I am constantly coming up with budgets and calculating debt pay down to determine if there is a better way for DH and myself to better ourselves financially. It helps my sanity to write things down, so here is what I have been thinking lately:
I think I can tolerate my student loan debt. While I would love to redo things, the fact is I can't. I got three years of education from the debt, which is better than nothing. The student loan debt is at a low interest rate, and it will be gone in 8.5 years with no extra payments.
The credit card and car debt has to go ASAP. We have $17,156 in credit card and car loan debt. By the end of this year, we should have the car and one-two cards gone. Next year, we will focus on getting rid of the smaller card that is left and the big ole' BOA card.
I know we need a larger emergency fund, but when we have debt at such high interest rates, it makes it hard to make that a priority. By the end of the year, I would like to have $1000 in an emergency fund, just as a means to get us started. Once we get BOA paid off, then we can really focus on this. I would ultimately like a six month emergency fund of our expenses, but I know this will take time. I also know once we get the debt paid down, DH wants to divert some money to saving for fun and wants. I am okay with this. When the time comes, we'll have to find a happy medium between saving for emergencies and adding a few more wants to our lives.
We have our retirement savings at 12 percent of our total household income, so I am okay with this right now. We are saving what the retirement calculators say we need to save for a comfortable retirement, so I pray they are accurate!
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