Share your MM progress!

KatieCutie05 · May 2014

Its easy to get wrapped up in where we are now with all the small setbacks that life throws at all of us... and lose track of how far we've come, the progress we made and look back and be thankful for what we have and what we were able to do. While I'm sure most of you are better off then me as far as a a money/debt situation but I've got a long road ahead. And its increasingly easy to lose hope and we've all got our own goals we've been working toward.

So lets encourage each other!

I'll start:

10 months ago.... We had 147k in non mortgage debt. and are income was less then half that before taxes.... at 70k per year... and we were barely breaking even.
We are now at 130k in non mortgage debt and our income went up to about 90k between my raise and DH's second job.

The first couple months were taken up by a lot of medical bills that we made very little progress. But i got my raise and DH got a second job and then we paid off all our credit card debt! woohoo! and now we're working on paying off my car... Which should be gone in September although trust me i want it gone like yesterday! We're down 17k in debt right now (although 6k of that was from downgrading a vehicle) which is still pretty good considering where we were even though most days it seems like pennies out of our total debt. But our plan is to have another 24k paid off in a year from now! Actually now that i think about it... i'm going to make it my new goal to be below 100k from 2 years from the day we started so end of july 2015 - i have 14 months to pay off 30k... This could be a rough road but 47k in 2 years would be awesome! Even Dave Ramsey would be proud. lol

brij2006 · May 2014

That's some awesome progress @katiecutie05 You guys are kicking some butt!

Our progress so far has been paying off $15k of our non-mortgage debt. We also have $4k sitting in an account waiting to be applied toward the next student loan if we don't end up selling my car by June 15th.

I also have 6 Tastefully Simple parties on the calendar for July and August, and have leads on a few major insurance policies that my portion of commission would pay off the next student loan.

Our original goal was to have 6 student loans paid off in 6 months. June will be 6 months since we started the plan and budget, and we will have 9 paid off. :-)

jessica490 · May 2014

Nice post!

Our progress:

1. Home- After refinancing our condo last April, we have been able to bring down our principal amount on our mortgage to about $142,000 by adding in extra $ every month. Other condo units are sellling for about $129,000-$134,000 so we have a little ways to catch before we buy a house late next year, though I will not sell for a loss no matter how much we want a house.

2. Car- My car is paid off, but we were able to trade in H's ridiculous 6 yr SUV loan last December($490/mo) for a 3 year lease at $279/mo which is much better so we are able to put more to savings so that way when the lease is up we will have a nice down payment for his next car we will buy.

3. After switching car insurance to Amica in January this year, we are saving about $600-$900/yr (can't remember exactly now). We make payments Jan-Oct and in December we get a dividend refund check if the company does well.

4. H and I both got decent raises this year at work so we will be bumping up our 401K contributions and looking into a ROTH's. We are both contributing 7% so we are working on getting this up to 10-15% over the next few years.

We have no consumer debt or students loans so with these changes, we are able to put a boatload more towards our e-fund and house DP as long as we keep our spending in check.

For the second half of the year we will focus on finding cheaper cell phone plans in October, and re-considering our expensive cable bill in November. Looking forward to it!

smbenevides1989 · May 2014

We started our road to financial happiness in September when H had gotten a steady job that pays extremely well. We were able to pay off $11,000+ in debt since that time. We were able to put away a minimum $1200 in our E-Fund while we take care of all the remainder of our debt.

This year's goals are to finish paying off the last of our credit card debt ($4000), save up for our vacation in December (which should be taken care of in August), and allow me to take 12 weeks maternity leave without worry since I do not get short term disability and rely solely on my DH and any sick time I have.

I did revamp my budget, which is something that I consistently do, but I feel much more confident this time around. Prior, we were overspending in almost all areas of our budgeted items. I fixed this and we are now both happy in both savings/spending and are working on keeping these goals in mind.

Hopefully by next summer, I will not have any new credit card debt and that the debt I do have will be paid off completely, my student loans will be paid off in full, and that I will have at least $5000 in my e-fund.

hoffse · May 2014

Well - as of 2 months ago, my old law firm officially no longer exists. Within 30 days of finding out they were going under, I moved to a new place and the rest of my practice group joined me at a later date. I'm profoundly grateful to have landed where I'm at - it's still all the same people I like working with, but we have big firm resources and perks. Truly the best of all worlds. It's been a really stressful 6 months getting our clients moved over, etc., but I foresee this change being incredibly positive in the long run.

In terms of finances, we've been in house mode. I'm about to send $3K to our house fund. We've managed to save our downpayment, and this next installment will get us within a couple thousand of our goal to cover closing costs/moving expenses too. Then it's just a matter of finding the right house! H is 2 months from the bar exam, so we will probably slow our search a bit until that's done. We'll still go to showings for houses that pop up that are spectacular deals, but I think we'll be really hitting the search hard in August. That's ok - 2 more months to get our finances where we want them to be. By August we should be ready to go in all aspects!

blondie42107 · May 2014

We recently slashed our auto and home owners insurance without hardly makingipal any changes. We shopped around and also told our current agent we were looking as well.

