nidena
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Post by nidena on Jul 26, 2019 9:07:53 GMT -5
Scheduled my surgery and received the cost breakdown. It's not that much more than my last surgeries but the one hospital overnight adds quite a bit, as does the anesthesia but, for surgery, I'm a fan of anesthesia. Not gonna skimp on that. lol. If my reactions to my previous surgeries are to be used as a foundation, I know I'm going to be quite happy with the results and I can't put a price on happiness. It's an investment in myself. Having the surgery will bump me out from moving out of the house. Not a big deal, considering the move is totally voluntary to begin with. lol. I'm sure my roommate will appreciate not having to move out as soon as previously expected. Time to get ready for work.
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seriousthistime
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Post by seriousthistime on Jul 26, 2019 9:41:36 GMT -5
Chiver - For what it's worth, when I first started on these boards YEARS ago, my cc debt was more than my income (almost $38K I believe, and I was making $35K). I realize the totals are lower than yours but relative to my debt being higher than my salary and everyone telling me to declare bankruptcy, I can kind of relate to your situation. Back then it was the years of Suze Orman, Dave Ramsey, the MSN Money group here...much of my social time was consumed with immersing myself in debt management learning. I made a tough-but-doable budget and stuck to it, tracking my budget/spending on Friday nights watching Suze and posting here instead of going out. The accountability and tough love back then made me question EVERY purchase, it really helped. My point is I think you can do it. You really just need to catch one big break to start the snowball method and once that takes off, it really seems to "snowball" from there. My break was paying off my car, and around the same time getting a new job with a 15-20% raise. Granted I was still earning under $50K, but I stuck to my budget, applied the raise and former car payment to my debt snowball, and then was able to start working the balance transfers, etc. It was the basics that worked for me...tracking, budget, and not increasing my expenses (I drove that car for 16 years until it almost died last year and I didn't replace it! *yet). I allowed 10% of my cc monthly payment amount to be used for fun/entertainment, I can't do "gazelle intense" but I did realize I had to say no more than I wanted and evaluate what things would cost and where in the budget that money would come from before I said yes. Anyhow, I think you can do this, evaluate your budget and incidental spending, and keep posting here. If you run into problems don't be too proud to look into bankruptcy, but I think you can do it. This pretty much is my experience too. Back then, it's how we did things. With my first race, I owed $61,816 (a figure I have etched in my brain) and although I made more than that, my take-home was less. I followed MS Money, Suze Orman, Dave Ramsey. I lived, thought, and breathed money. I read a book called Money: a Memoir by Liz Perle, and despite a few big moves I still have that book with me. It talks about how women bury their heads in the sand when it comes to finances. I started to get gazelle intense but I was really just dabbling in it. My budget was manageable, I could make my payments (but had to stay on top of everything carefully), do a balance transfer to escape the high interest rates that come after a promotional offer, and was doing ok. The thing that kicked me in the butt was an experience with Chase. I had a few CC balances with them, and one was at the low promotional rate for the life of the balance. Then Chase decided -- not to end the promotional rate, which they couldn't do -- to double my minimum payment, which they could do, from around $500 to around $1,000 per month. Suddenly I had to find an extra $500 in my budget to make those payments. At that point I became gazelle intense. After six months or so, that balance was paid off. And at that point I had a real snowball to work with. I made snowball spreadsheets. I had immense pride (internal validation) whenever I paid off a card. I did the balance transfer thing as often as I needed to. I spent my Saturday nights watching Suze Orman. I posted Dave Ramsey's baby steps on the bulletin board above my computer. As I got raises, I put most of the extra income to debt, and had a little fun with the rest. It was a long haul, but it is doable. One thing I did that was against conventional wisdom was to priortize and pay off the debts according to which had the highest payment. At the time, that was my car. By paying off that one, I freed up the most dollars to snowball to the debt with the next highest payment.
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nikiz628
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Post by nikiz628 on Jul 26, 2019 18:53:59 GMT -5
I always love when we share how we tackle our debt! We can still learn new tricks, even if we've been around "here" forever.
