payoff series

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In: Debt Repayment

Welcome to Part Six of a 6-part series (aka, the last post) I’m doing on personal loans, credit card debt, and refinancing – the Payoff Series. If you’re new here, go back and check out Part One, Part Two, Part Three, Part Four, and Part Five! Well, I did it. I paid down $12,607.16 between May 16, 2016 and November 30, 2017. And you know what? It feels great. I didn’t quite get it paid off by my birthday (which is in July), but I still got it done 6 months earlier than planned. And while most financial advisors wouldn’t recommend personal loans for credit card debt, using Payoff’sRead More →

financial emergency

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Welcome to Part Five of a 6-part series I’m doing on personal loans, credit card debt, and refinancing – the Payoff Series. If you’re new here, go back and check out Part One, Part Two, Part Three, and Part Four! If you follow our Twitter, then you know I recently spent several hours getting some unexpected, but necessary, car repairs (boo) AND then I moved in with my boyfriend this month (yay). While it’s obviously important to maintain my car and moving in together will eventually be cheaper for me, these were two big purchases that I hadn’t planned for at the moment. This is why youRead More →

payoff series

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Welcome to Part Four of a 6-part series I’m doing on personal loans, credit card debt, and refinancing – the Payoff Series. If you’re new here, go back and check out Part One, Part Two, and Part Three! 23% of Americans — and 36% of Millennials — experience a debilitating degree of stress surrounding their finances. According to Payoff, this financial stress affects people’s thoughts, feelings, and behaviors – and don’t I know it. Stress over how to pay my credit card bill is actually what drew me to Payoff in the first place. Refinancing my loan helped me a ton, but there are additional ways toRead More →

payoff series

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Welcome to Part Three of a 6-part series I’m doing on personal loans, credit card debt, and refinancing – the Payoff Series. If you’re new here, go back and check out Part One and Part Two!   Debt consolidation allows borrowers to roll multiple old debts into a single new one. Ideally, that new debt has a lower interest rate that makes payments more manageable or lets borrowers pay off the total more quickly. Many people try debt consolidation, but not all emerge better off. Some borrowers wind up in worse shape, either because they run up their credit cards again or because their debt remainsRead More →

payoff series

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In: Debt Repayment

Welcome to Part Two of a 6-part series I’m doing on personal loans, credit card debt, and refinancing – the Payoff Series. If you’re new here, go back and check out Part One! Refinancing credit card debt means paying off your current debt-load with another loan. Refinancing is different than debt negotiation. In debt negotiation or debt settlement, you work with your lenders to reduce the total principal you owe by offering a fast, lump-sum payment. Refinancing means you will still have monthly payments, but they will be to a different lender. The ultimate goal in refinancing is to secure a better debt situation thanRead More →

payoff series

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In: Debt Repayment

Last week, I told y’all about a 6-part series I’m doing on personal loans, credit card debt, and refinancing – the Payoff Series. Welcome to Part I! It’s no secret that America is in a debt crisis – student loan debt is in the trillions, the government itself is battling its own debt, and regular consumers are adding mortgages and credit cards to the mix. The average American household has $15,000 in credit card debt, and the average interest rate on those credit cards remains above 13%. Debt Stress is No Joke And how are people handling all that debt? Not well. One in five people considerRead More →

spending fast

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In: Money Challenges, Saving Money

It’s been six months since I started my spending fast journey. Honestly, it’s become pretty routine now. Not that I ever struggled to not shop, but I’ve realized how little I actually need. I’ve also realized my food budget (& not packing my lunch) is a far more pressing problem. Oh well, I’m a work in progress. Regardless, I’ve learned a lot in my six months of fasting. Here are six lessons for six months: Impulsive shopping is the worst kind of shopping. I haven’t broken my spending fast, and I’m pretty proud of that (though I did ask my boyfriend to buy me aRead More →

painless

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In: Debt Repayment

Paying down debt with regular, automatic payments is great. Paying down debt faster with extra payments is better, especially if it’s painless. As you guys know, I currently have three kinds of debt: federal student loans, a private student loan, and credit card debt. Based off this, my debt repayment plan is to pay off my the consumer debt first, private student loan second, and then tackle the federal loans last (i.e. going for highest interest rate first). My Plan for Paying It Off Faster With all of my payments automated, my current credit card debt payoff date is May 2018; however, I’ve decided toRead More →

This is Your Life on Debt

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In: Debt Repayment, Personal Finance 101

Remember all of those “This is your brain on drugs” PSAs that ran in the ’90s? Well, consider this your debt wake-up call. Debt is bad, and it’s bad for your finances. To understand just how bad debt is, think of it like you would a smoking habit – costly, definitely not “cool”, and seriously expensive.   The average U.S. household with debt carries $15,762 in credit card debt and $130,922 in total debt. (Courtesy of Nerd Wallet) While some of this may be related to poor spending decisions or eating out too much, not all of this debt is from reckless spending. More Americans than ever areRead More →

axing monthly subscriptions

Cutting the Cord: Axing Those Unnecessary Monthly Subscriptions

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In: Saving Money

Throughout my money journey, I’ve done this thing where I justify unnecessary (and usually fairly costly) purchases in the name of some goal. Full disclosure: the goal is usually fitness/weight related. I’ve joined spin studios, barre studios, yoga studios, Weight Watchers, an infrared sauna spa (still amazing & will totally re-join once I’m debt free!), and a great-but-very-expensive group training gym to name a few. All of them were great, and obviously, I loved going to them for one reason or another. It’s not like they weren’t great workouts or great at lowering stress, it’s just that they were all a monthly bill for somethingRead More →