Paying off debt

Congrats OP! Keep up the good work.

sleek98 said:

Paid off everything but the house in the last 3 months, granted I also sold all of our toys that barely got used. Kind of weird having paychecks with not much to pay now.

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I remember that 'weird' yet great feeling as well.

In my case, Once you hit that point, your time becomes much much more valuable to you. I've had 3 very close people to me die of lung/pancreatic cancer in the past 5 years and I'm very thankful I was able to take significant time away from work to spend and help take care of them.

Financial freedom is an epic thing-your life does become much easier in many facets. Its also very smart to keep that financial information between you and your wife. Theres always that irresponsible family member(s) who will beg you endlessly for money if they find you have extra to give. Truth.

Stay the course- you're doing it right!

Debt free is the only way to be.

My wife and I paid off all our debt years ago. Being in quality financial shape before the pandemic allowed us to purchase a much larger house than we were originally looking at due to the lower interest rates. Just under 3%. All of this after losing my job october 2019 and taking a 10k a year pay cut.

Also saving for the future is key. I'm pretty close to maxing the retirement out for yearly allowed amount. I would also recommend the dave Ramsey idea of having 3 to 6 months of your salary in cash savings. I like most of his principals but as someone else said theres more than one way to skin a cat on some of these things.

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I have always focused on the income line much more than the expense line. I have consistently increased my income much faster than my expenses. I am thankful for how things have turned out.

boost88 said:

Debt free is the only way to be.

My wife and I paid off all our debt years ago. Being in quality financial shape before the pandemic allowed us to purchase a much larger house than we were originally looking at due to the lower interest rates. Just under 3%. All of this after losing my job october 2019 and taking a 10k a year pay cut.

Also saving for the future is key. I'm pretty close to maxing the retirement out for yearly allowed amount. I would also recommend the dave Ramsey idea of having 3 to 6 months of your salary in cash savings. I like most of his principals but as someone else said theres more than one way to skin a cat on some of these things.

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I think it's 3-6 months expenses. But, hard to argue that much in income! Cash is king!

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nickf2005 said:

I think it's 3-6 months expenses. But, hard to argue that much in income! Cash is king!

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Yeah you might be right about it being expenses.

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We are both 40 years old, zero kids and two dogs. Hopefully have our house and her 2020 explorer ST paid off in a few months.

My wife has been talking about me quitting my full time job and basically just work at our golf course seasonal. We own a H&R block, so during the winter months I would help out more and spend more time with our dogs lol. Her stipulation is that we get a 3rd dog. I currently work 12 hour shifts and she puts in longer hours during tax season, so she really wants me home more.

Crazy! I have some decisions to make!


Great job op

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MG0h3 said:

Wait a sec. you can collect life insurance on homeless people that die?

Pm me please


“BLM is doing God’s work”
2KblackGT

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NO, I don't actually do that, to hard to track when they die. There was a couple of women in Florida that were doing this, took out insurance and listed the guys as valuable managers. Let the guys live in the pickers quarters on their farm and gave them unlimited booze. They got in trouble when they got greedy and had too many die and it set off alarms with the insurance agencies. Only place I have for guys to stay is in the garage, and I don't want them puking on the Mustang.

derklug said:

NO, I don't actually do that, to hard to track when they die. There was a couple of women in Florida that were doing this, took out insurance and listed the guys as valuable managers. Let the guys live in the pickers quarters on their farm and gave them unlimited booze. They got in trouble when they got greedy and had too many die and it set off alarms with the insurance agencies. Only place I have for guys to stay is in the garage, and I don't want them puking on the Mustang.

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Build low rent apartments (aka, heated storage units) and make things happen. Start small on your pay outs, and grow them as you perfect process.



Also, in regards to debt, my wife and I aren’t as good as some of you are. We make good money for our area (160-180 gross) and owe probably 200K on the house, 10k on the Traverse, and she’s well under 10k on the loans.

