Final 2 Year Updates

I'm combining these last three into one post ....because life is crazy busy and while I have a minute to type this out I might as well do 'em all!

BANK VISA

This one is probably on schedule to be paid off first. It has a 6.15% interest rate and the starting balance was $3,575.78. Two years later, it has dropped to $2,060.51!

CHASE CARD #1

Definitely my highest credit card balance. It has a 6.99% which is fixed since I opted out of a change in terms. This one started at $6,698.00. Two years later, it's down to $4,300.80!

Money Market Loan

This is a crazy loan. I borrowed from my savings to replace a heat/air unit in our old house. And for a couple of years I never paid myself back ANYTHING! I'm still not paying much, just snowflaking little amounts when I find them. But at least I'm not ignoring it any longer. Two years ago I owed myself $4,711.50. Now that amount has been reduced to $4,534.39. Not significant progress....but I'm just happy I've put it back on the radar screen!

So there you have it! Total progress since the beginning of this blog.....$69,010.56! Now before you get all excited, remember that $45,739.46 was because of the inheritance my husband received from his mom. It still bothers me that we owe so much money, but it's wonderful to see that the numbers are moving the right way!

2010 Ending Balance - Money Market Loan

Remember this one? It was the one I almost forgot about because it was owed to none other than my Money Market account. I let this one slide for almost 3 years before I started paying myself back....mostly with snowflakes from survey income.

At the start of this blog, the balance was $4,711.50

Total Paid: $ 135.13

Balance today: $4,576.37

That's $135.13 more in my EF than I had before I intentionally started sending those small payments to MY account!

Final June '10 updates

Posting this partly because we're already halfway through July! And partly to remind myself that everything is not doom and gloom around here. Progress is certainly not as fast as I would like, and I'm not sure July is going to show much progress at all....but I need to remind myself where I've been and that financial progress is not a microwave, but a slow cooker.

Chase Card #1:
$75.46 paid. New balance = $5,422.21


Money Market Loan:
$5.29 paid. New balance = $4,597.79


Net Worth Funding Goal: (click to enlarge detail)


Items to note:

• Halfway through the year, but not quite halfway to meet the $15K goal. Really going to have to step it up to reach $15K.
• Dividends paid during June were down (as compared to March) mainly because of BP. GRRR!
• Nothing has been added to the rental emergency fund for a couple of months. We've been making some small, but necessary repairs to that property. Hopefully, that will change in July and more will be added to that separate emergency fund. My goal is to have the tenant deposit plus 6 months of expenses in that account (mortgage payments, association dues, and property taxes). I'm very close....but need another $550 in that account . I should at least be adding in at least 1/12 of the annual tax amount.
  

Money Market Loan Update - May '10

For anyone who might not remember, this is where I withdrew some money from my savings with full intentions of paying myself back. I was able to make two small payments to this "loan" in May: $6 from online surveys and a $7.17 check from Ebates. These small amounts are just that....small. But by using them, I've paid myself back over $100!!

$13.17 paid. New balance = $4,603.08

More April '10 Updates

April is always a busy month. I'm not working the double shift hours like I did the first two weeks of the month, but things are still busy at the office. Even today I'm up at the crack of dawn to get a couple of hours of weekend work knocked out so I can really be "here" at home once the rest of the family wakes up!

While I wait for the coffee to finish brewing, here are the last of the loan updates for April.

Money Market Loan:

$4.02 paid - $4,616.25 remaining. WooHoo! I'm hoping next month I'll cross over that $100 paid threshold.




Bank Visa:

$93.61 paid. New balance =$2,957.03 Another WooHoo! This one has now gone under the $3K mark never to return again!!!



Chase Card #1:

$158.32 paid. New balance = $5,577.76. And this is the biggest WOOHOO! With this update the total of all the credit card debt is now $12,816.01. It started at $15,981.86 so credit card debt is down over $3,000!!! YIPPEE!!!


Now to get that pesky work finished before the rugrats start circling. Hope you have a great Saturday!

