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year end goals

October 4th, 2010 at 02:25 am

Well, my goals for 2010 were to pay off the pickup (loan from DH's Grandma), pay off the house, and pay the Bank of Amigo card down to $8000.

Paid House off in December of last year, paid Grandma off last month, and have the Bank of Amigo card down to $8568. I had $950 allocated to this card this month, so I would have hit my goal two months early.

But...I got a balance transfer offer in the mail for a credit card I have a $15,000 limit on, no balance, and my oldest card I have. I've had this card since I was 18. They offered 3.99% with a 3% transfer fee, so I jumped on that. It actually was kind of a pain. I tried to do it last weekend, but the card had actually expired, so I had to request a new card, activate it, and then call in to transfer the money.

I sent $200 to Bank of America to make sure that I made the minimum monthly payment, then sent $8450 as the balance transfer. I did it this way so there would be just a bit of a balance left over when the balance transfer hits, so I don't overpay and have to ask for a refund from them.

I then sent the remaining part of the balance transfer ($4645) to the Chase card that currently has $12069 on it. It is currently 5.99% until Feb and then 16.24% after that...my highest potential interest rate. I set up a spreadsheet to see if this one is the one that should be paid or another card I have that is 13.24% now, and the math worked out to pay the rest of the balance transfer to the 5.99/16.24% card. This card will then be down to $7425.

So, my goal for next year is to pay off that card. It should be done by October, so it isn't really stretching much, but I upped my HSA to $100 a paycheck (up from $25 a paycheck) and I haven't figured that change into the projections.

8 Responses to “year end goals”

  1. crazyliblady Says:
    1286156495

    I am just curious about something. If your credit card balances are so high and have double-digit interest rates, why didn't you pay them off before your house? At least with a mortgage, you get to write off the interest on your taxes. Also, when you pay off credit cards, you get a guaranteed rate of return of whatever the interest on the card is. Just my humble observation.

  2. cptacek Says:
    1286160787

    The house was only $15,000 and DH had bought it on contract about 5 years ago. We didn't really have a "mortgage" just payments to the previous home owner, and the home owner would let us not pay for a few months and then make a large payment to get caught up, with no penalty. Heck, he wouldn't even say anything. He really worked with us, even when times were tight.

    We had not paid for probably 3 months, and I figured that we only owed ~$1300 (too lazy to look that up, but that is about right) so I just thought it would be a good goal to get that out of the way and then snowball onto the next credit card. I didn't like owing someone I saw driving around town, and even though he never said anything, I didn't like being late on payments.

    At the time, I was following Dave Ramsey to the letter, before switching to Dave Ramsey except using highest interest rate first.

    We also do some work for him, swathing and baling, and DH welds some things as well for him. Long story short, the balance was low, the interest wasn't enough to deduct, and we wanted to keep him happy.

  3. creditcardfree Says:
    1286192791

    Great job on all of those goals and accomplishments. And you were wise to pay off the house!

  4. Rick Says:
    1286195242

    Good job.

    I would have done the same thing.

  5. Homebody Says:
    1286226043

    Wow you are doing great!

  6. Jerry Says:
    1287156397

    This just goes to show that circumstances can vary wildly, and that leads different people to make different decisions that are very sound - but might be different. You had a home situation that was different than most, and you did a great job paying it off! You have some pretty good insurance that you're on the right track, and I wish you well with your efforts.
    Jerry

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