Ended up with our current agent having the best deal. We are paying 40% less on auto and 33% less on home.

That extra money will be nice for "snow balling."

Since refinancing (better interest rate and 15 yr instead of 30 yr) our house a year and a half ago, we've paid about $15,000 on our principle.

In the past year:
We paid off a credit card - $900.
E-fund of $5,000.

I'm getting better at budgeting and it's been much easier since I switched from paper and pencil to an excel spreadsheet!

vlagrl29 · May 2014

In the last 3 years we have paid off medical bills ($3,500) and personal credit cards (mine had 6k and DH's had 2k). We also fulfilled 3 months of emergency fund. Unfortunately I had to take $700 out of it

and we started contributing more to our retirement. Our only debt right now is my school loan

lifeonthehill · May 2014

Great post idea! I have been feeling down lately. We started trying to be better with our money almost 14 months ago. In that time we have saved a $10,000 e fund, paid off around $22,500 in student loan debt and took a great 5 day cruise to the Grand Cayman Islands and Jamaica. We have done amazing work with a combined income of just over $40,000/year. We are beyond excited for next April so we can see how far we have come again.

formerlyGDaisy09 · May 2014

in the last year we've definitely had ups and downs, but definitely more up than down.

one year ago we had about $9k in CC debt, that is now gone. we did trade-in H's car last summer, even though it was a 2009 we were putting hundreds of dollars of work into it every month, and we ultimately decided that we'd rather have a car payment every month and not have to deal with shuttling to and from the shop than keep fixing that car (you win some you loose some!)

we've been through a year of instability as far as H's job situation goes, he's had one steady part time job and a smattering of other part-time positions, as of now he seems to have found a second job that he likes and works with the schedule of his other part time. he's also committed to keeping his eyes on the job market for something that would allow him to switch to one full time position.

In the last week I've finished graduate school, with no additional student loans, and my boss managed to get me a respectable raise, so we are feeling some of the stress lift away.

We've also managed to check a few big items off our list, we're going on our first big vacation at the end of June, all other vacations have been weekend trips with budgets under $1000. and we are putting a new roof on our house this summer. We've managed to fund both with cash without feeling too squeezed!

It's so easy to let little set-backs eat away at you! thanks for the post suggestion!

MrsAshleyH10 · June 2014

I just added up the amount of debt we've paid off since the beginning of 2012 until now.... just over $46k ($13k so far this year)!

I will be applying for graduate school in the next month (since I figured out between grants and employer reimbursement, I could go for the cost of fees ($250/yr) and books.)

So motivated to keep pushing, keep paying off debt, keep bettering myself.

Wulfgar · June 2014

MW has been tracking our combined debts for a few years. We are now down to below 120k in total debt.

Even without a lot of extra money thrown at our car loans they will be paid off in two years. I am starting to pay extra to our one home improvement loan. We did refinance our loan through the bank that has our mortgage to a 15 year loan and it knocked off roughly 2% in interest. We also changed home owner insurance to make our payments similar.

MW and I both got raises this year that is allowing us to throw more towards our home repair/ e-fund/ car repair account. I am waiting for a promised promotion at work that will help us pay for pre-k for my son this fall.

cbee817 · June 2014

There haven't been too many changes for DH and me in the last year- we only have mortgage debt (refinanced in 2010 to a 15 year) and that is down to $104,756 with our June payment being taken out today. We'll start adding to the principal ($500/month) in Sept 2015 (DD#1 starts kindergarten) and bump it up to $1,000/month in Sept 2017 (DD#2 starts kindergarten). Our goal is to have the mortgage paid off by the end of 2020 and that will include DH and I probably having to get 2 newer cars (Currently, mine is a 2003, DH has a 2006).

In the last year, we met with a financial adviser and they suggested that we set up Roth IRA accounts and get larger term life insurance policies (which we have). I've decided to bump my 401K by 1% every 6 months for the next few years- will have it at 15% by the end of 2016 and will continue to increase until I hit the $ limit. We recently cashed out a CD and decided to open 529 plans for the girls- they'll get $5,000 each to start their college savings for 2014. We also started a vacation savings account with a credit union- we have $3,000 in there so far with our first big trip scheduled for February 2017 to Disney world. The plan for the next few years is to stay on track and absorb any bumps along the way... we're clear on our goals and we'll make changes as we need to.

Xstatic3333 · June 2014

Our progress has been slow and steady! Since joining this board, we cut our oversized e-fund to pay off our Cc's and are now working them for points. I'm contributing about 17% to retirement, we've saved a good DP, and H is on track to pay his car off before the warranty expires. We also just paid for a vacation in cash, can pay cash for car repairs, and have plans to save for our next trip as well.

Mom987 · June 2014

Paid an extra $560 this month on our mortgage!

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