I'm still not 100% sure I'm doing this MMM thing right, but from what I've read, I should get out of debt before I start investing. Seems like common sense, anyway.
Anyway, heres my plan...
I work on commission, so my monthly income varies. Some months I'll only make $2500, other months I'll make $10,000. For ease of budgeting, I've planned this out with the lowest income possible. On better months, I'll just "Dave Ramsey Snowball" toward the debt.
Current debts:
My car. 2008 Chevy Impala. 70k miles. Looks ok. Has developed a bit of a transmission issue. I owe about $6200 at 6.9% rate.
My wifes car. 2017 Chevy Traverse. Something like 2k miles on it. 3 months into a 36 month lease.
Extended warranty on the Impala. 0% interest, $95 a month. I owe about $1100.
Student loans $68,000. $200 a month payment on the income based repayment plan.
Rent. $950 a month. 4 BR, 2 Bath house. It's actually a really good price for what it is.
Cable/internet- $110 a month
Electric-$150 month
car insurance- $140 a month for full coverage on both cars
renters insurance- $120 a year for liability and $20,000 in stuff
cell phone- $150 a month for 2 lines and 2 iphone 7s.
Current savings account balance is about $10,000 and 401k has about $3000.
Quick math shows I have $2460 in bills every month, and thats without feeding anyone or putting a drop of gas in the cars. Slow months mean some stuff goes on a credit card to be floated a month and paid in the next higher income month. I've managed to not pay a penny of interest, but its still obviously less than ideal...
My thoughts--
Pay off the Impala and cancel the warranty, which will free up $280 a month. Reduce the full coverage to liability only, which will cut the insurance bill by about $60 a month, resulting in $340 extra every month.
The Traverse theres not much I can do with right now. The lease is too new, so I might as well suck it up, with the plan of buying a 2-3 year old Suburban at the end of the lease.
I could see about reducing the cell phone bill. I do need to have a smart phone for work, and they reimbursed me for the iphone 7, but my wifes is on a payment plan. If I pay it off, it'll go down about $35 a month. I'm not sure what else can be reduced from there, since we have low data.
I think that after I pay off the Impala, my next step should be trying to get the student loans paid off. I think the rate on them is about 4.25% so with my payment plan, its not really affecting the balance. I figure I should keep the $10,000 in savings, so I'll use tax refund to keep it there after paying off my car and send anything extra I get every month toward paying it off. I could probably get it paid off completely in three years, BUT by throwing everything extra at the loans, I won't be able to save toward replacing the wifes lease.
If I put the Impala payment and warranty amount into a savings account toward a car, I could have about $10,000 saved in the next 34 months toward a down payment. Depending on where my wife is with the plan at that point, it could almost pay for a 5 year old minivan, or be about 1/3 toward a 3 year old Suburban. I'll skimp on a lot of things, but my wife and kids are going to have a decent, safe, and reliable car. We've got 6 kids, so something like a Honda Fit won't work so a big vehicle is needed.
Also, as a side thought... I've considered getting rid of the Impala since there a transmission issue, and replacing it with an older 04-05 Prius or something, but I'm not sure that would be good. I can get one for $2-3000 with high miles, but I don't know if that savings would offset the fact I'd be trading in a paid for 08 with 70k miles. I just don't want to get stuck with a failed transmission because the Impala is NOT worth replacing a transmission in, and I think that is coming sooner than later.
Just seeking opinions, thoughts, face punches, etc.