Wise Words

Stay wildly ambitious

Stop thinking that you are special

Ignore everyone else

November Debt Update

*As of today we have $6,883.12 of credit card debt*

We paid $1,590 towards credit card debt this month.  Yippee!!  Hoping to keep the trend going until it's all paid off.  Lucky for us we are both paid biweekly, which mean we have an extra paycheck in January.  This will allow us to pay for our upcoming Whistler trip without slowing down our debt snowball.  It hasn't been easy to keep our debt in check this month as we had a black tie wedding to go to that was not in the same city we live in.  But we still managed to make our debt payment and I'm a happy camper.  Our next challenge will be our cars....more to come on that in the near future.

General Anesthesia

I don't know how to post things properly yet....so just click his link to see what I do everyday at the hospital.

General Anesthesia

The Cable Dilemma

I feel like I have to admit this to the world....we still have cable.  I KNOW we need to get rid of it so we can save approximately $60-70 a month.  But it's more than just the money.  I feel like a slug because we have cable.  I like watching certain shows, and it does help me to relax after a stressful day at work, but when I need to be productive (like right now on a Saturday that I'm actually not working) I just veg out on the couch with my laptop and put the TV on in the background...and then 3 hours later I have accomplished about a 1/4 of what I've wanted to.  I think we will be getting rid of it soon....it's just a slow process in our household.  Any advice from people who took the plunge?  For those of you familiar with Dave Ramsay, not only can I not wait for the day where my husband and I yell "we're debt free"...but I also can't wait for the day we yell...

"WE'RE CABLE FREE!!!"

Real October Update

Ummm.....I'm an idiot

*As of today we have $8,385.60 in Credit Card Debt*

Way better than the original amount I posted....dang...I was real messed up with my math.  But this is the newest update to the end of October debt payoff.  I'm off to barre class now...Cheers!

Quickie

Another MMM Gem. Loved this post.  Reminded me of a few awesome peeps I know...brother-in-law shout out!


The Rules

October Debt Update

*As of today we have $9135.91 of credit card debt*

Couple notes on this.  One, I know it looks almost exactly like the same amount our September debt number was...and to be honest, I think the September number was wrong...because this number is absolutely correct but it is AFTER we paid $995 towards our debt this last month.  So I dunno what happened....let's just pretend September didn't happen I guess. 

But guys...let's focus on the good news!  

1) We paid $995 toward our cc in October (in Sept we only paid $161)

2) I found a new awesome Snowball App!

Let me tell you about our finances and how apps have been changing my life (one of the reasons I needed to splurge on the new iPhone 5s...I'm so bad, I know...baby steps ok?).  

My most favorite app is our YNAB app that synchs with our software on our computers.  It the easiest, most efficient way for both my hubby and I to track our expenses together.  And it's so great to look back and see how much we spend on certain categories.  I'll rep YNAB till the day I die.  YNAB for life.

My second favorite app has nothing to do with finances, but is an Anesthesia board review question app.  So if for some reason, someone reads this and needs a good resource for studying...buy the purple Hall Anesthesia question bank app...also life changing...literally...I'll probably save someone's life someday because of something I learned on it (ok, maybe that was a little dramatic...but it could happen!)

My third favorite app is a brand new app I just discovered that YNAB posted a link to on their Facebook account.  It's called Payoff Debt, and it's a debt snowball app that is $2.99.  The lady who created it has a website about her own journey with paying off over $100,000 in debt.  It's such a great way to track progress and I love that it is on my phone and I can email my husband our progress and stats from it too**.  Check it out, let me know what you guys think : )

Based on this app's info, it states that if we continue to pay $1590 a month towards our cc debt we will be debt free by April 2014.  BUT, this doesn't include the extra paychecks my husband and I get in January or our tax return (Hubby was finishing up MBA this past year so I think we will get some money back), and both of these things will obvi be going towards slaying our cc debt.  My estimate is we finish off in February/March.

**I will still chart our progress on our debt chalkboard...but until we are caught back up to were we left off in June I refuse to go back to it...so I think next month I will be able to color some of our thermometer in.

