I know you probably don’t want to hear this but the best thing you can do for yourself is become someone who doesn’t believe in debt. Otherwise what tends to happen is that you will pay off some debt and then just accumulate more debt. It’s an endless cycle until you say NO MORE.
It’s not easing admitting to the whole world how much debt you have. By making these videos it will keep you accountable. Your subs will come by and support you. You are not alone. You got this. You can do it. ❤😂
Handy hint, closing a debt with a balance on it will have an adverse affect on your credit rating! I have kept my accounts open with no balance but cut up the cards, this way I'll have a better credit rating. Once you get into the mind set of no more debt and do the snowball system of paying down debt, it will benefit you. Having long standing debt going from one paycheck to another worrying if you'll have enough is stressful. Credit cards of any description are a wealth killer if your not disciplined to pay them off as you use them and as you know it can get out of control. I'm never using credit cards again!
Thank you for the transparency. It's hard to put your debt out there for anyone to see. Is there any way you can transfer some of the insane interest rate balances to lower interest rates? Paying 35% on tens of thousands of dollars is going to cost you dearly in interest. It's unconscionable that credit card companies get to charge those insane amounts. Please find a way to get them to a much lower rate. These debts (accrued interest) will eat you alive.
I would start with the highest interest credit cards, maybe the specific store ones like Kohl’s, etc. I probably wouldn’t include personal loans, cars and student loans for 2024, just try and get the highest interest cards paid off. It will be a lot easier to make progress on the other debts once the high interest, low balance cards are gone. Good luck! You can do this.
I'm with you. I had a depressing day. Expected to be able to pay off some debt with the income tax but..... that is a negative. First time owing money. HOwever, We will overcome this debt situation.
New sub and just wanted to say that you’ve got this. Documenting your debt confession is a huge step towards meeting your goals of achieving financial freedom and becoming debt free.
It’s something I’ve been looking into. Right now my debt to income is too high and making my credit score lower than what they want for a card with enough of a limit to do that.
New subscriber, I am actually on my own debt free journey and I am here to support you on yours. We can do this!! Discipline and perseverance will take us to the finish line, there is a great reward at the end of the journey.
I’m not sure which budget pack they came from. I order two from Etsy and mingled them together to get what I needed and liked best. The two Etsy sellers are SnazzyPixels and HomePlannersCo.
Love your channel. As someone who crawled out from massive debt, I recommend paying off all the low balance high interest cards before making extra payments on your car. You’ll feel amazing as each balance reaches zero. Best of luck, I’ll be watching your journey.
Thank you for the encouragement. Writing it all out was definitely eye opening. I knew it was high, but seeing the amount of the monthly minimum payments was shocking.
It isn't typical. For my paypal card, I was able to talk to the bank and make this arrangement with them. But I did have to close the card in order to do it. I have a set monthly payment and no additional interest being accrued.
Are you on the SAVE plan for your student loans? If so, they are supposed to “forgive” your interest if you don’t pay all of it with your monthly payments, which should stop them from going up. I have nearly the same amount and my payment is over $400 and that barely covers all of the interest. So it would probably be beneficial to look into that and get on the SAVE program if you aren’t already.
I am on the SAVE plan. Being on an Income Driven plan is a requirement for the PSLF program. It cut my payment in half from what it was. But, yeah, my interest each month is over $600. So insane.
@@journifer Gotcha! I used an Excel spreadsheet for years but for almost a year now I’ve been using a zero-balanced budget and once I was used to it, it made a big difference in my spending. Gotta do what works, I get that!! 😎
@@journifer I was annoyed with it for about three months and then I was hooked. I’ve been using it for a year. I always keep $1400 in checking as a buffer and I don’t move money to savings until I’m confident the expenses are noted accurately. It’s literally a game for me now. We have two kids in college and basically have to maintain three households and four cars so every nickel has to be saved at this point! Can’t wait for it to be over!
As you prepare to pay off balances, do call ahead to find out the payoff amount and what that date the money must be to them by. One way or another, the interest rate on many of these debts are calculated daily and often people remit what they think will paynoff thier bill in total only to find that there are some dollars of interest still owed.
Definitely. Im expecting a couple dollars on the Lane Bryant card after my February payment. I should know before March so I can still check it off as a February payoff.
