“Debt-O-Meter” Archive
May
20
To all those folks who have been clamoring for an update, I apologize for not being back often. As I mentioned in my comment in a prior post, technical difficulties and a very busy and hectic work life have kept me away from the site.
That said, due to popular demand and my frustrating but seemingly effective attempts to overcome technical issues, I’m happy to provide an update to the Debt-O-Meter. I’ve knocked down almost $2K in debt over the past two months and I’m just under the 10K mark. With the exception of American Express, I now have all my former accounts on fixed monthly payments which total $953/month. I am in the process of establishing an emergency fund and once that is sufficiently funded I will start throwing even more money toward the debt. My goal over the next twelve months is to retire $17K in credit card debt, with a stretch goal of $20K. I have a few things in the pipeline that should allow me to do; more details on that to follow. Assuming this post remains stable on the site over the next 24 hours, look for some new posts from me…finally!
Mar
16
I have finally updated the Debt-O-Meter to reflect where I am as of today. I’ve done pretty well but not as well I would have liked. Over the course of the past months I must admit I used my credit cards twice to pay for trips to visit my daughter out of state. Do I regret that….absolutely not. By the end of April, I should be very close to having paid of nearly 10K in credit card debt, which is realistically about where I expected to be. Over the next 12 months, I am going to be making a very significant effort to pay down the debt as quickly as possible, while doing things like saving for retirement and building an emergency fund. Nearly all of my debt is at 0% interest so it doesn’t make much sense to me to divert money I would otherwise use for retirement or an emergency fund to paying off 0% credit card debt. Thoughts?
Dec
13
The Debt-O-Meter is updated to reflect the latest and greatest status. I had hoped to be a little farther along than I am, but I did unfortunately have some expenses associated with turning in my leased car that I hadn’t anticipated so I couldn’t put as much toward the debt repayment as I would have liked. Regardless, I am still making significant progress and given that I now have fixed, low/zero interest payments for all the accounts the balances should drop even faster.
Sep
12
Well I am finally back from Singapore and as promised I am back to posting, including a long awaited update to the Debt-O-Meter. I have now paid off $4,788 of my debt, a good start but not as much as I had hoped for. I only have myself to blame. As some of my critics have pointed out (particular a reader nicknamed JJay) in my last post, taking a vacation was absolutely a sidetrack to my debt repayment. That said, it was a much needed break and has provided me with a lot of personal growth and clarity about my path in life. I’ll talk more about some of the negative reaction to my actions in another post.
Additionally, I have managed to get the nearly $6,500 debt I owe to Chase locked in at a 6% interest rate with very little negotiation. So, I have a very substantial portion of my debt locked in at either 0% interest or 6% interest. I will be re-posting the details of my accounts shortly as I have gotten the okay from my attorneys to do so.
On the AMEX front, the negotiations are continuing but all roads appear to be heading toward a settlement of 40% of the original debt. Getting these two accounts settled, would knock nearly 20K off my debt total, which would be a very substantial kickstart to my debt repayment overall. I hope to have some final news on the AMEX situation before the month is out.
I am still continuing with my plans to go car-free when my lease is up in April of 2008. I have been taking the bus to work more and more and have been making use of Flexcar to run some errands, all to preview what life will be like without the car. The extra $650-$700 per month that car payment, insurance and gas spending that will be “freed up” will ALL go to debt repayment.
I’ll be posting some more thoughtful responses to some of the recent criticisms I have seen in the comments section in separate posts. I want to ensure I give myself a fair chance to look at some of these comments constructively, even if the language and content is a little off.
Thanks to everyone who stuck around during the recent months where I have not been all that engaged with the blog. I assure you it will be worth the wait and some exciting progress and changes will soon follow. For those who have chose to remove me from their favorites, I ask you give me a second look. I think you will find the quality and frequency of the content to be better than ever!
Jul
24
Sorry for the delay in getting the update posted to the Debt-O-Meter. A few of the payments related to my 0% debt with Citibank weren’t being reflected in my online balances so I wanted to make certain I was able to include those before the update.
So in three months I have knocked out about $3,500 in debt. This is a good start but not spectacular and at that rate it will take me quite a while to get things down to zero. I would like to knock things off in 48 months and given that I will have 3 or 4 decent bonuses at work (my employer is VERY stable), I think this is possible.
My recent decision to adopt a ‘car-free’ lifestyle should also help me jumpstart the debt repayment given I will be able to save nearly $700 in expenses each month, all of which will be applied to my debt.
A few months ago I posted a solicitation for moonlighting ideas and a loyal reader named Jason suggested that I apply for a teaching position at a local community college. I have been looking at doing this and some opportunities are indeed available at a local community college in the areas of finance and economics.
I have taught before and I really do enjoy it, so from the perspective of doing something I enjoy this would be a great opportunity. I’m not going to get rich doing it, but I should get a little bit of money, all of which will go directly to my debt repayment. I figure if I teach a class each semester, including summers, I should be able to significantly jumpstart my debt repayment.
As a reminder to my loyal readers, I am also a part-time travel agent and would be happy to help you with your travel plans, particularly if they involve Hawaii. I have been booking some trips for colleagues lately and in the coming months should collect about $1500 in commissions.
If my loyal readers have some other useful moonlighting suggestions, I am all ears. In the meantime, I hope the teaching job works out. I will keep you all posted.
Jul
5
I know many of you look forward to the changes (hopefully lower) in the Debt-O-Meter. My payment dates with the 0% interest agreements with Citibank have changed a little bit so the Debt-O-Meter will be updated by the 15th of each month going forward. I had some unanticipated expenses this month related to my car being towed. I was careless and parked in a spot that only allowed you to park for an hour; I had parked there all afternoon. I didn’t realize this was the case as the sign was hidden but nevertheless, the two and tickets cost me almost $250 so the Debt-O-Meter won’t drop as much as I would like this month; I HAD to pay the towing company with a credit card as they wouldn’t take a check and I frankly didn’t have the cash that day. As I promised, I will always reveal the setbacks and this was one of them.
Jun
9
For all of you who have been anxiously awaiting a Debt-O-Meter, update, wait no longer. Unfortunately, I can’t quite get the graphical interface to look the way I want, so for now I will continue with the ‘analog’ version. I’ve also, at the advice of my attorney, removed the specific Credit Card balance page. In all likelihood, once the AMEX negotiations and DMP are in place, this page will be back up and running but for now I can only share the debt in aggregate. Suffice to say the interest rates on ALL the cards will drop substantially once the DMP is in place and that a much larger chunk of my monthly payments will go toward the principal rather that toward interest. For those folks who enjoy seeing ALL the details, I apologize. As soon as I get the word, I will put the uber details back up. In the meantime, I’ll keep chipping away at the Debt-O-Meter.
Jun
7
Look for an update to the Debt-O-Meter. I’m hoping to get a graphical display up there thanks to one of my readers. In addition, my balances haven’t all updated yet, so hopefully this weekend I will be able to post the latest numbers. Yes, the total is down but not as much as I would like. I’ll be working out my DMP next week and should have better news to report with a more detailed plan. Thanks everyone for all the kind words today and throughout the past two months. It DOES keep me motivated. I hope my blogging is helping at least ONE person out there from getting in the same situation.