Scariest Thing You Will Ever Read

In the spirit of the upcoming holiday (HALLOWEEN!!!), I decided I needed to scare some sense into myself and my husband.  There is no time like the present for a little reality check.  Since beginning our debt snowball, our initial goal has been to pay off our credit card debt first.  Because we have only been focusing on our credit card debt I sometimes forget the magnitude of our student loan debt.  Which BTWs grows every month like crazy.  In YNAB I have the totals of our debt in "off-budget" accounts.  I keep it simple and don't have interest accruing in the account or anything like that.  Instead I just update the new totals owed every month or so when I check the online accounts for them all (currently we are not paying any of my student loans and just paying minimum on my husbands while we work on our credit cards).  Anywho, with the massive amount of student loan debt we have (approximately $470,000), I thought it would be a good idea to know how much interest is actually accruing on this on a daily basis.

Hubby to the rescue!  The idea of calculating all those interest rates made me throw-up in my mouth a little bit....but my MBA husband was actually intrigued with this project and did all the math for me!  Yay for businessy husbands!  (I'm more of a hands-on type of person...you need a breathing tube placed in your trachea or a 14 gauge IV in your antecubital fossa...gimme a call).

Drum roll please..........

$95

per day. 
in interest. 
on all of our debt.*

Are you kidding me?!?! A freaking hundred dollars a day JUST in interest?!?!?!

OMG....if that doesn't scare you people, I dunno what will.  Let's do more math to scare us...

$3000 a month. 
JUST in interest!

 or

$36,000 a year. 
JUST in interest!!

That is almost half of our net income a year, aka one of our salaries after taxes are taken out!  Let's remind ourselves here that even if we paid this yearly we still would not be paying down one penny of the debt...just keeping it stagnant.


Ok, on that note I'm going to bed to cry myself asleep.  Somehow I will figure out a way to remind us of this interest on a daily basis....maybe it needs to go on the chalkboard above our debt payoff thermometer.  Hopefully I made you all feel better about your own financial situations...or maybe you are in the same little dingy with holes with us and we are all sinking to our death until we start making some serious progress.

*This includes the credit card debt...which is almost insignificant when pooled with the student loan interest.  It is also an estimate and in reality it should probably be a little higher due to quarterly compounding of the interest.

C'est La Vie

Right after my little visit to MMM land last week my favorite budgeting software had a blog post interviewing MMM!!!  So crazy! My two fav financial things coming together and inspiring us all.  Here is the link to the post.  The first podcast didn't work out so there is a transcript...the second is a podcast.  For those of you who don't know much about Mr. Money Mustache I recommend this podcast, it's a good intro to his philosophy.

On another note, my 30th birthday is coming up and my husband has planned a fun weekend for us.  I don't know all the details, but I'm sure it's not in line with our "YOU HAVE CREDIT CARD DEBT TO PAYOFF!!!  EMERGENCY!!"mentality we are supposed to have right now.  But ya know, you only turn 30 once.  C'est la vie.   The fall has always been a little "tough"/"interesting" for us financially.  July has always been a transition because of the never-ending academic years beginning then, therefore we moved to Chicago last year from out of state, had to set-up in a new apartment, then both of our birthday's are in the fall.  This year the husband didn't have a full-time job for a few months in the summer, which left us catching up in August/September.  I love the fall, the leaves, the crisp air, the warm pumpkin flavored drinks, my birthday....but I'm ready for a fall where I feel in control financially.  We are still on the right track....it hasn't even been a full year since we started using YNAB and tracking our expenses, so I'm cutting myself some slack here.

PS October debt payoff update to come soon!

Striving for a Mustache

If you looked at my "Blog's I love" tab you would notice my #1 listed blog is Mr. Money Mustache....and it's days when I stumble across another brilliant post he wrote where I remember why I love that blog and all the great wisdom it provides.  The post I just read was about Luxury being like a drug (SOOOO true).  Here's a little sample:

"So by all means, if you’re not tough enough to abstain totally, go ahead and dabble in luxury just as you might have some fun with the other bits of naughtiness. Think of it as part of an exploration of the full human experience: many luxury products are, after all, the culmination of the art and science and effort of your fellow humans. But approach it from a position of strength,  rather than the whining dependence that most of your fellow rich people develop.

Luxury is best appreciated as a strong and interesting contrast to, rather than the fabric of, your daily life." - Mr. MM

In a world where a fellow resident of mine just bought a Porsche, it's nice to be reminded that material things don't buy happiness.

Thanks Mr. MM.  

PS check out the post. 

September Debt Update

* As of today we have $9,142.26 of credit card debt *

This is split between two credit cards and includes the most recent addition of the car alternator and battery ($850).  Time to start knocking it down again...