You can definitely do the $10k!!! I bet you could get more in as well. I didn’t think I could do much either and then In 2023 I paid off my student loans (13k) AND my car loan (11K). It took determination, dedication and sacrifice to get it done. 2024 is my year of becoming debt free with paying off my credit cards (15k). This is completely doable and acknowledgment is the first step. Well Done!!! 🙌🏼 I’m also documenting my journey on my channel if you’re interested.
Even if you dont share your actual credit score, and i understand why, at the end of the year or semi-annually, please consider a short regular video discussing credit score changes. For example, theoretically credit scores are only recalculated every 6 months. On the other hand some report on utube that the closing of an account(s), the pay off of an account(s), the paydown of multiple accounts, etc... bring them a higher score. And that this can happen at a higher rate than once every 6 months. Im not saying show your tracker or even your numbers and maybe its only worth a segment in a video.
Looks like your minimum payments would be over $16,000 for the year. Of course that doesn’t include the interest added back into the debt. Good luck, cheering you on from California.
Congratulations on the Lane Bryant, $37/ month, February pay off target! This will free up $37 per month for reallocation in the budget. Do you plan to snowball the minimums from paid off debt into paying off additional debt?
At least a part of it. My energy bill has been running higher than anticipated the last couple of months (it’s been single digit or lower here for the last 2 weeks) so I’m a little nervous about snowballing it.
We are debt free, do have some but not a lot of savings, and our overall strategy is to try to live within our means/ income. We put increased emphasis on this in 2022 and made radical spending life style changes zt the rnd of May which went more fully into effect in June '22. We spent much of '23 working to prepare ourselves for an interruption amd also a delay in income due to a potential government shutdown; we also replaced our only driver in an unplanned manor in April and a few months more with additional parts/ repairs. For the past couple of months we have been transitioning from preparing for a possiblr government shut down into a more complete, 3 months ahead fund. We are also putting aside money for some 2024 bigger ticket items. Thankfully we started in Dec '23 because just 8 days into our low spend January we put money into an unplanned but NEEDED vehicle parts and repairs; of the 3 parts, 1 was on the 2024 bigger ticket item list but not the one which went to complete failure.
That’s awesome that you were able to do that! Government shutdowns are so stressful to me and I don’t even work for the federal government. I can’t imagine how stressful it is for you.
There is a chance that the Fed interest rate will go down this year and it is possible that your variable minimums will rates will go down. If you are surviving your current minimums, consider keeping with them to drive your balances owing down just a little faster.
You don't have the mindshift yet. Instead of saying “do you know how much mortgage I could afford with an extra $1500?’ You should say do you know how much I could make in compound interest with an extra $1500 a month?😊
I need to look at the numbers of payments I’ve made toward the PSLF. I’ve been making payments on the loan for 16 yrs, but not all of those were PSLF qualifying.
@@journifer same. I do believe the payment pause due to covid counts towards your counts. Are you submitting the pslf form yearly or waiting until you hit the 10 years? This process was so confusing but I got a lot of help from reddit subreddits r/pslf
If you figure your current minimums at $1500/ month, dropping your current debt by 25% would take yoir minimums down to $1125 using overly simplistic math. This is a savings of $375 per month to the monthly budget.
Example: my current monthly accrued interest on my student loans is $900/months. If I were on the regular repayment plan my monthly payment would be $450/mo. So I’m never going to even make a dent in the principal. In fact, my new balance has increased to over $90k. For the PSLF I have to be on an income driven repayment plan - which is currently $70/mo.
@@journifer There is something very wrong with how they calculate interest. You should be able to easily pay off a $30,000 loan in 10 years. Best of Luck.
No this guy has a point, there’s something wrong here. Even if it has been 16 years you wouldn’t have gotten to this balance at a 3.625% interest rate. And your comment stating you accrue $900 in interest per month also contradicts the numbers you have written down. You should do a video on your student loans where you dive into them and show the actual starting balances so you (and us ha) can figure this out!
@@journifer Have you tried a credit union? My credit union credit card is only 11.9% ... not bragging or anything. With a credit union if you own a home you can get a line of equity on your home and consolidate all the loans. It used to be 5% to repay. Best of Luck.
I am a credit union member, but that bank is in another state now (I moved), so I don't use it much. It does have lower interest rates on lines of credit. The bank that I have been working with the last 2 years on getting ready to buy a house is a local credit union. I'll have to look into options once I buy a house.
