Do you owe more than $26k, not including a mortgage?

[Mr. Analog]

I currently owe 8k less than last year

[Tom]

I have a bit more debt at the moment. But a heck of a lot more "on the books" savings (sadly most of it is set aside for taxes and the like, >10k at this point). Most of my creditcard debt is covered, since I was reimbursed for a large-ish work expense ($1200 for a mac mini server). I just have to wait for the check to clear.

[Thorin]

If it's already set aside and spoken for, don't call it savings, call it future payments.

Mr. A, you're down to $13k?  That's awesome!  I'm up at $32k now (up from $30k last year), but we should start seeing that go down at a decent clip with CowGirl bringing in $1k+ of extra income (most of it'll go to debt repayment).  We're at that point where I make not quite enough to cover all the costs associated with our lives, but with her income we're up and over the hump and have extra cash to not just maintain the balances but also pay them down.

Still, it's an eight year plan at the moment

[Lazybones]

My big one is still my car which will take a while to pay off, that plus my credit debt (mostly low interest account with the bank) puts me over the 26 easy.

[Mr. Analog]

Yep, still moonwalking down the mountain of debt haha

[Tom]

If it's already set aside and spoken for, don't call it savings, call it future payments.

Yeah, thats what the quote was for. My savings account looks impressive. At least till I subtract the money set aside. To me, the money doesn't even exist. I should probably find another account to stick it in.

Mr. A, you're down to $13k?  That's awesome!  I'm up at $32k now (up from $30k last year), but we should start seeing that go down at a decent clip with CowGirl bringing in $1k+ of extra income (most of it'll go to debt repayment).  We're at that point where I make not quite enough to cover all the costs associated with our lives, but with her income we're up and over the hump and have extra cash to not just maintain the balances but also pay them down.

Still, it's an eight year plan at the moment

better than rising debt though. 32k is a fair chunk of change.

[Thorin]

Putting it in a different account where you don't see it is a good idea.  Or you could spin up a little spreadsheet that shows current balance and all future payments to come out of the account, then you can see how much of it is already spoken for and how much of it you can spend.  Take it one step further and add in future debits into the account (for instance, if you know you're gonna put $500 in it every month), and then you'll be able to predict whether your future savings will be enough for your future debts.

I do this, and at the moment I don't have enough future income for the expected future debts, but I've estimated Cowgirl's income very conservatively and am hoping she'll make more than estimated to cover those future debts.

An' yeah, rising debt sucks.

[Mr. Analog]

The best thing I ever did was automatically move stuff to my savings account.

The less I see in Checking the less I spent in Checking!

[Tom]

The best thing I ever did was automatically move stuff to my savings account.

The less I see in Checking the less I spent in Checking!

Due to the irregularity, I can't set it up automatically, but I have been moving money over regularly. And I can't access money in the savings account immediately. Takes a day to transfer. It does help keep my paws off it.

[Thorin]

Tom, maybe make a budget based on your smallest cheque, then consider anything more than that amount as "found money" and move it into savings.

Also, remember to treat yourself occasionally (but guessing by your scooter and TV, you've been doing that )

[Tom]

Tom, maybe make a budget based on your smallest cheque, then consider anything more than that amount as "found money" and move it into savings.

Also, remember to treat yourself occasionally (but guessing by your scooter and TV, you've been doing that )

The total of the checks isn't the issue, its the time they come in. It's a bit irregular when they come in. I'm sometimes a bit late submitting my invoice, and the boss sometimes forgets to send... I once got /three/ invoices in a single check. And $8k check sure looks impressive.

[Thorin]

lol, yeah, eight thousand dollars on one cheque feels good

[Tom]

So, for the heck of it I got my credit score, and equifax thinks its "Very Good". I'm really rather surprised.

And it appears that the last time I tried calculating my taxes, I did something very wrong. Over estimated by a couple thousand at least. So I'll probably have > 5k in savings this month, not including the stuff set aside for taxes. doing a bit better than I thought.

[Thorin]

Getting good credit is easy - always pay at least the minimum payment on time.  All creditors care about is whether you'll give them the money you've agreed to give them by the day you've agreed to give it to them.

[Tom]

Getting good credit is easy - always pay at least the minimum payment on time.  All creditors care about is whether you'll give them the money you've agreed to give them by the day you've agreed to give it to them.

I have a student loan that defaulted on. I had expected that to kill my credit rating for a very long time.