Debt Dumpers - 2018

My friend has been to Discovery Cove a few times and loved it, although it's pricey. We've been to Sea World a few times there. We have also driven out to Kennedy Space Center from Orlando about an hour drive. If they want to stay by the pool though maybe better to stay in Orlando at a super great hotel with an awesome pool? I wonder if Orlando has a cool downtown area? I've never looked but maybe there may be some good restaurants in a downtown type setting? You could go to Disney Springs for some restaurants even though not staying at Disney unless totally avoiding all things Disney this trip.

Another vote here for KSC. We did the Up Close tour and I was really only doing it because my mom and dh wanted to go. My parents don't usually come with us so I felt rude to just lay by the pool. lol. Well, I enjoyed it a LOT more than I expected. Our kids were only 6 and 9 at the time and they had a good time. I think they would appreciate it more now that they're older and can understand how limited NASA's technology was back then.

As far as a "cool downtown Orlando" I would ask some locals. On a visit to Universal once we had a rental car and decided on a WDW day and got on I-4 in the wrong direction. We exited and then dh decided to look for a quick breakfast stop. We passed a prison then found a McDonald's. Going through the drive-thru the employee stated:
"How did you end up here? Lock your doors and windows and don't get out of your car for ANY reason and get right back on I-4. Don't even get out to eat your food." :scared1:
This was a strange McD's that did not have indoor seating but just some picnic tables outside, which we would have sat on to eat but after she said that we figured it might be good advice to just get the heck out of there. Of course this doesn't mean all of Orlando city is dangerous but we didn't FEEL like we were in a bad neighborhood except for some bars on some windows but compared to parts of Philly where you KNOW it, this didn't seem so bad. She sounded as if the locals eat tourists at any opportunity. lol.

Anyway, I'm sure some locals could tell you of where to go and where not to go. ;)
 
So I *think* it has been about two years since I posted in Debt Dumpers (maybe not but I don't recall for sure). At that time we had unexpectedly had my 6 year old nephew with us for the summer and spent more than we should have but what do you do. Since then we have off and on paid debt off. I'm a little embarrassed that we haven't done more or been consistent. In April we sold our house and moved into a condo- we are renting for a year to make sure we like the lifestyle (so far we love it!). With the house proceeds we paid off a lot of debt but not completely, however; we have a plan! Two years ago we paid my car off and have been putting that money in vacation savings every month- yes we could put it towards debt but we want to do things! We were planning on returning to Disney next December and then my mom and her new husband decided they want to take everyone in March of next year and who am I to turn down a free place to stay at Disney?!! They are paying for the house and we are footing the rest of our expenses. I managed to convince my husband that we should still do both trips! Not necessarily budget friendly but I'm so excited about it!

So for now we are focused on paying our debt and not incurring anymore, as well as saving for the next years trips. We have already bought plane tickets for March and have budgeted to buy annual passes in August so hopefully doing it little by little it won't be so shocking!
 
Our last son is married.
We had 3 of our kids get married in the last 9 months.
Our first dd got married 3 years ago.
All 4 contributed to the cost of their weddings.
We paid a good portion for the 2 girls, and gave each of the boys equal amounts.

The last wedding cost us a whole lot more since we had to travel to NYC and the wedding was out in Long Island. But since I had a Travel Fund and my extra Savings Fund we did it. I actually have $500 in my Travel Fund. I will always save money to travel.

Now with my Savings Fund, I want to actually put $400 a month in some sort of plan. I have a Pension thru my work and my dh has a 401K already thru his work, so this will be the money I have been setting aside for the last 5 years for all those weddings we just had. My nephew is a stock broker and I am thinking of setting something up with him, but I don't even know where to start.
 


Great news!
  1. Was able to secure ALL of our ADR's for December.
  2. DH's check had an extra $500 of OT pay (he really is following through!)
  3. Decided to cancel the conference and use it towards the December trip--and I feel so excited about it! Definitely the right choice.
  4. Going to update the budget today and look at an extra payment toward the CC. Just a little one, but every bit helps.
  5. It's Friday!
#4 went sideways this weekend. Our 23 year old stereo finally died. We've been babying it for months now. So that extra payment went to buying a new one. The good thing: no new debt and we got a smoking deal on an open box, brand new system at a local store.