There needs to be a law passed putting a cap on what companies can charge for interest %.. they're getting out of hand!
Agreed!
I would get rid of all store cards. Just use major credit cards.
I’m definitely going to pay those off and not use them.
I know you probably don’t want to hear this but the best thing you can do for yourself is become someone who doesn’t believe in debt. Otherwise what tends to happen is that you will pay off some debt and then just accumulate more debt. It’s an endless cycle until you say NO MORE.
You are absolutely correct. I was debt free - other than my house and car - 4 yrs ago and for 5 years prior to that.
It’s not easing admitting to the whole world how much debt you have. By making these videos it will keep you accountable. Your subs will come by and support you. You are not alone. You got this. You can do it. ❤😂
Thanks. 😊
Another interesting number to see would be what you accrue in interest every month.
Good idea! I’ll add that to my monthly debt recaps.
Handy hint, closing a debt with a balance on it will have an adverse affect on your credit rating! I have kept my accounts open with no balance but cut up the cards, this way I'll have a better credit rating. Once you get into the mind set of no more debt and do the snowball system of paying down debt, it will benefit you. Having long standing debt going from one paycheck to another worrying if you'll have enough is stressful. Credit cards of any description are a wealth killer if your not disciplined to pay them off as you use them and as you know it can get out of control. I'm never using credit cards again!
I agree on all of that!
Thank you for the transparency. It's hard to put your debt out there for anyone to see. Is there any way you can transfer some of the insane interest rate balances to lower interest rates? Paying 35% on tens of thousands of dollars is going to cost you dearly in interest. It's unconscionable that credit card companies get to charge those insane amounts. Please find a way to get them to a much lower rate. These debts (accrued interest) will eat you alive.
I’ve tried to consolidate for lower rates, but my debt/income is too high to get approved for one.
I would start with the highest interest credit cards, maybe the specific store ones like Kohl’s, etc. I probably wouldn’t include personal loans, cars and student loans for 2024, just try and get the highest interest cards paid off. It will be a lot easier to make progress on the other debts once the high interest, low balance cards are gone. Good luck! You can do this.
That sounds like a great plan.
@@journifer Small victories lead to bigger ones! You’ve got this.
Agree. Having all those payments to keep up with would be exhausting and easy to forget. Do you have them all set up to auto-pay just in case?
Not on auto pay, but I keep a calendar with all the due dates and plan out my paycheck so I know what needs to get paid.
I second this. Every creditor changing you over 30% is robbing you blind! You need to pay it off and show the bankers middle finger 😊
You got this! It’s a tall order but you made a plan!
Thank you!
You’ve got this!!! I love the budgeting community here. Wishing you all the best on your journey! I’m doing the same this year!
Thanks for the support. You’ve got this, too!
I'm with you. I had a depressing day. Expected to be able to pay off some debt with the income tax but..... that is a negative. First time owing money. HOwever, We will overcome this debt situation.
It is definitely hard when you have a plan and can't follow through with it. It is so discouraging. But you have got this!
New sub and just wanted to say that you’ve got this. Documenting your debt confession is a huge step towards meeting your goals of achieving financial freedom and becoming debt free.
Thank you!
You should see if you can do a balance transfer to a new credit card and move all your credit card debt into 1 card with a lower interest rate
It’s something I’ve been looking into. Right now my debt to income is too high and making my credit score lower than what they want for a card with enough of a limit to do that.
New subscriber, I am actually on my own debt free journey and I am here to support you on yours. We can do this!! Discipline and perseverance will take us to the finish line, there is a great reward at the end of the journey.
Thank you! We can do this! This debt free journey is a hard road to travel.
I like your debt monthly trackers. May I ask where you got them from?
I’m not sure which budget pack they came from. I order two from Etsy and mingled them together to get what I needed and liked best. The two Etsy sellers are SnazzyPixels and HomePlannersCo.
New at budgeting with a new channel too, trying to find my way out of debts. New Subscriber. We can do this
Yes! We have got this! Good luck with your journey.
You got this girl. I think you will be able to pay off the little card balances shortly.
That is my plan. Fingers crossed!
Love your channel. As someone who crawled out from massive debt, I recommend paying off all the low balance high interest cards before making extra payments on your car. You’ll feel amazing as each balance reaches zero. Best of luck, I’ll be watching your journey.
