OK, I've decided to start looking at the worst-case scenario for my debt repayment efforts. I need to be realistic so I'm not too disappointed.
The facts? We've still got some significant expenses coming up for our UK rental flat. AS's student loans will be coming due, if not in August then definitely in September. Her income will be $500 lower for the next two months, and we don't know when she will get a new job, or whether it will be a significant jump in salary. NT and I can't count on more than a small cost-of-living raise this year.
And if all these factors are going to push back our goal of losing the CC debt, I don't want it to delay our plans to start trying to have children. That means I've also got to start saving up money for that, instead of waiting till all our CC debt is gone. Which will push back our goal date even further. It's like a debt-slowdown snowball.
That said, August may be our last month of big, exciting debt repayment in a long time. So I'm going to enjoy every second!
The goal for August is to pay off $3,500 in debt. I will also get our CC debt below $50,000 and our mortgage debt below $300,000.
August debt payoff goal
July 20th, 2008 at 12:20 am
July 20th, 2008 at 01:27 am 1216517269
July 20th, 2008 at 01:47 pm 1216561651
July 21st, 2008 at 11:50 am 1216641049
You should seperate having kids from your fincial plans. There's always a better time to have kids. I say go ahead and start trying. It's going to take you 9 months once you become pregnant. Once you do, I would stop the debt snowball and pile up cash. You want a pile just in case (my second son had seizures a week after being born and that cost me about 25k out of pocket).
Then when everyone is healthy and happy, throw that moeny at your debt and your back on track.
Good luck!!!
July 21st, 2008 at 05:12 pm 1216660333
Merch--I hear you and I know Dave Ramsey says the same thing. I just feel that I wouldn't be able to enjoy the experience with this much CC debt hanging over my head. Maybe I'm wrong, though. I guess I want to make sure I can get out from under this to prove we can be good examples to our children. That said, I'm no longer set on being completely CC-free before we start trying.
I don't know. I tend to circle and pace around big decisions like this, dithering for ages before I make the leap. I like to look at things from all angles and get used to the feeling of the decision before I go for it. But don't worry, my resolve is gathering, slowly but surely!