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nidena
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Post by nidena on Jul 27, 2019 9:17:39 GMT -5
I avalanched my HVAC payments because, other than my mortgage at 3.5% and my vehicle at 4.34%, it was the biggest balance plus it had the second highest rate at 9.99%. I even took the Checking account funds that I would use for groceries and put them towards the HVAC. I bought the groceries on my CC. I know most wouldn't do that but I wanted that HVAC balance gone. Eight months after incurring the $22,500 balance, it was gone. Now, I'm focusing on the CC and savings. It feels weird to put money in savings when I have CC debt but that debt will be gone soon enough--once the house sells (once I put it on the market)--so I figure it's better to set money aside for my upcoming move. Goodness knows, savings accounts don't grow your money any more so I use them as designated "pots" for upcoming large expenses. As for the CC, I still haven't used it to make any purchases. I did have a Wawa reload the other day but that's gas and snacks for work. I like the Heart Healthy mix that they offer. It's a pint size mix of nuts and berries. But no clothing purchases on the CC.
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debthaven
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Post by debthaven on Jul 27, 2019 20:01:02 GMT -5
That's great news nidena ! Congrats on paying the HVAC loan off! You have been doing great lately (except for the 1K on clothes this/last month, can't remember which). If you have any regrets on those purchases, maybe you can return some? I'm glad the new roommate is working out well!
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chiver78
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Post by chiver78 on Jul 28, 2019 9:58:29 GMT -5
thanks for the encouraging words, all. I am proud to say this weekend has been all cash/debit card, and well within budget. one more day of playing tourist, womp womp.
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Rukh O'Rorke
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Post by Rukh O'Rorke on Jul 28, 2019 13:25:03 GMT -5
good work chiver! My private student loan just reset my payments. Due to calling an having them add about $30 extra per month to my payment (no way to do that online, can do a lump sum but no extra automatic, you must call, they lowered my payments by $0.40 to make sure I am on the 20 year repayment plan, . Those petty rat bastards!! I will call on Monday and up my extra payment by $0.40. I hate them with the heat of a thousand suns. Can't wait to be done with IRS so that I can get this one pissant loan paid. I hate these monkey games intended to put payees on the hook.
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taz157
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Post by taz157 on Jul 28, 2019 15:31:50 GMT -5
thanks for the encouraging words, all. I am proud to say this weekend has been all cash/debit card, and well within budget. one more day of playing tourist, womp womp. I hope you are having fun with AZ! 😉 He’s a cutie!
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chiver78
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Post by chiver78 on Jul 28, 2019 19:31:09 GMT -5
thanks for the encouraging words, all. I am proud to say this weekend has been all cash/debit card, and well within budget. one more day of playing tourist, womp womp. I hope you are having fun with AZ! 😉 He’s a cutie! very much so, yes. I actually pulled out the laptop to look at flights for me to take a long weekend in AZ.
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Minnesotagirl7
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Post by Minnesotagirl7 on Jul 29, 2019 11:59:25 GMT -5
Shoutouts! Maryland- Closing in on 80% paid off! Shanendoah- So close, how exciting! Hope you don’t need another race, but we’re here to support if you do! Nooccar- You’ll be hitting the $30k paid off milestone before you know it! Sealy- All progress is good! Livinitup- Awesome update! Over $25k and almost 40%! Ners- Nice work, over $25k paid towards your mortgage! Banker Gurl- Great updates all around, as usual! Chiver78- You got this! We are all here to help keep you accountable. Keep posting!!
NikiZ628- Congrats on selling the truck and the great update! I’d leave it as-is and just keep plugging away. Also an excellent idea to see how things shake out with DH’s new job as well. Steph08- Congrats on your shiny new $0!! Chicg- Making nice progress. Glad your little man is a fighter!
