Fun Filled Weekend

I'm sitting in bed winding down after a fun yet tiring weekend. Friday night I worked, saturday morning I taught Saturday School, then I went home a slept for a little while. Saturday evening I hurried up and got my niece a $25 gift card from Old Navy and stopped by her party for a little bit. She is only two and the house was filled with 2-10 year olds. It was nice for a moment, but the noise and kids running around became a bit overwhelming. Saturday Night I went to work and was so tired I didn't make it to church this morning. This is the first Sunday in a month of Sundays that I missed Church but I will be right back the next Sunday.

Since we don't celebrate Holloween there was no candy for the trick or treaters at our house. In fact we weren't even there! My husband is a major football fan and we participate in his family's fantasy league so today we went over to his Aunt's house and had dinner, watched football, and just had family fun. I can't wait until I quit my second job so that I can do this more often.

All in all this weekend was good! We paid off my American Express card and I only spent $30.00 the $25 gift card to Old Navy and a card for my niece.

I wonder what this week will bring! I am thinking about goals for the week.... do you have any?

Just looking....

at my student loan balance makes me want to scream. I don't mind having a mortgage but my student loan debt is driving me crazy. I want it gone ASAP!!!

My federal loan debt stands at $69570

and I also have 0% interest loan from a private organization that is $4875.

I just want it to be over... ( in my Keyshia Cole voice).

When I am done with my second Masters program this summer I will probably have a total of $80000 in federal loans.

One of my goals is to pay off at least $20000 in loans this year I wish I could pay off more. I don't even want to begin to think about what my monthly payment would be for this mess.

Starting September 1, 2010 my salary goes up to $61686 from my full time job. I also applied for an adjunct professor job at a local university so if I get that I am hoping to at least bring my income up to $71000.

Hopefully, I am able to double the amount I pay off from $20,000 this year to $40,000 next year. This will leave a balance of $20,000 to pay off in 2012, and that should be relatively easy.

Stay tuned for SMART Goals related to getting rid of these loans.

until next time, think prosperous thoughts

YBP

Yeah for Progress!!

I paid off my small ( $1800) student loan balance. Its all gone!!! I celebrated by buying myself a wool/cashmere Anne Klein coat and some leather/cashmere lined gloves from Macys.

Total cost for both $120.00!!!

My next thing to pay off is a $4800 loan. I am giving myself to the end of April to have it paid off. I am thinking that I might celebrate that accomplishment with a new bedroom set and some curtains.

Paying debt off is fun if you celebrate every milestone!

Do you reward yourself once you reach a goal? If so, how?


until next time, think prosperous thoughts

YBP

Can I live off $900 a month?

I am quite sure that I can, I just have to budget. I may have to do this until at least August or September which is after my wedding and when my second pay increase goes into affect because I will have a second Master's Degree. At the present time I have $62000 in student loan debt which will increase another $20000 in January leaving me with a grand total of $82000. I want this paid of within the next two- three years so I have started a debt snowball specifically for student loans which is my only other consumer debt besides my mortgage.

Why Now?

1. I have significantly more debt than my fiance and I don't want to start my marriage "unequally yoked". As a couple we are going to spend or first year of marriage getting completely out of consumer debt and just having fun ( My FI has less than $20,000 in debt).
2. We would love to buy another rental property within the couple of years or right after we get married so I need to get my debt to income ratio down a bit and they only way to do that is to get rid of the bulk of my student loans.
3. I will be 26 next month and would like to start having children by 30 or 31, and in preparation for that we feel that it is important to get rid of all debt and have a husky personal savings of at least $50,000 ( more on that later).
   
4. I want to be able to max out my retirements, my student loans are a hindrance to that process.
   

I am wondering if I should go back to following Dave Ramsey's baby steps, but the first step is seeing if I can live off 900 a month. I do want to enjoy the finer things of life.

Paid off The Home Depot Card

When I moved into my house I needed a washer and dryer... there would be no more of me carrying 2 weeks worth of dirty clothes to the Laundromat to wash and then being too tired of Laundromat drama to come home and fold them.

So as soon as I closed on the house I proceeded to shop around for washing machines. I ended up applying for a home depot credit card and buying a washer and dryer for a little over $800. I qualified for no interest or payments for a year, but I had decided that I wanted to pay it off before the year.

Well... yesterday I sent the final payment to Home Depot and now I have no credit card debt whatsoever. Go Me!!! What makes things even better is next week when I get paid I will be paying off a $5000 student loan. I could have paid them both off on Thursday but I decided to go half on a Wii and Wii fit with my guy.