But even better? Worked out the budget for the next month (roughly) and was still able to pay an extra $300 on the CC debt. That moves the pay-off back an entire month next year! :love: You guys--at this point next year (Lord willing) I will either be a month away from the insanity that has crippled our lives or I'll already be staring down the car payment. Thank you to everyone who has encouraged me on this board. I'm honestly not sure if I could've done it without your understanding and kind words. 12 months for the CC and 16 for the car! 5 years for the house. I'm excited! It'll be a new way of living!
 
i just stumbled on this page. We are also getting out of some debt this year too. We are following the Dave Ramsey plan. Any other DR followers?
Sorta. Modified. Tried DR once years ago. Failed hard core. This time, I'm using a snowball spreadsheet to show CC, debt, and bank balances, that way I can track what and when we spend. I can forecast spending for the future and add in upcoming expenses (car registration, property taxes, etc.) This method has been AMAZING for me and fits our lifestyle.

**edit to add: this modified method has allowed me to pay off one CC completely and (as you can see above), we will be CC debt free in a year or less. It's a big deal for me because when I found out our debt, we were nearly $22k underwater.

Everyone functions differently, so if the rigidity of DR's exact method doesn't work, then don't be afraid to fiddle with it until it works for you!
 
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My regular shift is usually only 33 hours a weekend, but I was able to pick up a few extra hours working for the next shift. DF managed to pick up a few extra hours yesterday and let his boss know I was available to help any day this week. He said he would let me know today, so I may be adding another 10 to my check this week. Fingers crossed I can rack up some hours for the next couple months and really get these smaller loans gone.
 
Sorta. Modified. Tried DR once years ago. Failed hard core. This time, I'm using a snowball spreadsheet to show CC, debt, and bank balances, that way I can track what and when we spend. I can forecast spending for the future and add in upcoming expenses (car registration, property taxes, etc.) This method has been AMAZING for me and fits our lifestyle.

**edit to add: this modified method has allowed me to pay off one CC completely and (as you can see above), we will be CC debt free in a year or less. It's a big deal for me because when I found out our debt, we were nearly $22k underwater.

Everyone functions differently, so if the rigidity of DR's exact method doesn't work, then don't be afraid to fiddle with it until it works for you!

i am also on a modified DR plan too- no credit cards, but we do use our debit card and not cash. i use undebt.it to track our snowball, which i really like. i have paid off 4 items on our list, and several more to go. we are on track to be debt free except our house by Sept 2021, but i think with a little more discipline on our part, we could easily bump that to March 2021 or sooner.
 
DH got his first pay for casual teaching yesterday but he didn't hand in a tax form that he needed to and has been taxed $900 (from a $2000 payslip! ) We move into our new place tomorrow and I was really wanting that extra bit of cash as no doubt there'll be a whole bunch of unexpected little things that we need.
 
i just stumbled on this page. We are also getting out of some debt this year too. We are following the Dave Ramsey plan. Any other DR followers?
Dave Ramsey is pretty hard core. Cash is King and he wants you to have a lot of it.
Me and my son were arguing this weekend, because he will not let any charge on his credit card to show up on the next months statement. I tried to tell him he needs to incure debt, and make sure to pay it off the following month so no interest is tacked on. This is the way to get good credit. He says Dave Ramsey wants you to get rid of all cards.

So tell that to the banker when you apply for a mortgage and your credit rating is so low, they reject you or give you a high bearing interest rate. Dave Ramsey feels you should pay a good portion of your house with cash-really?
 
Dave Ramsey is pretty hard core. Cash is King and he wants you to have a lot of it.
Me and my son were arguing this weekend, because he will not let any charge on his credit card to show up on the next months statement. I tried to tell him he needs to incure debt, and make sure to pay it off the following month so no interest is tacked on. This is the way to get good credit. He says Dave Ramsey wants you to get rid of all cards.

So tell that to the banker when you apply for a mortgage and your credit rating is so low, they reject you or give you a high bearing interest rate. Dave Ramsey feels you should pay a good portion of your house with cash-really?


I think of credit like fire. In and of itself, credit is neutral. But how you use it determines if it is helpful or burns you in the end.
I'm not a fan of DR in general. I think he is too extreme and a bit out of touch with reality. But, I do semi-appreciate his very hardcore insistence on cash. It makes it very difficult to overspend if you are cash only. The problem is when you are to the point of spending free time between your 2 or 3 jobs gathering cans on the side of the road to cash in to pay for food because you had to use the food budget to do needed car repairs.

There are times when, IMHO, using credit is not the absolute evil he portrays it to be.
It may not be a good choice, but credit is sometimes the best of bad choices.
 
I will always save money to travel.
Yes! I totally agree. I have to start funding mine again next month.