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Minnesotagirl7
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Post by Minnesotagirl7 on Jul 29, 2019 12:01:53 GMT -5
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Minnesotagirl7
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Post by Minnesotagirl7 on Jul 29, 2019 12:09:05 GMT -5
I've decided I will start race #6 with our mortgage, but I'm going to wait until 3/18/20. March 18th is the day I started my first race, so that's the day I start all my races. Cuz I'm sentimental and silly that way.
chiver78 , DH and I were in a similar situation when we first started. Dual income, no kids, making good money. But we had tons of credit card debt, new cars, student loans, and we lived paycheck to paycheck. When I tallied up all the numbers, I was embarrassed and scared. Looking back on it now, we were one life event (serious illness, job loss, etc.) away from losing it all. I am so thankful I found the old MSN boards!! I read through all of the posts so freaking fast, then started my first race. And here we are now. We've paid off over $300,000 in debt, both cars are paid off, and all we have on the balance sheet is the mortgage. I have no doubt you will win your race, and we are here to cheer you on along the way!
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Minnesotagirl7
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Post by Minnesotagirl7 on Jul 29, 2019 12:20:23 GMT -5
chapeau, Can you let us know what state you live in?
Rukh O'Rorke, Can you also let us know what state you live in?
Thanks!
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shanendoah
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Post by shanendoah on Jul 29, 2019 13:28:00 GMT -5
shanendoah: 7/29/2019, $1,353.91 (5/4/2017, $43,691.23, WIRR151, WIRR160, WIRR164)
Line of Credit | Current Balance | Previous Balance | Starting Balance | Limit | APR | Total Paid | Percentage Paid | All other Cards | $0 | | $38,908.19 | | | | | Citi Diamond 2 | $1,353.91 | $1,758.65 | $4,783.04 | $9,600 | 0% until 04/19 (Purchases) 0% until 01/20 (Bal Trans) | $3,429.13 | 72% | Total | $1,353.91 | $1,758.65 | $43,691.23 |
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| $42,337.32 | 96.9% |
Only 3 more months of payments left on this debt! There's enough in savings to wipe it out, but it's at 0% APR, so I really just need to let it ride.
First $400 went on the new 0% card a couple weeks ago. I've got to get in and get everything set up to make payments. I am not tracking/racing it just yet.
We had our roommate move back in with us after her year traveling the globe. She started her job last week and will be paying rent starting Aug 9 (her first paycheck). The plan is $400/month in shared groceries and bills, and then another $100/month actual rent. In addition, we have loaned her around $600 that will be paid back. Now that we've got numbers figured out, I do need to sit down and create a plan for covering all the tuition payments and make sure everything will be able to be paid off while on the 0% APR with the new card. Mostly that will mean making sure we have the money in savings to cover the final tuition payment without using the card (18 months or so from now).
In addition, I'll be getting a 2% raise in September, which should equate to about $150 more per month take home that can be used to help cover the school costs.
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debthaven
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Post by debthaven on Jul 29, 2019 14:56:13 GMT -5
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nidena
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Post by nidena on Jul 29, 2019 18:23:08 GMT -5
That's great news nidena ! Congrats on paying the HVAC loan off! You have been doing great lately (except for the 1K on clothes this/last month, can't remember which). If you have any regrets on those purchases, maybe you can return some? I'm glad the new roommate is working out well! It was in June. Most of the clothes purchases were through Stitch Fix and were things that I absolutely love but I scheduled no Fixes for July so that I wasn't tempted and, with the upcoming surgery, it will do me no good to buy any new clothes for the remainder of this year. I did buy a few things from (and for) the new job that I thought I'd wear but, now that they're in my house, I don't see it happening so I will take those back this weekend. Thank you for the reminder.
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nidena
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Post by nidena on Jul 30, 2019 9:18:31 GMT -5
Yay! I received a paycheck that I wasn't expecting. lol. I forgot that the school paychecks are for the two weeks prior to the most recent two weeks which means I got paid for the first half of July. It's a nice $81 surprise in my bank account this morning. And that meant that I could transfer some more $$ into my 3-to-6 months Expenses savings account.
