I noticed that in other posts a lot of people were commenting on their debt. What have you been doing to get out of debt?
I have some debt. I have around $25,000 in debt for my two undergrad degrees and a part of my MBA. I also have around $6K in a car loan and of course my mortgage. I however do not have any credit card debt (thankfully!) I'm undecided what I want to do in order to pay off debt more quickly. I would like to get a second job or some kind of gig such as tutoring. I've also been thinking about if I should apply all of my extra cash towards paying off my loans, or if I should be building an emergency fund at the same time.
Now, here's a ton of questions for everyone. Please share.
What kind of debt do you have? Car loans? Credit card debt from shopping?
To get out of debt have you been cutting back expenses? Have you been working extra hours or gotten a second job to pay down debt? Are you paying down all of your debt right now and also building up an emergency fund at the same time? Or are you working on one but not the other?
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Live Simply- Live We says
August 13, 2011 at 7:30 amwe had cc debt and some student loans when we got married. I worked extra jobs to get those paid down as quickly as possible.
Frugal Student says
August 13, 2011 at 7:50 amMy husband and I have student loans and a mortgage. Neither are we pre-paying right now. Right now we are saving cash so we will have money if we buy another property or if I get into grad school.
Eric Finlay says
August 13, 2011 at 8:26 amI only have student loan debt (paid off my credit card yesterday). Now that the CC debt is gone I'm concentrating on builind an emergency fund until interest starts hitting my student loan debt (I have 8 months of school left). For paying things off I concentrate mainly on reducing my expenses and trying to find alternative revenue streams other than a second job.
Canadian Saver says
August 13, 2011 at 2:42 pmBack when I was $40,000 in debt (a combo of credit cards, student loans and car debt), I first and foremost controlled my spending. Instead of spending 120% of my salary, I spent like 80% and used the remaining to pay down debt. Any extra income or $ that came my way I applied to debt.And that system worked. I now have car debt (on low interest credit card … 0.99%) that could be wiped out with my savings, but I know how important those are.For order of payoff, what do you pay most interest on? I'd probably go with the highest.Good luck!
Stephanie says
August 13, 2011 at 3:37 pmI've been debating this myself. At the moment my husband and I have a mortgage and some student loans. Once it awhile we carry a couple hundred dollars on the credit cards for a month or two, but never anything long term. I inherited my car from my grandfather and we bought his in cash, so no car loans. 🙂 I've been debating using our tax refund next year to prepay on our student loans. And usually I round our mortgage payments up. Our town is reassessing all houses this fall, and since the last reassessment was at the peak of the market, our taxes (and thus our mortgage payment) will likely go down, but I'll probably continue to round up to the amount that I've been paying all along since we're already used to paying that!
Krystin says
August 14, 2011 at 7:12 amWe have Credit Card and Auto Loan Debt, my husband has a Student Loan. Right now, our goal is to get rid of the Credit Card Debt, and my husband is over in Afghanistan as a military contractor to pay for those Credit Cards. We will completely be out of US CC debt by the beginning of September, and the remainder of whatever he makes will be put into savings in order to buy a home. He has the choice to go back to Afghanistan if he wishes, which will help pay off or down any remaining debt. That is looking highly unlikely, but the decision is completely up to him. We both make pretty good money (him moreso) that without the CCs we will be pretty well off.
Michelle Parker says
August 14, 2011 at 5:08 pmThanks everyone for your input! I'm thinking that I'm going to get a second job so that I can pay down debt faster. I hate having debt.
Shoe.Gal says
August 15, 2011 at 5:14 amI have an interest free car loan (got a great promo at the dealership). I also at times have small amounts of credit card debt, but nothing major.
Michelle Parker says
August 15, 2011 at 8:12 amI'm jealous that you have an interest free car loan! I think my rate is 1.99%, so it's not too bad.