WOMEN IN RED RACERS

[Rukh O'Rorke]

Oct 8, 2024 8:49:48 GMT -5 Rukh O'Rorke said:

Sept 6, 2024 9:15:17 GMT -5 Rukh O'Rorke said:

92,031.89

91,266.89

still chugging along with this debt.

a little tight on money again as DD was between job and helping her out a bit. She has 2 contract positions she is working right now, so hopefully can get something paid soon, but it will likely be a few weeks at least. hopefully though before Nov rent.

90,450.88

With all the poopoo undy turmoil, forgot about this. I do look forward to the update to see it go down.

[Minnesotagirl7]

Shoutouts!


nidena - Progress is a good thing!

muffyinthered - Hope your grandson is doing well!

grammytam - Nice update!

seriousthistime - Congrats on hitting that first goal!

ners - Good update! Next month you'll drop under $46k!

Rukh O'Rorke - Nice job! I bet you drop under $90k next update!

chiver78 - How about an update?



Smileys Link

[chiver78]

thanks for the reminder, it looks like I didn't even update my own spreadsheet last month. oops. 

still turtling, still preserving cash til I know where I'm going next. 

chiver78 11/8/24 $4942.89 (5/9/20 $138,495.31)

[Rukh O'Rorke]

Getting really ready to race, so breaking it down as debthaven suggested:

Student Loan	Interest Rate	Balance on 11/11/2024	Min. Payment	Extra Payment	New Balance
1-02 Direct Parent PLUS	6.96%	18,411.16	251.31
1-06 Direct Parent PLUS	6.75%	5,637.81	76.38
1-07 Direct Parent PLUS	6.75%	4,171.39	56.52
1-04 Direct Parent PLUS	6.59%	10,576.65	142.45
1-05 Direct Parent PLUS	6.06%	15,373.76	203.09
1-01 Direct Loan - Unsubsidized	5.96%	18,829.20	281.25
1-03 Direct Loan - Unsubsidized	5.59%	17,528.50	258.74
Total		90,528.47	1,269.74

I had wanted to pay off the car first because it is the largest payment and would free up enough budget money monthly to really make a difference, but the interest rate is lower than all of these - and the balance higher so would take a long time to get to that point where things are freed up.

I think any government considerations for student loans is out the window now, so no need to wait on that. With student loans, I was thinking some loan releif might come through - plus I could always go to income based payments if I downshifted the job or retired and had lower income. My current job also qualifies for student loan forgiveness, so that might have been an option - but would have to wait for late 2028 and don't think I can hang on. Balances would be small then anyway so not something to really hang on for unless I went to smaller payments at a lower paid job that also qualified. That seems very unlikely.

Right now where the market is at, it is looking like I could retire once I pay off all the debts and either fix up or sell the house and downsize. So debt paydown is going to become the priority right now over any additional savings.

I am cashing out ibonds and planning to put toward the debt. I have made two extra payments going into the student loans but they are frustratingly slow to credit the account but they do love to commpound that interest daily! The bastards!

I used 7k of ibond money to pay off a personal loan that had no monthly payment required - just whenever - and whenever was getting to be never. So paid that off.

Student loans are next. This will take some time to come up with 90k extra money while also paying interest on it. I will get some quick wins over the next 6 months with this effort, ibond money, RI money, but then it will likely languish into slow boat mode for a while when I hit a period with no RI projects and ibond money dried up. I guess will see where it goes. hopefully I can get a few paid off and then the snowball will start moving.

[Rukh O'Rorke]

Student Loan	Interest Rate	Balance on 11/11/2024	Min. Payment	Extra Payment	New Balance
1-02 Direct Parent PLUS	6.96%	18,411.16	251.31	2,500	15,915.79
1-06 Direct Parent PLUS	6.75%	5,637.81	76.38		5,639.89
1-07 Direct Parent PLUS	6.75%	4,171.39	56.52		4,172.93
1-04 Direct Parent PLUS	6.59%	10,576.65	142.45		10,580.46
1-05 Direct Parent PLUS	6.06%	15,373.76	203.09		15,378.86
1-01 Direct Loan - Unsubsidized	5.96%	18,829.20	281.25		18,835.34
1-03 Direct Loan - Unsubsidized	5.59%	17,528.50	258.74		17,533.86
Total		90,528.47	1,269.74		88,057.13

ok - my first extra payment went through. The other is still just showing as 'pending' on the site.

As you can see, in just a few days the balances of all the loans have increased with the daily capitalization of interest. So predatory! Almost a $30 discount on my extra 2500 payment while I was waiting to it to be processed....So looks like it is $14.33 being added daily, but that would be increasing every day through the month as the balances increase. I just think that is an unnecessary kick in the teeth, but maybe that is just me.....