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chiver78
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Post by chiver78 on Jul 30, 2019 9:57:55 GMT -5
nice, nidena!
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Minnesotagirl7
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Post by Minnesotagirl7 on Jul 30, 2019 12:38:37 GMT -5
debthaven- Thanks! I'm impressed you know the state abbreviations. . How are you?? nidena- That's cool about the surprise check! I've been playing around with mortgage payoff calculators. Those are dangerous! And fun. Seeing how quickly the principal goes down after a couple annual lump sum payments is way cooler than it should be. It would be very satisfying if we were able to pay off the new mortgage around the time we would've had our previous home paid off. Speaking of the old house, we close on the sale in a couple of weeks. I'm going to stop by one more time to drop off keys and garage door openers, and to say goodbye. Its going to be really hard. I know its just a house, but we lived there for 9+ years and there are a lot of memories tied up in those walls. And as previously mentioned, I'm a sentimental gal.
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byedebtbye
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Post by byedebtbye on Jul 30, 2019 22:42:55 GMT -5
One thing I did that was against conventional wisdom was to priortize and pay off the debts according to which had the highest payment. At the time, that was my car. By paying off that one, I freed up the most dollars to snowball to the debt with the next highest payment. This is what I've been thinking about doing. I'm one month away from paying off my most annoying CC and I'm trying to decide what to focus on next. I was thinking of racing my debt that I'm paying the most interest on every month, which also happens to be my highest payment. It kills me each month to see how much money is going down the drain in just accrued interest.
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byedebtbye
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Post by byedebtbye on Jul 30, 2019 22:46:19 GMT -5
UPDATE ByeDebtBye: 7/30/19 $26,357.20 (09/28/18, $33,407.11, WIRR180)
Change since last update: down -$750.84
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nidena
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Post by nidena on Jul 30, 2019 22:47:58 GMT -5
One thing I did that was against conventional wisdom was to priortize and pay off the debts according to which had the highest payment. At the time, that was my car. By paying off that one, I freed up the most dollars to snowball to the debt with the next highest payment. This is what I've been thinking about doing. I'm one month away from paying off my most annoying CC and I'm trying to decide what to focus on next. I was thinking of racing my debt that I'm paying the most interest on every month, which also happens to be my highest payment. It kills me each month to see how much money is going down the drain in just accrued interest. I've found that method--avalanching--to be quite motivating because, when you focus on your efforts on it, you can really see the huge chops that you take with each payment.
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Maryland Monroe
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Post by Maryland Monroe on Aug 1, 2019 6:16:58 GMT -5
Update: Maryland Monroe [Race 2] 8/1/2019 $18,459.28 (1/1/2014 $93,528.61 NE113 C127)
Paid: $75,069.33 (80.26%)
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Rukh O'Rorke
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Post by Rukh O'Rorke on Aug 2, 2019 6:28:29 GMT -5
I've decided I will start race #6 with our mortgage, but I'm going to wait until 3/18/20. March 18th is the day I started my first race, so that's the day I start all my races. Cuz I'm sentimental and silly that way.
chiver78 , DH and I were in a similar situation when we first started. Dual income, no kids, making good money. But we had tons of credit card debt, new cars, student loans, and we lived paycheck to paycheck. When I tallied up all the numbers, I was embarrassed and scared. Looking back on it now, we were one life event (serious illness, job loss, etc.) away from losing it all. I am so thankful I found the old MSN boards!! I read through all of the posts so freaking fast, then started my first race. And here we are now. We've paid off over $300,000 in debt, both cars are paid off, and all we have on the balance sheet is the mortgage. I have no doubt you will win your race, and we are here to cheer you on along the way! What is different about a race? I thought everything was a race?? red racers? And yes - I am in chicago IL
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Rukh O'Rorke
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Post by Rukh O'Rorke on Aug 2, 2019 6:50:10 GMT -5
One thing I did that was against conventional wisdom was to priortize and pay off the debts according to which had the highest payment. At the time, that was my car. By paying off that one, I freed up the most dollars to snowball to the debt with the next highest payment. This is what I've been thinking about doing. I'm one month away from paying off my most annoying CC and I'm trying to decide what to focus on next. I was thinking of racing my debt that I'm paying the most interest on every month, which also happens to be my highest payment. It kills me each month to see how much money is going down the drain in just accrued interest. my highest interest is one of the smallest payments, so paying that off won't do a huge impact on my overall monthly minimum payments. Lowering the min/month really helps with emergency planning...not that I have a plan, but if I did. But - am going to stick with highest interest as "doing the most good" overall. Especially as they are so shady, trying to make sure it takes me 20 years to repay it . My second target/next highest interest has a high min payment (could be the largest, will need to check on that!), but will take a long time to pay off, so not like it would be a good benefit to the monthly budget any time soon . Payments go through on those in a few days, don't want to check them out beforehand.....