And a little reminder of where we need to be by the end of January.  We are going to Whistler BC the end of February with my Dad and sisters.  So we really really need to have chopped this debt down by then!!!  Dave Ramsey had a good radio show the other day regarding how to stay motivated and that the only way he can save money is by having goals.  I'm the same way.  If I don't have any goals I get lazy with money, I don't save and I don't pay off debt like I should.  So it's time for me to refocus my goals!  Whistler is coming up the end of February and I don't want to be worrying about money as much as our last vacation...so hopefully we can pay off the majority, if not all, or of our credit card debt and budget enough money for our vacay by mid-February.

Whistler BC Canada

When It Rains It Pours

It never ends.  September has been pitiful for us as well.  Problem #1 was we spent more than we should have on vacation. Then, my alternator and battery went dead on my car....$850 on the credit card.  So not only have we not paid off any more debt besides minimums, we added $850 to the pile.  SO depressing.....I don't think we will be making our debt payoff goal of January 2014 anymore.  We'll see though, maybe things will get in order here and a miracle will happen....haha.  

And in the news today...iPhone 5s came out.  Guess what I was doing at 2am when it went on sale?  I was in the middle of a cystoscopy with stent exchange in the OR, but when I got out and dropped my patient off to the recovery room it was 2:30am and I went straight to the internet and ordered me up a new phone.  I know, I know, you are thinking...."why the hell would this broke chick spend $300 on a phone?!" Let me tell you, and maybe this is all just me rationalizing, but here it goes.  I have a 4S, good phone, but mine doesn't hold a charge and doesn't connect to the internet.  So, while my phone searches for service in the operating rooms (where there is none) and I can't connect to the wifi my phone dies and I am disconnected from the world while I sit in a freezing OR all day. Poor poor me...so that's why I need a new phone!  Really though, I use my phone for a ton of things, most work related and study related (anesthesia question bank app).  So I splurged, I ordered a new phone.  But we didn't put this one on the credit card (only emergencies, aka car repairs etc go on the CC at this point), we used cash.  

I'll give you a running total of where our credit card debt stands tomorrow, and then I will cry afterwards and hopefully my tears will dry before I have to work another 24 hour call again on Sunday.  Oh the life of a resident.....96 hours last week....only 2 and a half more years of this.....just keep swimming, just keep swimming.

Never Ending Road Blocks

We knew it was going to happen...it happens to everyone!  It was unavoidable, predictable, yet we still didn't plan for it.  We were just crossing our fingers hoping it would go away...hoping the problem wouldn't smack us in the face....and then it did.

The hubby's old, beat-up, never taken care of, '98 Honda Civic's muffler and exhaust fell off while he was on a major highway.  Luckily it didn't fly off and hurt anyone, it dangled on a thread or wire or something until we got it into the mechanic.  Needless to say this 188,000 mile car needed $600 worth of repairs to make it drivable.  

Hence, road block #1.

Road block #2 was a little more of a conscious decision.  The hubby had started his new job and needed more work clothes.  Unavoidable when the belt loops on his dress pants were wearing out and his shoes he had wore every day walking all over Chicago the past year  were falling apart.  There went another $300.  

So the Debt payoff for the month of August has been pitiful....really it has just been the minimums ($200).  We also have a vacay back home to Colorado coming up and we want to save a little bit before we head out there so we don't completely screw over our September budget.  

Trying to stay strong!  Reading some other blogs about people who paid off debt and some setbacks they met along the way.  I keep telling myself it's a marathon not a sprint.

Cheers to vacation coming up I guess??  I refuse to let our debt snowball slowdown ruin our vacation and we will still do fun things while we are back visiting family and friends.  When we get back in September, it's game on.

Income Boost & July Update!

*As of today we have $7850 of CC debt left.*

It's simple math.  In order to get out of debt, or save money, or build wealth, or retire at 42 (my secret goal, now not so secret) is to have your income be greater than your expenses.

Income > Expenses

Well I have good news in the income department.  As of today we have officially doubled our income! The hubs got a full-time position and is beginning his dream career!  I'm so proud of him and so proud of us for making it through the past two months on 1 and a half-ish income.  We had to dip into our $1000 emergency fund a little bit, but that's what it was there for. 