So I *think* it has been about two years since I posted in Debt Dumpers (maybe not but I don't recall for sure).
Well it's good you came back and good luck on your debt payoff journey! I also think it's healthy to take a break and see life and enjoy it, we only have one life to live and not many years to enjoy it with the ones we love so go enjoy those trips!

i just stumbled on this page. We are also getting out of some debt this year too. We are following the Dave Ramsey plan. Any other DR followers?
No, I was listening to his podcast regularly and bought some of the books. I mean, the overall message of don't borrow money, use cash for everything, well I get, but also think one could just use cash stupidly, too. And, there are times where I don't think it makes sense to dump out the savings to pay off everything. I'm looking more at what are the interest rates, what are the possibilities of my needing this cash or investment in the future or near term vs. taking it all out now to pay off something, etc. Plus I use credit cards and always will, only difference now I don't charge unless I know I've got it covered. I've also bought back time in a retirement system so that I have more years bought in at the time I can apply to retire, something he is against. I plan to finance my next car because I'm not taking the money out of my mutual fund for it, I intended to buy it cash but used the cash instead to pay for my DD's trade school and buy her a small used car. Dave would hate me!
 
The other thing I've personally learned in the last 6 months is to use the CC's to my advantage. I just put $66 towards my CC debt because we have a rewards card. That was $66 for free, spending on stuff I would've paid cash for (using a new CC that is paid off every month before the interest occurs). And the airline tickets for December were literally half price because I found an offer for free companion fare. Combine that with the point accrual we had while spending the minimum ($3000 was easy), and we ended up with 2 MORE free tickets from points.

So, yes, the snowball is fantastic from a visual standpoint if you have debt--any debt. It makes you be honest with yourself, instead of looking at a statement, shrugging, and moving on.
 
Hi @cwoww Yes, I am a Dave Ramsey fan (of his book, not his broadcast). Learning his system helped me tremendously.
I first heard of him on this Board, many years ago. I had 16K in credit card debt (1 card only) and one car note. I created a monthly budget where I gave every dollar a home, and I wrote down every penny I spent every day in some work sheets I made up.
Every single Diet Coke, magazine, car wash, sandwich through the drive-through--everything. I still do that to his day, by the way, and that was about 10 years ago.

I did not use my credit card anymore, I did do cash envelopes or checks, I saved up the $1000 first in a savings account, etc. I didn't have much of a snowball to use because I just had the two debts (besides the mortgage). But noting every penny definitely showed me where I was wasting money. I was able to put a lot more payment on the card than the minimum, by far.

I think it took me five years to pay this off, although I also paid off my brothers small car note during then, too, and did some other charitable giving throughout (I don't agree with DR in that all giving has to stop while you are working on your debt--seems antithetical to his own message, but whatever). After that, I did get to enjoy three years of no debt except the mortgage, and I really upped my savings during that period. I still wrote down every penny spent.

But then....my car gave up the ghost thousands of miles short of what I projected, my 30 year old furnace and 20 year old AC broke at the same time, and my daughter needed braces to start about one year earlier than I was originally told---all this happened within a few short months of each other in 2016. So, I paid cash for the furnace, got financing for the AC at 0% interest for five years, put a down payment on the braces and paid the ortho a monthly payment, finally paying off the last four months at the same time about a month before she got out of braces--which just happened. And, I had to finance the new-to-me car.

So, I didn't make it down the ten steps listed in DR's book. And I have had to backpedal in taking on more debt. None of it is credit cards, though. I pay my card off every month. I still only have one but I got one with a good cash rewards payback, so I gain about $550 in cash each year. I put that in my travel savings account which is one of 8 separate savings accounts I have with Cap One 360. This time around I continue to save while paying down the car and the AC. So, I guess I am amending DR, too. But I learned a bunch and positively changed my behaviors 100% because of reading his book and trying to follow his system, although imperfectly.

Sounds like you are doing very well, OP! Good luck with your debt reduction plan!
 
This may sound stupid to some of you, but today I am proud of my DF and myself. We have been debating on trading in his almost paid off SUV for a more reliable truck. I went to make the payment today and saw a nice truck and exactly what he wanted. Got a mock quote on what the trade in would be and new payments. It was right around where I figured we would be okay paying. I got home, showed him all the info, and we went over all the details, the budget, the approximate tag/title/tax costs, and ultimately, we decided against it. It will be paid off in October.

Last year, we would have jumped into a new car loan again, gotten farther into debt, stretched our already snug budget, and "made it work". I'm proud of us for not doing it. It shows how much we've grown into our new life of debt dumping and really planning for our future.

And in better news, my mom is coming to watch the girls tonight (yay free babysitter!) and I'm going in for at least 10 hours of overtime and I'm #1 on the list for hours next week (my mom has already agreed to crash on my couch as many nights as needed while I rack up some extra hours). If I can get 2 days next week as well, I'm looking at an additional $1000 on my check, which I'm immediately going to take to our small loans and pay them off completely, 4.5 months ahead of schedule!
 