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Rukh O'Rorke
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Post by Rukh O'Rorke on Aug 2, 2019 7:08:48 GMT -5
One thing I did that was against conventional wisdom was to priortize and pay off the debts according to which had the highest payment. At the time, that was my car. By paying off that one, I freed up the most dollars to snowball to the debt with the next highest payment. This is what I've been thinking about doing. I'm one month away from paying off my most annoying CC and I'm trying to decide what to focus on next. I was thinking of racing my debt that I'm paying the most interest on every month, which also happens to be my highest payment. It kills me each month to see how much money is going down the drain in just accrued interest.ugh! I don't even want to think about it!!! When my parent plus loans came due for repayment, the capitalized interested added in was already over 10k. That doesn't count the 4% origination fees that were taken out of the loan money at time of dispersal. So - for the use of about 49k for tuition/expenses, 4+ years later I start repayments on a balance of about 63k. That Hurts!!!!
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Maryland Monroe
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Post by Maryland Monroe on Aug 2, 2019 7:49:16 GMT -5
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nidena
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Post by nidena on Aug 2, 2019 9:28:24 GMT -5
This is what I've been thinking about doing. I'm one month away from paying off my most annoying CC and I'm trying to decide what to focus on next. I was thinking of racing my debt that I'm paying the most interest on every month, which also happens to be my highest payment. It kills me each month to see how much money is going down the drain in just accrued interest.ugh! I don't even want to think about it!!! When my parent plus loans came due for repayment, the capitalized interested added in was already over 10k. That doesn't count the 4% origination fees that were taken out of the loan money at time of dispersal. So - for the use of about 49k for tuition/expenses, 4+ years later I start repayments on a balance of about 63k. That Hurts!!!! Just don't decide to not make payments for 20 years like my pastor friend did. "I moved a lot so never really got any paperwork to remind to pay." is her thing.
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nidena
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Post by nidena on Aug 2, 2019 9:50:41 GMT -5
So, before I put a few thousand $$ on my CC for my surgery this month, let me post an update: UPDATE: nidena: 8/2/2019 $162,472.25 (8/22/2007 $223,361.20 N453,503,NE648,NPT25)I'm really looking forward to this dropping drastically when I sell the house.
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Rukh O'Rorke
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Post by Rukh O'Rorke on Aug 2, 2019 11:54:01 GMT -5
ugh! I don't even want to think about it!!! When my parent plus loans came due for repayment, the capitalized interested added in was already over 10k. That doesn't count the 4% origination fees that were taken out of the loan money at time of dispersal. So - for the use of about 49k for tuition/expenses, 4+ years later I start repayments on a balance of about 63k. That Hurts!!!! Just don't decide to not make payments for 20 years like my pastor friend did. "I moved a lot so never really got any paperwork to remind to pay." is her thing. yaouch! Nope, not going down that route. I am in the traditional 10-year repayment plan currently, will look into other option later this year/early next year - focusing on other financial priority tasks - but at least I am paying into principal each month, well, that includes that big chunk of capitalized interest that was rolled into it before repayments started. But - ya.
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