More March '10 Updates

It's late, and I need to get another 30 minutes or more of work in before my head hits a pillow. Gone are the days when I would stay at the office 10 to 14 hours a day 7 days a week. The good part about my job is that I can get my work done at any time day or night. The problem when I try to work at home is that I can get NOTHING done until I feel like my house is semi-orderly and my kids are asleep so I'll continue to live on coffee and very little sleep for the next two weeks to make sure I get all those tax returns ready to file.

I'm taking a quick break to post the last of the March updates:

Money Market Loan went down $4.43. New balance = $4,620.27





Chase Card #1 - paid $96.99. New balance = $5,736.08





Chase Card #2 - paid $129.40. New balance - $2,670.14. And yes, if you've been following you know that I actually transferred this balance to the HELOC. But I'm keeping it separate in my mind, in my ultimate plan of attack of all debts, and I've decided to leave it separate on the blog too. Since the interest rate has been significantly reduced, and the required payment is interest only I don't expect to see much progress on this balance until I've knocked off some of the other balances with higher rates.




Back to the 1040's for me!

Money Market Loan Update - Jan. '10

I used the overage from the Christmas gift that my husband exchanged to pay a little more on this loan that needs to be paid back to my emergency fund.

$18.55 paid. New balance - $4,624.70

HAPPY NEW YEAR & Money Market Loan Update - Dec. '09

Just to show you how old I'm getting, I fell asleep with the 4yo last night and didn't even see the New Year ring in!! I think that probably epitomizes my feelings about 2009. It's one I'm happy to close the books on. It was a hard year for us....emotionally. I added "landlord" and "executor" and "trustee" on top of all the other hats I was already wearing. My husband's emotions went into overdrive with his mother's death, and his alcohol use turned into abuse which spiraled our lives and our marriage into a place I never want to go again. Fortunately, about the time he was able to regain control of his addiction, I decided to regain control of our finances.

We are in a much better place emotionally, spiritually, and financially than we were when I started this blog. It's still going to take a long time to dig our way out of the damage, but I do have hope --- which is something I couldn't see much of six months ago.

Anyway, my early bedtime meant I never posted the final December update for the Money Market loan. Not much change here. But when I sent my extra auto money for the month to the New Car Fund, I rounded up $4.73 and applied that to the Money Market Loan portion in that account. New balance of the Money Market Loan = $4,643.25.

A few quick updates

Seems like life is running at warp speed, so I'm combining a few updates into one post. Nothing major here, just slow (but steady) progress towards these stinkin' balances!

$126 paid on Chase Card #1 - new balance $6,180.00




$87.22 paid on Bank Visa - new balance $3,392.99




$5.23 paid back to the Money Market Loan - new balance $4,647.98



I'm having a little happy dance, since this brings the credit card totals under $15,000 and over $1,000 less than when I started this journey!

Money Market Loan update

Because I was able to get in a couple of hours of overtime in last month, I chose to send $47.30 on this loan back to my money market account.

I'm not sure what the right word is to express my feeling about ignoring this for so long. Is it denial? Refusal to admit one of those stupid mistakes? Regardless of what it is, I'm now determined to pay myself back and get that emergency fund back where it ought to be.

The new balance that I owe my money market account is $4653.21.

A small change of heart on the Money Market Loan

As I was typing out my explanation of the loan to myself, I realized how truly insane this is. I've kept up with this debt balance for almost two years but I had taken no action to pay myself back in over 18 months! How crazy is that? I'm just fooling myself to think that I have 3 months of expenses set aside in an emergency fund. If an emergency actually happened the amount of money I might need is not really all there! Cash flow is really tight, but I was able to squeak a measly $10.99 to put back into the Money Market Fund towards this loan to myself. The new balance is $4700.51.

The Money Market Loan

The last loan to list is not owed to anyone except myself. It was borrowed from my Money Market account to pay off a credit card balance a couple of years ago. Because I'm insane, I refuse to admit that I used money from my emergency fund for anything other than an emergency so I keep track of it. Like I said, I'm insane. But if someone handed me $110,000 today I would pay myself back.

The current balance of this debt is $4,711.50.