My family does NOT have a good mustache and I only have so much will power to fight it. In Dec 2015 the only debt we had was 2 mortgages (primary & rental) and my student loan. In 2016 we refinanced the house to do some needed remodeling and in late 2016 I decided that I deserved a new EV car (face punches accepted). In 2017 our family of 3 became to a family of 5+1 on the way so we used that as an excuse to buy a van and we got a HELOC to add solar panels to the house (and charge the EV). In 2018 the rental had some major issues (and the property manager was fired), we also added an outdoor wood burning boiler to our house to help offset winter electric usage. So far in 2019 we again added a new debt when we had to purchase a tractor for the property and I got tired of all the used one's we have bought in the past breaking down within a couple months, probably worth another face punch but I'll take it to not have to worry about the tractor not starting when we need it. So in short we added D*BT every year for the last 4 years, most of which had very low interest rates but still added debt. I tend to be hyper-focused on paying off debt and putting money into retirement accounts, but it seems that I might need to adjust some of that focus to maintaining my will power to say no to new debt.
In 2019 I have been tracking 8 (yes you read that correctly) non-mortgage debt, although one is a HELOC. My goal for debt reduction in 2019 was to payoff 4 of those at a total of $22.5k, well as of Monday 3 of them are paid off!!
The 4th has a remaining balance of ~$7k and the plan is to pay it off by the end of Aug!
MAJOR BREAKTHROUGH WITH THE SO!!
We eliminated a 5th, not planned to pay off this year, debt last week when we traded-in the van and got a used Prius.
The plan to pay off the 4th (mentioned above) debt is changing slightly. We are going to put the rental on the market and this debt is associated with the rental so I will keep this around until we get the rental sold and pay it off with the proceeds of that!
If we can get the rental sold that will leave me with the HELOC (5.5%) for solar panels, my Leaf (2.74%), and the tractor (5%) and a plan to pay at least 2 (if not all 3) of those off in 2020. I have also been bouncing around trading the Leaf for another cash (or very low loan) Prius but there are some other things that need to shake out before I make that decision.
As of today we have marked off ~$30k in debt in 2019! Depending on some different employment options (and the rental being sold, see below) that we are considering we should be able to mark off another ~$10k-$20k before the end of the year. We are also adding more to retirement accounts in 2019 than we have in any previous years! I am really hoping that I can stop being the bad guy with the family and they will start to support this FIRE concept going forward.