Her job at a university “should” allow the 3 kids full tuition college. I have a pretty good pension and we both have a 401k equivalents (hers is matched +5% or something crazy)

2.5 years ago I freed up 800 a month on the Shelby, and the truck freed up 700 in August. I’m hoping we can pay the traverse off by this time next year so we are only looking at mortgage payments (which we should also refinance)

What is killing us (in my opinion) are the astronomical checks we write to our nanny every week. My job is 7-3 but every day could be until who knows when. She teaches nursing so her schedule isnt set either. With the school travel and pre school travel we can’t really do traditional daycare, so a nanny is the best choice I suppose.

But I’ll be damned if I’m ever going to get used to writing 450-600 dollar checks a week...

Im 30 and have zero debt besides my truck that I purchased a few months ago, I have enough to buy the truck outright but with 1.89% apr, I'm financing. It felt great to drive a beater and have my Mustang (now sold) as a fun car, save save save, and see my savings go up.

I was lucky enough to be able to contribute to a 401k with company match from 21 to now. If I could go back I would have put more into it than I did and maybe spend a little less on car parts. Around the age of 24-25 I realized I hadn't saved much outside of my retirement account and got serious with saving and doing what I can to flip things on the side for extra money. One night my buddy and I split this edible brownie and I got super paranoid about my finances and how I had worked basically from the age of 16 to then and didn't have much saved.

My fiance and I are are saving now for our first home while living in my grandparents old home that I inherited last year. I did spend some money to totally renovate the property and it's a nice house, but we want a nicer city to live in, with neighbors that aren't on top of you. We have enough ATM to put down on a house, but with a wedding next year, I want to save for another year or slightly less so we don't deplete our bank account too much.

OP, did you completely pay off student loans first? I would never pay off other debt before student loans. Other debt you can bankrupt on if things go bad. Student loans just keep getting bigger if things go bad.

Nice work OP.

I am 29 and currently living mostly debt-free, only exception being a small beach condo that I bought with my brother in southern NH.
Cars and student loans are paid for, I had been renting an apartment in Boston with my girlfriend the last couple years which is not exactly cheap but we had some fun. However, with the pandemic and no need to be close to the office we recently moved out.

Living in the beach condo for the time being and saving a good amount of cash until COVID passes and we figure out where we want to land/purchase a house.
Sometimes I feel silly for not owning a primary home at this stage of life, especially with the way values have moved up over the last several years. I will say that the peace of mind living with low expenses and a good chunk of change in the bank is quite nice, though.

derklug said:

NO, I don't actually do that, to hard to track when they die. There was a couple of women in Florida that were doing this, took out insurance and listed the guys as valuable managers. Let the guys live in the pickers quarters on their farm and gave them unlimited booze. They got in trouble when they got greedy and had too many die and it set off alarms with the insurance agencies. Only place I have for guys to stay is in the garage, and I don't want them puking on the Mustang.

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LMAO. Post of the thread right here!

tistan said:

OP, did you completely pay off student loans first? I would never pay off other debt before student loans. Other debt you can bankrupt on if things go bad. Student loans just keep getting bigger if things go bad.

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Our debt payoff process is highest interest loans first and work your way down. While you have a point, "highest interest" approach saves most money long term. We organized our debt payoff spreadsheet a couple of different ways. My loans are all private so it's bussiness as usual for paying them off during the virus, where my wife's are federal which they allowed interest free until December I believe.

Scenarios were as follows:
-Highest to lowest interest
-Highest to lowest monthly payment
-Pay off as many loans as we can with the cash out money regardless of monthly payment or interest.

We made different "scenarios" and looked at what made sense for us and what we were able to feel comfortable with.

It so happens my Corvette was one of the highest interest loans AND highest monthly payment so that worked out well to free up money and roll it into the next loan.

The refi was THE game changer. Without that, we wouldn't have been able to take out equity as a cash out option to then pay off other debt to then roll it into other loans and really speed up the payoff period.

