It will not be pretty.

Until then, be safe and happy racing!

[bramoney]

Hi everyone,
It’s great to see, well, read everyone’s posting! Looks like everyone was just busy doing them, good for you!
Forwardwego: Maybe, going forward you could look into setting up a travel fund, when funds are available. So, that you can you know feel more relax when you do get away. Been there, done that, so I know what you mean. You know I am doing ok, just working thru it all. Thanks for asking, that is sweet of you.

[debtfreeredux]

***UPDATE***

DebtFreeRedux: 9/4/13 $195,458.46 (1/30/12 $282,500.50)

Debt	Interest Rate	Balance 6/23/13	Balance 9/4/13	Difference
Car Loan	4.9%	$50,100.34	$48,515.67	-$1,584.67
Unsecured LOC	19.25%	$0	$0	$0
SL#1	3.01%	$12,510.68	$12,400.04	-$110.64
SL#2	4.50%	$9,141.72	$3,727.84	-$5,413.88
SL#3	2.50%	$18,397.97	$18,127.71	-$270.26
SL#4	2.50%	$18,742.96	$18,292.90	-$450.06
SL#5	2.00%	$28,018.3	$27,686.77	-$331.53
SL#6	4.55%	$0	$0	$0
SL#7	4.55%	$5,473.86	$5,173.51	-$300.35
SL#8	5.00%	$9,469.71	$9,164.56	-$305.15
SL#9	2.375%	$13,799.52	$13,646.26	-$153.26
SL#10	2.375%	$24,555.41	$24,282.71	-$272.70
CC#1	4.25%	$16,629.42	$14,440.49	-$2,188.93
Total		$206,839.89	$195,458.46	-$11,381.43

Sorry for the radio silence. Has been a very busy summer at work! As you can see, I made some progress in the interim though. Under $200K!!!!!!!!!!!!! Was hoping to have SL#7 paid off with that big payment but Sallie Mae "misapplied" it. Sometimes I think they do it on purposes to keep as many loans outstanding as possible.  Anyway, I decided that it doesn't really matter because it's all getting me to the same place. I am however thinking that I should start saving my snowball amounts on the side until I can pay all of the Sallie Mae loans at once (#2 and #7) to avoid these mysterious "misaplications" in the future. We'll see if I can be patient enough to do that.

Hope everyone had a good Labor Day weekend. I'm ready for the Texas summer to be over - Bring on the fall!

[seahorse]

DebtFreeRedux:  Great update! I've been waiting for your update .  I am from the Midwest section but I love to watch all of the boards.  Boo on the Sallie Mae "misapplying" your payment.  That would have been so neat to have gotten a new zero.  I like the idea of you saving back the snowball and paying the whole thing off.  I know I wouldn't have the patience b/c I always think of all those extra pennies in interest I could be saving.  I can't wait to see your next update .  


Racers you are making a lot of debt blasting progress!  When the Midwest board is quiet I love to visit the South and read all your updates and stories

[ffflex]

I dedicate this update to one of my best friends ever, my Quincy Dog RIP

Update ffflex 9/5/2013 BIG FAT ZER0

In a nutshell I am a pretty simple guy who wanted to find a partner, and chased after love blowing money right and left. But I was chasing the wrong women, ones who used me and left me dangling. And part of my debt was vet bills for my Quincy, and that part I'd do over again in a heartbeat. The rest is WIRR history. And I was lucky enough to find a wonderful woman who helps me not blow my money  .


thanks to all the southern belle WIRRs

[deepintx]

Woo Hoo!!!!  Big Fat Congratulations to you ffflex!!!  Best of luck to you and your lucky lady!  I hope you check back in with us and keep us updated on life!
 

[trojen3]

Congratulations FFFLEX!!!! All that hard work has paid off. I wish you continued success with keeping debt-free!


Update: Trojen3 - 9/6/13: $65,330.16 (8/24/12: $99,479.89)

Name of Debt	Current Debt	Starting Debt	Total Paid	% Paid Off
Car Loan	$0	$2,201.08	$2,201.08	100%
SL #1 - Sallie Mae	$0	$1,491.42	$1,491.42	100%
SL #2 - Grad PLUS	$40,671.64	$46,338.33	$5,666.69	12.23%
SL #3 - Grad PLUS	$24,658.52	$28,852.49	$4,193.97	14.54%
SL #4 - Private	$0	$20,596.57	$20,596.57	100%
Total	$65,330.16	$99,479.89	$34,149.73	34.33%

[seahorse]

FFFLEX: Congrats on THE BIG FAT ZERO!!!

[Minnesotagirl7]

ffflex- Congratulations on your win!!