year end goals
October 4th, 2010 at 02:25 amWell, 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.