I have taken the extra amount off of my car payment for this month for that very reason. 😊
@@journifer - so proud of you! Keep going, I’m routing for you from Canada. 🇨🇦
You've got this love🥰you just did the hardest part, I had to write it out and make it plain last month
Thank you for the encouragement. Writing it all out was definitely eye opening. I knew it was high, but seeing the amount of the monthly minimum payments was shocking.
I did not realize when you close an account it stopped accruing interest.
I didn't know that either. I may have to check into that.
It isn't typical. For my paypal card, I was able to talk to the bank and make this arrangement with them. But I did have to close the card in order to do it. I have a set monthly payment and no additional interest being accrued.
Good luck!! I just paid off $30k over 3yr..it's uncomfortable but doable ❤
Oh wow! That is amazing!
Are you on the SAVE plan for your student loans? If so, they are supposed to “forgive” your interest if you don’t pay all of it with your monthly payments, which should stop them from going up. I have nearly the same amount and my payment is over $400 and that barely covers all of the interest. So it would probably be beneficial to look into that and get on the SAVE program if you aren’t already.
I am on the SAVE plan. Being on an Income Driven plan is a requirement for the PSLF program. It cut my payment in half from what it was. But, yeah, my interest each month is over $600. So insane.
New Subscriber here. I just found your channel. It is great to be here supporting and following your journey. Great video.
Welcome aboard! I appreciate the support.
Your handwriting is so nice
Thank you!
You should put your debt into an app, such as Every Dollar. Also, another goal should be to not add to this number. Lock up your cards.
I don’t do well with apps for any kind of financial tracking. I’ve tried it in the past and I’m better with old school paper methods.
@@journifer Gotcha! I used an Excel spreadsheet for years but for almost a year now I’ve been using a zero-balanced budget and once I was used to it, it made a big difference in my spending. Gotta do what works, I get that!! 😎
I am struggling with the zero balance budgeting. I'm trying, but it is a little scary, too.
@@journifer I was annoyed with it for about three months and then I was hooked. I’ve been using it for a year. I always keep $1400 in checking as a buffer and I don’t move money to savings until I’m confident the expenses are noted accurately. It’s literally a game for me now. We have two kids in college and basically have to maintain three households and four cars so every nickel has to be saved at this point! Can’t wait for it to be over!
Hi Journifer, New subscriber here. I just found your channel! I look forward to your future videos! ❤💛💚
Yay! Thank you! Should have my next one up tomorrow. 😊
New sub. Thanks for sharing. Also trying to pay off debt. My interest payments make me ill!!
As you prepare to pay off balances, do call ahead to find out the payoff amount and what that date the money must be to them by. One way or another, the interest rate on many of these debts are calculated daily and often people remit what they think will paynoff thier bill in total only to find that there are some dollars of interest still owed.
Definitely. Im expecting a couple dollars on the Lane Bryant card after my February payment. I should know before March so I can still check it off as a February payoff.
You can definitely do the $10k!!! I bet you could get more in as well. I didn’t think I could do much either and then In 2023 I paid off my student loans (13k) AND my car loan (11K). It took determination, dedication and sacrifice to get it done. 2024 is my year of becoming debt free with paying off my credit cards (15k). This is completely doable and acknowledgment is the first step. Well Done!!! 🙌🏼 I’m also documenting my journey on my channel if you’re interested.
Wow! Great job on paying off both your student loans and car! That is amazing. Paying off the credit cards should be a breeze for you in 2024.
It looks like you've got a solid pay-off plan! We're excited to see what progress you make this year!!!! 🥰 You got this!!
Thank you! I hope my plan is solid and I can stick to it.
You've got this! Stay the course.
Thank you!
Even if you dont share your actual credit score, and i understand why, at the end of the year or semi-annually, please consider a short regular video discussing credit score changes. For example, theoretically credit scores are only recalculated every 6 months. On the other hand some report on utube that the closing of an account(s), the pay off of an account(s), the paydown of multiple accounts, etc... bring them a higher score. And that this can happen at a higher rate than once every 6 months. Im not saying show your tracker or even your numbers and maybe its only worth a segment in a video.
I do plan on sharing my +/- for my credit score when I do my monthly check ins. 😊
Looks like your minimum payments would be over $16,000 for the year. Of course that doesn’t include the interest added back into the debt. Good luck, cheering you on from California.