[nidena]

Rukh O'Rorke, if you can choose where to put extra payments, why not snowball the SLs and put it towards the smallest balance since your rates are so similar?

[nidena]

I'm not loving these CC balances.  Getting frustrated but then I remembered that the $5300 that is on the second card is for cat surgery, annual veterinarian visits, and auto insurance.  And another cat needs dental surgery to remove some dying teeth that were discovered during his visit last week.  That's gonna be another $1000.  Life got in the way of looking at pet insurance but I the universe it throwing a brick reminder now.  lol.

[Rukh O'Rorke]

Nov 13, 2024 13:00:14 GMT -5 nidena said:

Rukh O'Rorke , if you can choose where to put extra payments, why not snowball the SLs and put it towards the smallest balance since your rates are so similar?

Thanks, and I did consider it. I'm cashing out more ibonds and have a few small RI projects this year that I will put some of that extra money towards the loans. Still need to consider Christmas expenses!

But I'm hoping to be able to take that highest interest rate loan out pretty quickly and the monthly payment on that is at least large enough I might 'feel' it a bit in the monthly budget. The two smallest ones I don't think I'd notice much when those payments are gone. 

But once the first one is paid off, then I will do those two smaller ones and I hope those will go pretty quickly too. After that, I am expecting it to be a longer slower slog.

I was recently reading around about debt payoff, and one thing mentioned about targeting the smaller balances vs highest payment vs highest interest rate. The way they framed it was - would you take the lower interest loan balances and refinance it to the higher rate? And that that is what you would be essentially doing by paying off lower interest rate debt first. 

I know that 6.75% isn't a whole lot lower than 6.96%, but overall I know that doing it by interest rate means I will be paid off sooner and with less money towards interest than otherwise. And then by paying extra payments to the highest interest rate loan, more of the regular monthly payment will be applied to the principal on the highest interst loan, so kind of double duty there.

So I hang in there and put my trust in the math!

[Rukh O'Rorke]

Nov 13, 2024 13:13:54 GMT -5 nidena said:

I'm not loving these CC balances.  Getting frustrated but then I remembered that the $5300 that is on the second card is for cat surgery, annual veterinarian visits, and auto insurance.  And another cat needs dental surgery to remove some dying teeth that were discovered during his visit last week.  That's gonna be another $1000.  Life got in the way of looking at pet insurance but I the universe it throwing a brick reminder now.  lol.

Hang in there! Our little furry friends are so worth it, and I hope the universe will start to help out a little!

[nidena]

Nov 13, 2024 13:44:25 GMT -5 Rukh O'Rorke said:

Nov 13, 2024 13:00:14 GMT -5 nidena said:

Rukh O'Rorke , if you can choose where to put extra payments, why not snowball the SLs and put it towards the smallest balance since your rates are so similar?

Thanks, and I did consider it. I'm cashing out more ibonds and have a few small RI projects this year that I will put some of that extra money towards the loans. Still need to consider Christmas expenses!

But I'm hoping to be able to take that highest interest rate loan out pretty quickly and the monthly payment on that is at least large enough I might 'feel' it a bit in the monthly budget. The two smallest ones I don't think I'd notice much when those payments are gone. 

But once the first one is paid off, then I will do those two smaller ones and I hope those will go pretty quickly too. After that, I am expecting it to be a longer slower slog.

I was recently reading around about debt payoff, and one thing mentioned about targeting the smaller balances vs highest payment vs highest interest rate. The way they framed it was - would you take the lower interest loan balances and refinance it to the higher rate? And that that is what you would be essentially doing by paying off lower interest rate debt first. 

I know that 6.75% isn't a whole lot lower than 6.96%, but overall I know that doing it by interest rate means I will be paid off sooner and with less money towards interest than otherwise. And then by paying extra payments to the highest interest rate loan, more of the regular monthly payment will be applied to the principal on the highest interst loan, so kind of double duty there.

So I hang in there and put my trust in the math!

Interesting perspective.  I'm gonna keep that in mind.  

[chiver78]

ha! payoff milestone, of sorts. I just got my statement for the last balance I'm racing. the minimum payment is now under $100. barely, at $99.49, but still. 🥳🍾

[seriousthistime]

When I was racing my debt last time, my car loan was at 1.9% and I'd paid on it for like 3 years. The interest was front-loaded (Rule of 78s). Between the low interest rate and the small amount of interest paid in each payment, it didn't make sense for me to pay it off early -- except, it was my single highest payment to the tune of like $500 per month.  I decided to focus on the car debt, got it paid off quickly, and had $500 to snowball toward the other debts. 

