Tuesday, March 4, 2008

Getting a handle on my debts

I hate owing money more than anything. I hate credit cards and hate borrowing money for any reason. Why? Because of interest! Interest sucks. Today was my bill paying day and I get an itch to alleviate all my debt every month when I pay bills.

I'm not in too bad shape, but I could save myself a ton of money by getting rid of some of these animals. These are my debts at this time

House: $75,000 (6.75%)
HELOC: $11,000 (6.00%)
Credit Card: $4200 (11.99%)
Misc Bank Loan: $1500 (11.00%)
12 Month Same as Cash loan (0% until July 2009, then like 92080938580%): $400-500

So, as you can, nothing major. I don't consider the HELOC and Mortgage a bad loan though. However, the credit card, bank loan, and 12 month same as cash deal or bad debts that should be paid off ASAP.

My gameplan is to start at the bottom and work my way up. Baby steps, huh? The 0% loan will hopefully be paid off at the end of this month (assuming all goes well poker-wise). Once I conquer that one, it's on to the bank loan.

Killing the 0%/Same as Cash loan will save me $200/month. That's the amount I've been paying on that loan the past few months. That's much needed money in my pocket every month. The bank loan on the other hand is not costing me much per month. However, it's sort of a floating line of credit that I have at the bank. The past few months it has increased a lot. It was the easiest and most convenient way for me to get access to extra cash fast. Plus the interest rate isn't too terrible, especially for a loan such as that. Assuming I never access that loan again, it still only costs me about $25-30 month, but is a nagging pain in my ass.

Speaking of pain in the ass ... the credit card loan. I turned to my credit card too many times in past years. It started as a gas card. Then I needed a PC. Then something else and something other than that. Then I bought a house and it was easier to buy my stuff at Lowes on my credit card than it was to go to the bank and get some money out of my HELOC. That didn't work. 99% of the money on this credit card is for items for the Pisgah House.

I have a few things going right now and then I'll be ready to refinance my house and roll that HELOC (costs me about $115/month right now) into my mortgage ($486/month). I'll also take my added equity in the home (it should really jump way up considering the renovations I have done and the comps in the area) and pay off my credit card with the added equity. Then I will pay that off ASAP. I just want the lower interest rate.

Let's review what all of this will save me per month:

House Payment ($486/month). This will go up a bit. I'm fine with that. I don't expect it to go up more than. I just need to check on closing costs and such. I'm pretty ignorant on that. But assuming that's all covered and won't be part of the loan. The payment will go up a bit, but not more than $200/month.

Credit Card Payment. I pay between $200-400/month on this thing and haven't actually charged anything to it in a while. Getting rid of this debt saves me $200-400/month out of my pocket and $40-$50/month in interest.

Misc Bank Loan: This will only save me about $25/month. But it would be nice to reset that loan and have the line of credit just sitting there for emergency or something. Nothing else.

0% Loan: By paying this off, I'm saving $200/month.

So all together, I'm saving $425-625/month on 3 of the bad debts and adding $150-200/month on the good debt (mortgage). The net gain in my wallet is $225-$425/month.

Add those savings in with the savings I expect to see with my "no eating out for lunch anymore" challenge and we've just freed up a bunch of money every month. It all seems rather simple when you map out the plan. Is my theory flawed here?

1 comments:

jjok said...

It's always good to read a post like this because it lets me keep some peace of mind that people are conscious of their debts.

The theory isn't flawed at all btw, and is a textbook example of what any credit company will tell you to do. Good job in putting this together.

Get rid of the high interest debts, don't let any 0% loans expire, get your debts down to your house and then start to invest.

Judging on your rates, I think I personally would be attacking the bigger loans in chunks and ration out the 0%. Say, pay 40$ a month towards the 0% and knock down the bigger fish now.....especially at 11 and 12%.

Regardless.....

Good luck in knocking it all off your books, it's about as satisfying financially as it can get.......

And when your done?!?! Oh boy, does it open your eyes even more.