INCOME > Expenses

Not only are we bumping up our income, but we will cut back our expenses soon here too.  I'm going to give up my Kardashians, RHNJ (Real Housewives of New Jersey), HGTV, to save some extra cash money.  The hubs even figured out a way to watch football season online instead of through cable!  Plus, I have part one of my Anesthesiology Boards next July, so really I should be studying instead of watching TV on my days off anyway. So now....

INCOME > Expenses

Ok, maybe that visual is an overestimate of the difference between our income and expenses.  But really the best of news is, if I did the math right (using Dave Ramsey Debt Snowball Tool), we should be able to pay $1,900 a month toward our CC debt, which only bumps back our payoff date to January 2014 instead of December 2013.  Not too shabby!

June & July confessions:

1) We didn't stick to the budget as closely as we wanted
       ***Update from previous post:  June total Spending category went from $170.82 to $810.97.  Oops.  I'll do a final break down for ya'll soon.

2) Having to come to a screeching halt on our debt snowball really hit to my debt payoff ego.  It was almost like I was thinking, "Well if we can't pay $1,200 a month off right now why bother doing any of it?"  But we kept trudging along, something is better than nothing right?

3) I'm addicted to going to brunch on the weekends...it's bad...but I just LOVE it...goal is to slowly break this addiction....I'm sure the 80 hour work weeks I have coming up (starting in August) will slow down the restaurant spending.  If you are living in a hospital you don't really have the option of going to brunch : (

YNAB numbers:

June Debt payoff - $450

July Debt Payoff - $500

Check out our Chalkboard Debt Thermometer progress!  It's tiny....but slowly filling up.

And here is an updated pic of the work-space area we created, inspired by Iron & Twine.  

The hubby's Xbox and Laptop sit on the bottom shelf behind the door and all the wires, chargers, etc sit in the basket on the shelf above.  We also added some painted particle board to the back of the top three shelves since there is a gap between the unit and the wall.

Also, check out the awesome post Iron & Twine wrote about Doctor In Debt!  Thanks for inspiration and the shout-out Michelle!

Budget Breakdown

So much to say....or so little.  I'm feeling very frustrated this month and last.  We haven't been able to make as much progress as we wanted on the credit card payoff front...Only $450 contributed this month.  But I guess I need to be patient...which is definitely NOT a strength of mine...and a big part of why I'm going into anesthesia - I like immediate rewards, and debt payoff is not an immediate rewards type of game.  Here is a breakdown of some excessive spending we did in May and so far this month....(spending accurately tracked thanks to YNAB! Love.)

1) Anniversary day (our 1 year anniversary!!) We made a special category in preparation for this day.  We went sailing and then to dinner at one of the top restaurants in Chicago, super yummy.  Total for the day $243.02

2) The dreaded "Spending money" category we created.  This is essentially a catch-all for everything that is outside of the realm of bills, food, dog food, debt payoff.  Everything that in my opinion is frivolous and extra. 

In May it was $874!! Here is the breakdown

• Amazon - new electric toothbrush (old one broke) $74.95
• Cash $44.75
• Skin products $40.78
• Bike Shop $38.14, $40.54
• Mani/Pedi $40
• Paper Source, cards $9.70
• World Map $15
• Redbox $1.61, $3.21
• Target $80.74
• Homegoods $46.84
• Mani $15
• Library $1.50
• Home Depot $22.72, $11.10, $1.38,
• Ikea $355.70
• Office Max $1.08
• Post Office $29.55

In June so far...$170.82

• Hardware Store $5.41
• Frank Lloyd Wright Gift Shop (bracelet and deck of cards) $21.26
• Parking $2.00
• West Elm $5.30 (pencil holder for new desk)
• Ikea $34
• Target $4.95
• Office Max $15.39 (gift for friend's child's birthday)
• Mani/Pedi $39
• Amazon $12.38, map tacks for world map
• CVS $30.34 printer ink cartridge

After typing that all out, it's very shocking to see how random things add up!  My goal is to not spend much more in the "spending" category for the rest of June.  Hopefully the hubs will have a full-time job in July and we can start putting down that debt faster!  Time to go read some inspiration to stay motivated, I'll let you know what I find.

*Notice the small chalk-filled portion at the bottom of our thermometer, kinda depressing, but hey, progress is progress!!

Debt Payoff Chalkboard

We did it!  Our debt visual aid turned into more of a small room makeover, hence the delay in the post.  I decided to go with a thermometer in chalkboard format.  I'm kinda obsessed with chalkboards ever since our wedding (table numbers and signs were all chalkboards) and I wanted a large one to write quotes on in our apartment.  I saw a great post here from Iron and Twine and decided to make our own organizational/desk area.