This may sound stupid to some of you, but today I am proud of my DF and myself. We have been debating on trading in his almost paid off SUV for a more reliable truck. I went to make the payment today and saw a nice truck and exactly what he wanted. Got a mock quote on what the trade in would be and new payments. It was right around where I figured we would be okay paying. I got home, showed him all the info, and we went over all the details, the budget, the approximate tag/title/tax costs, and ultimately, we decided against it. It will be paid off in October.

Last year, we would have jumped into a new car loan again, gotten farther into debt, stretched our already snug budget, and "made it work". I'm proud of us for not doing it. It shows how much we've grown into our new life of debt dumping and really planning for our future.

And in better news, my mom is coming to watch the girls tonight (yay free babysitter!) and I'm going in for at least 10 hours of overtime and I'm #1 on the list for hours next week (my mom has already agreed to crash on my couch as many nights as needed while I rack up some extra hours). If I can get 2 days next week as well, I'm looking at an additional $1000 on my check, which I'm immediately going to take to our small loans and pay them off completely, 4.5 months ahead of schedule!

I don't think it sounds stupid at all. Congratulations to you and your DF on talking it through and making the best decision for you!
 
You should be proud of yourself for that! Good job! I'm always really impressed when we decide to do responsible adult like things!!!

This may sound stupid to some of you, but today I am proud of my DF and myself. We have been debating on trading in his almost paid off SUV for a more reliable truck. I went to make the payment today and saw a nice truck and exactly what he wanted. Got a mock quote on what the trade in would be and new payments. It was right around where I figured we would be okay paying. I got home, showed him all the info, and we went over all the details, the budget, the approximate tag/title/tax costs, and ultimately, we decided against it. It will be paid off in October.

Last year, we would have jumped into a new car loan again, gotten farther into debt, stretched our already snug budget, and "made it work". I'm proud of us for not doing it. It shows how much we've grown into our new life of debt dumping and really planning for our future.

And in better news, my mom is coming to watch the girls tonight (yay free babysitter!) and I'm going in for at least 10 hours of overtime and I'm #1 on the list for hours next week (my mom has already agreed to crash on my couch as many nights as needed while I rack up some extra hours). If I can get 2 days next week as well, I'm looking at an additional $1000 on my check, which I'm immediately going to take to our small loans and pay them off completely, 4.5 months ahead of schedule!
 
Our last son is married.
We had 3 of our kids get married in the last 9 months.
Our first dd got married 3 years ago.
All 4 contributed to the cost of their weddings.
We paid a good portion for the 2 girls, and gave each of the boys equal amounts.

The last wedding cost us a whole lot more since we had to travel to NYC and the wedding was out in Long Island. But since I had a Travel Fund and my extra Savings Fund we did it. I actually have $500 in my Travel Fund. I will always save money to travel.

Now with my Savings Fund, I want to actually put $400 a month in some sort of plan. I have a Pension thru my work and my dh has a 401K already thru his work, so this will be the money I have been setting aside for the last 5 years for all those weddings we just had. My nephew is a stock broker and I am thinking of setting something up with him, but I don't even know where to start.

First, congrats on all the weddings! Whew, what a busy time!
Are you looking for an IRA or just an investment account? If you want to add to your retirement account, it's usually better to just increase the amount deducted from your pay so you don't owe federal taxes on that income. You could also put after-tax (take home pay) into a Roth IRA which doesn’t have the same tax benefit as investing pretax but you also don’t have to pay income tax down the road when you start withdrawing that money.



I've been with Vanguard for 25 years through my work and love them. I started with them in my early 20s as a tax-shelter my employer offered. Now they have about half of my retirement account. They have a LOT of funds to choose from with a wide range of risk.



Last year I had been saving for a big trip this summer ($10,000 for a cruise to Norway). When I found out I wasn’t able to get that week off work, we decided to skip the trip until next year so we opened a joint investment account with Vanguard. Personally, we love the Vanguard US Growth fund. The annual returns are much higher than others and even the 10-yr avg. is pretty good considering this timeframe includes the economic issues of 2008/09 when all accounts were losing money.

I also look what a fund has earned since inception. Many of the Vanguard funds have been around since the 1920s, 1950s, etc. Of course nothing is guaranteed.

Vanguard funds are usually “no-load” which some investment companies charge a fee such as 5%, called a load, just to invest. What a racket...



If you have family in the business, that’s great place to start and hopefully get trustworthy advice!
 

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