Oh! I didn’t even think about doing that part of the equation. That makes some of the higher percentages seem possible.
Congratulations on the Lane Bryant, $37/ month, February pay off target! This will free up $37 per month for reallocation in the budget. Do you plan to snowball the minimums from paid off debt into paying off additional debt?
At least a part of it. My energy bill has been running higher than anticipated the last couple of months (it’s been single digit or lower here for the last 2 weeks) so I’m a little nervous about snowballing it.
We are debt free, do have some but not a lot of savings, and our overall strategy is to try to live within our means/ income. We put increased emphasis on this in 2022 and made radical spending life style changes zt the rnd of May which went more fully into effect in June '22. We spent much of '23 working to prepare ourselves for an interruption amd also a delay in income due to a potential government shutdown; we also replaced our only driver in an unplanned manor in April and a few months more with additional parts/ repairs. For the past couple of months we have been transitioning from preparing for a possiblr government shut down into a more complete, 3 months ahead fund. We are also putting aside money for some 2024 bigger ticket items. Thankfully we started in Dec '23 because just 8 days into our low spend January we put money into an unplanned but NEEDED vehicle parts and repairs; of the 3 parts, 1 was on the 2024 bigger ticket item list but not the one which went to complete failure.
That’s awesome that you were able to do that! Government shutdowns are so stressful to me and I don’t even work for the federal government. I can’t imagine how stressful it is for you.
Pay off the credit cards n then CUT THEM UP. Store cards have the highest interest around
Great idea!
There is a chance that the Fed interest rate will go down this year and it is possible that your variable minimums will rates will go down. If you are surviving your current minimums, consider keeping with them to drive your balances owing down just a little faster.
Great idea!
You don't have the mindshift yet. Instead of saying “do you know how much mortgage I could afford with an extra $1500?’ You should say do you know how much I could make in compound interest with an extra $1500 a month?😊
I suggest you head on over and watch Janet KB. She has over 300K of debt to pay off.
I’ll check her out.
You got this gurl 😊
Thanks for the encouragement.
PSLF is 120 payments/10 years . Have you made 120 payments yet?
Making realistic time lines was something I struggled with too!
I need to look at the numbers of payments I’ve made toward the PSLF. I’ve been making payments on the loan for 16 yrs, but not all of those were PSLF qualifying.
@@journifer same. I do believe the payment pause due to covid counts towards your counts. Are you submitting the pslf form yearly or waiting until you hit the 10 years? This process was so confusing but I got a lot of help from reddit subreddits r/pslf
I submit it annually during the month that I started my current job. The Covid pause does count!
If you figure your current minimums at $1500/ month, dropping your current debt by 25% would take yoir minimums down to $1125 using overly simplistic math. This is a savings of $375 per month to the monthly budget.
That would be amazing!
You will make.J
Thank you!
You had $30,000 .... how did it get to $89,000??? In how many years???
Because of the way the interest is calculated.
Example: my current monthly accrued interest on my student loans is $900/months. If I were on the regular repayment plan my monthly payment would be $450/mo. So I’m never going to even make a dent in the principal. In fact, my new balance has increased to over $90k. For the PSLF I have to be on an income driven repayment plan - which is currently $70/mo.
@@journifer There is something very wrong with how they calculate interest. You should be able to easily pay off a $30,000 loan in 10 years. Best of Luck.
I agree! The whole student loan system needs to be overhauled. I've been paying on these loans since 2005, I think.
No this guy has a point, there’s something wrong here. Even if it has been 16 years you wouldn’t have gotten to this balance at a 3.625% interest rate. And your comment stating you accrue $900 in interest per month also contradicts the numbers you have written down. You should do a video on your student loans where you dive into them and show the actual starting balances so you (and us ha) can figure this out!
Why are your interest rates so high?
Because that’s what is charged. I haven’t seen options with lower rates.
@@journifer Have you tried a credit union? My credit union credit card is only 11.9% ... not bragging or anything. With a credit union if you own a home you can get a line of equity on your home and consolidate all the loans. It used to be 5% to repay. Best of Luck.
I am a credit union member, but that bank is in another state now (I moved), so I don't use it much. It does have lower interest rates on lines of credit. The bank that I have been working with the last 2 years on getting ready to buy a house is a local credit union. I'll have to look into options once I buy a house.