With all this, we are still taking about $5k out for her to buy a horse trailer (we currently don't own one and is wise to have in case of emergency). As well as looking into redoing the flooring/windows in the house. It slightly delays the payoff period, but also weighing resale value when the time comes is a factor too as this won't be our "forever home".

Good to see there are other out there our age taking advantage. People around me don't appear to be as "in tune" with this as financials are not something typically discussed. I'm 50/50 making it a conversation. On one hand I'm happy and proud of the progress, but OTOH I wonder if people look at us and think we are rubbing it in or showing off? Money conversations seem to be a fickle beast because you don't know someone else's story. I try to be respectful of it.

boost88 said:

Debt free is the only way to be.


Also saving for the future is key. I'm pretty close to maxing the retirement out for yearly allowed amount. I would also recommend the dave Ramsey idea of having 3 to 6 months of your salary in cash savings. I like most of his principals but as someone else said theres more than one way to skin a cat on some of these things.

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It is Good to see so many younger people that "get it"! I did the same thing in maxing out my IRA and 401K contributions for over 25 years- Result is I have been debt free for 10 years. I don't buy anything unless I can pay it off in same month- so no credit card charges. It is a good feeling to be semi-retired and still have enough to save each month. Won't be touching IRA or 401K until 75 under new rules if I last that long. The only thing of concern is a democrat president and raising taxes on retirement plans and SS. Even money in cash in banks isn't safe with the idea of a fed tax on withdrawal or some lunatic idea like that.--and that idea has come up!

jshen said:

It is Good to see so many younger people that "get it"! I did the same thing in maxing out my IRA and 401K contributions for over 25 years- Result is I have been debt free for 10 years. I don't buy anything unless I can pay it off in same month- so no credit card charges. It is a good feeling to be semi-retired and still have enough to save each month. Won't be touching IRA or 401K until 75 under new rules if I last that long. The only thing of concern is a democrat president and raising taxes on retirement plans and SS. Even money in cash in banks isn't safe with the idea of a fed tax on withdrawal or some lunatic idea like that.--and that idea has come up!

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It was rough to get to that point in retirement contributions. Unfortunately I didnt really "get it" until the wife came along 7 years ago lol I really wish I would have started when I was young and in the marine corps.

Also we abuse our discover account lol. We use it for everything then pay off monthly. We still of course budget down to the penny but all those cash back points add up. We spend close to 1500 bucks each Christmas on discover's dime haha

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Actually I didn't start my savings plan and frugality until I was 35 years old. And also I have no wife didn't particularly want one who would take half my stuff. I have found the women I have met love lawyers and think they're rich! Government lawyers are not rich and have to save like everybody else. But still looking at the post here I am encouraged to see the number of folks get it before it's time to retire. Save on my friend.

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Paid off our house a few years ago. Greatest feeling...knowing you have a roof over your head no matter what may happen. And with no other debt, it’s becomes a very calm and peaceful time. It just relaxes you. It’s interesting when you get together with friends and family and the conversation turns toward money, mortgages, etc... you can just sit back and smile. People will ask...did you refi, or what’s your rate....rewarding to say...don’t have a mortgage. Discipline is the key....good story, good luck...

I'm now 49 with close to a mil in net worth. But ten years ago I was about 50k in debt. Two keys for me were to make more money and buy a house. I also track my finances at the very least weekly, and a lot of times daily. Track and chart non-mortgage debt and investment account balances in Excel and you'll find it exciting to make life choices that improve those balances. I'm currently investing and saving to make my financial sitchiation worse, namely to buy a bigger/better house on a bigger/better lot with a big shop. Gotta have balance in life.

smitty2919 said:

Doing the refi and following the Dave Ramsey "debt snowball" mentality

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Nice job.
We're currently on baby steps 4/5/6.

Just re-fied our house down to a 2.25% 15 year fixed (hope to be paid off in 10), 15% going into retirement and a healthy 6 month emergency fund. We're about $50K from being EDM's.

Life is good...