Saturday, January 25, 2014

Getting Back on the Saddle

So Sorry to all of our readers. There really is no excuse to not post an update for this long. We have been busy with work and debt, but there is no reason why we can't update our readers.

However, I have been posting our updates on debt and keeping those current. If you have been following, we have been aggressively paying off our debt, and as of today, we are over 50% paid off!! WOO HOO!!

It has been a tough road, but now we can see the light at the end of the tunnel. On the wife's loans, we only have $9,800 left. I will have these gone by the end of the summer. That will put $350 a month back in our pockets. I cannot wait. We are still paying the minimums on mine because we will get $17,500 forgiven in two years.

I definitely did something questionable to pay off a large chunk of loans. I have a Roth that I stopped contributing to and it was not earning a lot of money because I was in some questionable mutual funds at best. So, I decided to sell that off because I would get a guaranteed 6.55% return on the interest saved by paying off two loans. That moved has freed up about $150 a month in payments and allowed me to apply that to the next loan. With that payment schedule, and summer money, that $9,800 should be gone by the end of July according to my calculations.

We have also been saving aggressively. We are looking at buying our first rental property at the end of the year. We have another investor that will go in 50/50 with us. This is a new idea and definitely risky, but I think long-term it would be a good investment for our family. I will post updates (hopefully) on this as it progresses. Nothing will happen until I pay off the rest of that $9,800.

Again, sorry for not posting an update in so long! I will do my best to post at least once a week as that is my new year's resolution.

Hope everyone has had a good start to their new year!