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.