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Paying Down Debt – This is Going to Be Worth It In the End, Right? Right?
By Susan | January 29, 2010
I don’t know what came over me at the end of December, but all of a sudden I started to care about our money.
Wait, that doesn’t sound right. I’ve always cared about our money. We pay our bills on time, we aren’t starving or scraping or on the brink of destitution and bankruptcy. But something in my head went *click* and it’s like I finally realized just how much we were spending each month paying off our debts.
Seriously, the amount of money we’re sending out the door each month to pay off our lenders drives me insane. It’s money that could be saved for a house payment, that could send us on a trip somewhere fabulous, that could be building compound interest that will allow us to retire in comfort. Instead, we’re paying interest on
I can’t believe it took me this long to see the ridiculousness of this situation. Granted, we didn’t rack up this debt on frivolities. OK, truth be told, some of it was on frivolities. But most of my debt was accrued while in grad school when I was flat broke and chose to charge rather than take out a loan (I don’t recommend this). Mr. Martini’s debt is mostly student loans. Neither of have maxed out credit cards, we both have good credit scores. Truly, this is a problem that has a solution.
The solution is simple – get out of debt.
But “simple” is hard. “Simple” requires sacrifice. “Simple” requires a good hard look at our finances, and may even mean (*gulp*) a budget.
But to keep things simple, I’m going to try to take the most straightforward path out of this situation. That means focusing on one thing at a time. I’ve been bogged down in the past trying to do too much at once (build 401k! build savings account! plus pay off debt!). This resulted in too little forward momentum on any one goal, which ruined any motivation to keep going.
As of today, we’ve saved a baby emergency fund. Which means that all other major saving has stopped, and all energies are focused on the debt. The first goal is to pay off credit card #1 which has the smallest debt. That’s the focus. Everything else is on hold until that’s paid off.
Oh, you guys. I’m not kidding myself, this is going to suck. But for now, I’m trying to keep a positive attitude to keep myself motivated. Because of the two of us, I’m the spender, and Mr. M is the saver, so really, I’m the one that is going to have to rewire my brain.
But it will all be worth it when we can put a down payment on our own home, and pay cash for all of the furniture to furnish it. It may take a while to get there, but it is possible.
Topics: Paying the Bills | 3 Comments »
January 29th, 2010 at 3:16 pm
It does suck, but it is so, so worth it. Especially when you get done and then all of a sudden you have a crapload of extra money to put in savings each month, because it’s no longer paying down debt.
January 29th, 2010 at 5:34 pm
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January 30th, 2010 at 5:19 pm
Good for you! And yes, while it does suck at the moment, it will feel so good as you are able to mark each thing off of your list. I’m rooting for you!