We built a custom size desk for the corner (Hubby's area):

Painted a chalkboard on the side of one Ikea Expedit shelve:

And added our Debt Payoff Thermometer:

We are starting our thermometer from now, so past credit card debt paid and student loans are not included.  We have approximately $8450 credit card debt left to pay, with a goal of December 2013.  Until the hubby gets a full-time job we aren't able to pay a lot off like we were this past spring.  When he does get a full-time job most of his income will be going towards the debt and hopefully our snowball will be accelerating at warp speed!

Let me know what you think about our debt payoff visual aid!

Eye Candy

Goal for the week and memorial day weekend is to make something purty.  Something purty that represents our debt payoff!

I love the visual aid that Nurse Frugal made for their mortgage payoff and think we need something similar.  Basically they have a picture that is covered-up by multiple black pieces.  These pieces represent a certain amount of money, so every time they payoff an amount equal to that they remove the piece and underneath is a pretty picture.  

There are all kinds of ways to track progress towards debt:

• A simple list where you cross off debts owed
• A thermometer type graph where you color in amounts till the total is paid off
• Construction paper chain, where every link equals a dollar amount
• A calendar of your payoff amounts and the final payoff date 

I really like the covered picture idea that Nurse Frugal uses.  Maybe we will put a picture of a future vacation that we want to take...Machu Picchu?

As you know, we have a lot of debt, and it's very overwhelming, and not possible to pay it all off with our middle class income.  The real payoff time will come when I am done with residency and making a physician salary.  So for now we are concentrating on our credit card debt and getting that paid off ASAP. 

Total Credit Card Debt as of 5/21/13 $8613.17.  The visual aid will represent our credit card debt.

Eye candy to come...stay posted!

Once upon a time...

This is how a young (*cough *cough) woman got excited about paying off debt...

Once upon a time on a cold night in December a broke and indebted girl was fumbling through random internet sites about personal finance.  One message board commented on something called YNAB.  Now what could such a strange acronym stand for?  Being accustomed to acronyms in medicine (CHF- congestive heart failure, OSH- outside hospital, SSI- signs and symptoms of infection, AKI - acute kidney injury) I thought I could figure this one out, maybe with another glass of wine in me....wine was poured, but still no definition came to mind.  So I succumbed and went to my trusty friend google.  A HA!

YNAB - YOU NEED A BUDGET!

And boy were they ever right.

We DID need a budget and fast.  (I'm an immediate rewards type of person) After reading multiple success stories about YNAB and paying off debt, I downloaded the 30 day trial, put the free apps on both our iPhones and sat down and made a budget with the super awesome software and my super awesome hubby.  YNAB is a budgeting software that is fairly unique.  It does not link to your bank account to automatically add transactions because it wants you to be mindful of your purchases.  The phone apps allow my husband and I to enter purchases as we make them (lunch, gas, etc) which then syncs via dropbox so everyone can stay on the same page!

Since that day we have never looked back.

Now I'm not saying we always stick to our grocery budget or avoid going out to eat completely (definitely anti-mustachian in that sense, I'll get to that later).  But it puts it all in perspective and helps us to plan for those quarterly expenses, yearly expenses, save for things like auto repairs, and keep track of all our bills.

My interest in YNAB led me to a podcast by the creator of the software. During the podcast he talked about a man who paid off $90,000 in student loan debt in 7 months by changing his lifestyle, selling a bunch of material items, getting some roommates, and cashing out his savings. His blog is aptly named No More Harvard Debt  (he's a Harvard MBA). This blog is inspiring, his attitude towards debt is that it's a war we need to fight, an enemy that needs to be destroyed.  And really, he is right. Outstanding student loan debt now stands over $1 trillion dollars!  Let's get it together people....this is ridiculous.

No More Harvard Debt led me to a post on his blog that talked about another man who retired at 30 years old...now that's something I needed to investigate, so I checked out his blog too. He calls himself Mr. Money Mustache, and he has a ton of cost saving ideas,  plus I love mustaches, so this all works out nicely.  Check him out, his ideas will blow your mind.

YNAB led me to No More Harvard Debt which led me Mr. Money Mustache, I hope by now you can see a pattern emerging. There is a community of people at war against their debt and all it takes is a little bit of initiative to seek them out.

And now, I "mustache"....