I
Expenses Monthly
Visa 1 $120.00 (8% interest, balance 7k)
Visa 2 $115.00 (9% interest, balance 5500)
IRS $200.00 (simple interest payment, balance 3000)
Visa 3 $35.00 (8%, balance 2200)
Visa 4 $135.00 (9%, balance $2600)
Care Credit $52.00 (19%, balance 1k)
Medical bills $85.00 (balance 2k)
Personal loan for home windows $130.00 (22%, balance 3k)
Student loan $54.00 (8.75%, balance 2k)
Signature loan at bank $220.00 (9%, balance 9k)
Computer store card $25.00 (16%, balance $130)
Sub total $1,171.00
Electric $360.00
Auto Insurance $58.00
Home Warranty $45.00
Water $50.00
Auto Insurance $17.50
Pest control service $26.00
Trash Service $21.00
Donations $136.00
Sub total $713.50
Pluralsite (computer based training for career) $29.00
Microsoft Office 365 $9.95
Young Living Oils $100.00
Sub total $138.95
Groceries $1,000.00 (food for 5 folks)
Fuel $200.00
Allowances $100.00
Home mortgage (1st 160k and 2nd HELOC of 60k, both interest only) $862.00
Sub total $2,162.00
Internet $40.00
TV $68.00
Entertainment: $75.00
Cell phone $216.00 (3 smart phones includes data plans)
Juice Plus $121.00 (dietary supplements)
Sub total $520.00
Sub total of all expenses $4,705.45
Guaranteed income $5,671.78
Difference from expenditure is possible monthly savings $966.33
Clearly we can get that number to $1000/month in savings easily.
Savings.
Electricity. you can save $60 a month by turning the fucking lights off! Seriously - also look into reducing ac use and getting different light bulbs. but not using as much is the best start.
Donations. Scrap that. you've got an emergency. $136
Living oils. $100
juice plus $121
you have enough room in groceries at $900 a month to eat very healthy. Plenty of beans! less meat. more veg. oh yeah - $900 a month - not $1000
Cell phone... $216 for 3? how the hell.... I have 4 and even with phone repayments I'm running 160 (and i'll be getting rid of that soon too). you can look around and save 50 min in this category.
So theres an extra $567!!
add that to your 966 and we'll call it a nice round 1500 a month extra.
So now take some of your savings and add that to your monthly payments and pay off the following
Care Credit $52.00 (19%, balance 1k)
Personal loan for home windows $130.00 (22%, balance 3k)
and this Computer store card $25.00 (16%, balance $130) (because its stupid and annoying).
So the next month you now have an extra 200 - so its now 1700 to attack debt with
so what you can on this
Student loan $54.00 (8.75%, balance 2k) - even throw another 300 from savings and get rid of it.
so 2 months in and your debt looks like this.
Visa 1 $120.00 (8% interest, balance 7k)
Visa 2 $115.00 (9% interest, balance 5500)
IRS $200.00 (simple interest payment, balance 3000)
Visa 3 $35.00 (8%, balance 2200)
Visa 4 $135.00 (9%, balance $2600)
Medical bills $85.00 (balance 2k)
Signature loan at bank $220.00 (9%, balance 9k)
that's 910 a month and you now have an extra 1,750 a month to throw at it. Hit the visa 4 next - 2 months further and its gone and your extra is 1,900 - by then visa 3 might only be a month
then you have nearly 2k a month to pay down this crap.
medical one month.
6 months in and It looks like this...
Visa 1 $120.00 (8% interest, balance 7k)
Visa 2 $115.00 (9% interest, balance 5500)
IRS $200.00 (simple interest payment, balance 3000)
Signature loan at bank $220.00 (9%, balance 9k)
now that's a much more manageable figure. Crank up the freelance gig for a bit and you are going be rid of most of your consumer debt by year end at that rate of payment. Its not easy and you have to be disciplined.
In the meantime you need to look for income elsewhere (I'm thinking maybe the wife - can't tell if that's an option). also look for 0% balance transfers and move the higher interest debt when you can - still pay it all down though.
you have to get your wife on the same page though and go though some rough projections as to why you can't have a new car of eat ribeye steak once a week.
stick to it and by next xmas you are nearly out of the first hole!
a year of that and your credit record could indicate that a refi to sort out the mortgage and heloc might be in order. then you can be looking at adding to your 401k and getting the benefit of that.
Its the number of lines of credit that's overwhelming. once you start dealing with it then you can see what you can do with the money - ie put it to work for you.
trust me - it can be done. I use mint to track everything and I have a list of credit cards on there that now (apart from one) all reads zero. and that's a lovely number.