It worked out for me. 

[Rukh O'Rorke]

Student Loan	Interest Rate	Balance on 11/11/2024	Min. Payment	Extra Payment	New Balance
1-02 Direct Parent PLUS	6.96%	18,411.16	251.31	3000	12,917.11
1-06 Direct Parent PLUS	6.75%	5,637.81	76.38		5,640.93
1-07 Direct Parent PLUS	6.75%	4,171.39	56.52		4,173.70
1-04 Direct Parent PLUS	6.59%	10,576.65	142.45		10,582.37
1-05 Direct Parent PLUS	6.06%	15,373.76	203.09		15,381.41
1-01 Direct Loan - Unsubsidized	5.96%	18,829.20	281.25		18,838.41
1-03 Direct Loan - Unsubsidized	5.59%	17,528.50	258.74		17,536.54
Total		90,528.47	1,269.74		85,070.47

second extra payment from ibonds went through...

Have some more ibonds cashed in that haven't hit checking yet....Not sure how many I will put towards the student loans, will determine next week maybe.

[Rukh O'Rorke]

Nov 14, 2024 10:16:44 GMT -5 seriousthistime said:

When I was racing my debt last time, my car loan was at 1.9% and I'd paid on it for like 3 years. The interest was front-loaded (Rule of 78s). Between the low interest rate and the small amount of interest paid in each payment, it didn't make sense for me to pay it off early -- except, it was my single highest payment to the tune of like $500 per month.  I decided to focus on the car debt, got it paid off quickly, and had $500 to snowball toward the other debts. 

It worked out for me. 

I was really tempted to do it that way, especially with certain SL advantages like instant forebearance if there was a job loss, reduced payments if income drops, etc. 

But I also thought there might be disadvantages to removing the big car payment! I could get too complacent and start spending it rather than redirecting to the SL . Not that there's anything wrong with that, even if I just took 1/2 the car payment for extra fun and 1/2 towards the SLs, would have been good!

But any debt paydown is good, and for now at least, trying to attack from the highest interest works for my mindset. I am mercurial, and could change directions. But for now, the difference between the ibond interest and SL interest makes cashing out the ibonds a better move than if I put toward the car which I think is 5.35%. I did really love having all those ibonds in place, so trying to maximize their effectiveness in cashing them in helps me let go of that part of the dream. So far have only cashed out those with 0% fixed rates.

[seriousthistime]

I cashed in all the I bonds primarily to get a better interest rate, but I also liked simplifying my finances by consolidating where my money is.  My Capital One account now has 15 sub accounts. But at least if something happens to me the kids will have to do paperwork with just one company (maybe 15 times!) instead of chasing all over and working with different companies.  There are beneficiary designations on all of them.

And I decided I liked the simplification enough to consolidate my tIRAs into one bigger one at Fidelity. 

[grammytam]

Update grammytam 11/21/2024

Debt	Starting Balance	Last Update	This Update	Difference
Medical	$   1,132.52	$      881.67	$      834.24	$      67.43
Car Loan	$   8,522.98	$   7,521.80	$   7,186.54	$    335.26
HELOC	$ 11,923.69	$ 11,617.94	$ 11,549.52	$      68.42
Mortgage	$ 35,519.09	$ 32,918.17	$ 32,047.04	$    871.13
Total	$ 57,098.28	$ 52,939.58	$ 51,597.34	$ 1,342.24

grammytam $ 51,597.34 ( 07/18/2024 $57,098.28 WIRR310)

Just minimum payments this month. I hope that I can start paying down the HELOC in February or March.

[Rukh O'Rorke]

Student Loan	Interest Rate	Balance on 11/11/2024	Min. Payment	Extra Payment	New Balance
1-02 Direct Parent PLUS	6.96%	18,411.16	251.31	8000	4,925.19
1-06 Direct Parent PLUS	6.75%	5,637.81	76.38		5,648.22
1-07 Direct Parent PLUS	6.75%	4,171.39	56.52		4,179.09
1-04 Direct Parent PLUS	6.59%	10,576.65	142.45		10,595.71
1-05 Direct Parent PLUS	6.06%	15,373.76	203.09		15,399.25
1-01 Direct Loan - Unsubsidized	5.96%	18,829.20	281.25		18,859.90
1-03 Direct Loan - Unsubsidized	5.59%	17,528.50	258.74		17,555.30
Total		90,528.47	1,269.74		77,162.66

third extra payment from ibonds went through...

this will be it for extra payments until probably next year, but will see how it goes. At least I've reduced monthly interest a bit! And for the loan with the highest interest rate - much more of the min monthly payment will go towards principal, so I do feel a little bit of accomplishment here.