It feels like I'm making progress. I have to go hard on the car loan though and a small student loan with a balance a little under $2000.00


until next time, think prosperous thoughts

YBP

Credit Score Update

Last night I ordered a copy of my credit report and FICO score from Equifax.com... and my FICO score is a 660. That is not that good. I need to get it above a 700 by the end of the school year. I am thinking of buying another property, probably a triplex or quad, and I need to have a not good but excellent credit score. The great thing about getting my credit score and report from is Equfax.com is that it analyzes your credit score and tells you what is helping and hurting your score plus what you can do to get your score higher.

The top factors hurting my score are:

• new account
• short account history
• high credit usage
• seeking credit ( inquiries)

The top factors helping my score are:

• No serious delinquency
• Bills paid on time

What I can and must do to get my credit score higher:

• pay off my $700.00 Home depot credit card balance- I have already started this, I have an automatic bill pay of $60.00 every two weeks coming out of my checking account, and will have this paid of by the end of March.
• NOT OPEN OR APPLY FOR ANY MORE CREDIT. I will also see if I can get some of these inquires off my credit report.
• pay off the two cards I use most- gap and my ITunes Visa at the end of each month

I also have not had credit for a long time. My first student loan account was opened in 2001, so my accounts have not really aged. As my accounts continue to age my credit score will go up.

Due to my debt snowball I should also have 2 student loan accounts and my car loan paid off by mid June. I hope that will increase my score as well.

until next time, think prosperous thoughts

YBP

New Worth Increase

My Net worth increased Yeaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!

it was only $4,054 but hey every little bit counts. The $4,000 came from the appraised value of the house I bought. My mortgage is $178000 and the house was appraised for $182,000.

My net worth for June was -$14,421 and but net worth for July is -$10,367. That is a difference of $4,054. I am going to make it a goal of mine to have a positive net worth by January 1, 2008. That should be quite easy to accomplish. If I just diligently work on my debt snowball I will have eliminated $7,976.00 in debt and if I just save a little over $2000 in my retirement account or savings then I will have reached that mark.

Just have to stay focused and not spend a lot of money on furnishing the house!

until next time, think prosperous thoughts

YBP

I've changed my mind!!

I have decided to put $2000 a month towards my debts and my debt snowball. I used a debt snowball calculator and realized I can be debt free in 20 months. I can probably make it 15-16 months though. When I calculated my expenses and income starting in September I did not count for the pay increase in my salary (every September 1 it bumps up), nor did I count the extra money I am getting for this project I took on at my job which starts when the school year starts, or other things I do at school that I get paid for ( due to our union contract). I am so ready to yell IM DEBT FREE!!!

until next time, think prosperous thoughts

YBP

My Current Financial Situation (debts)

I promised that I would do a post about what my current financial system is like. I just want to let everyone know that this blog is not the beginning of my journey, I still have a long way to go but in the past year in the half I paid off all my credit card debt and raised my credit score enough to be approved for a mortgage but alas there is much more work to be done. So here is the rundown

Debt

My debt consists of my car loan and student loan debt( soon to be added is the home mortgage).

Capital One Car Loan: $6,846.09

I bought my car in December of 2007. My goal is to have it paid off by March 31, 2009. That is my #1 priority for this year. My payment is $215.00 a month on a 48 month loan. Shoot... Thinking of all the interest Capital One could be getting out of me is giving me a headache. The car was my Christmas present to myself after my $800.00 chevy cavalier broke down on me after a car accident. I So lets do the math to see if its possible. I will make my regular payment of 215.00 in July and then from August to March is 8 months. I will have to make a payment of 855.76 each month to have it paid off by March. Is it possible? I think so! I just have do a S.M.A.R.T goal worksheet for this and make it automatic.

Student Loan Debt

Okay now fasten your seat belts!!! The majority of my debt is in student loans. The total I am about to give you is my current student loan debt and does not include any other debt that will be accrued in august when I go back to school to finish my Masters in Multicultural Education. I am quite sure I will have to add another $12,000 to this number if I can't pay my tuition in cash as I go.

Direct Stafford Unsubsudized $2500
Direct Stafford Subsudized $2750
Stafford Subsudized $2726
FFEL Consolidated $9286
FFEL Consolidated $12787
Total Student Loan Debt $30049

Young Black and Prosperous' Total Debt= $36,895.09

To me that's a lot of debt but the bulk of it is student loan debt. I need to figure out how much I need to pay to get this eliminated by June of 2011. It shouldn't really be hard, that's only $12000 a year.

All that adding and subtracting numbers made my head hurt... maybe that's another reason why I am English teacher!!! I will post about my assets later and then I will figure out my net worth.

until next time, think prosperous thoughts!!!

YBP