Sunday, August 3, 2008

Debt Snowball Progress

When I had my accident it sent me into a giant pit of financial despair. I have medical bills, I had to buy a car, I have to pay car insurance, and many other little things keep surfacing that I have to pay for. 
I decided the only way to get a grip on all of this was to just bite the bullet and get a second job. I am now working seven days a week in order to stay on top of everything. My second job is sales, so I get a base rate plus commission. So far I haven't been doing too badly, and combined with another six month long income stream, I can stay on top of my debt with a little extra to start paying down some bills.
Yesterday I received my first check and was able to pay off the first of seven debts. This was also the first end of year goal that I managed to meet. 

My debt snowball now looks like this:

Banana Republic Card - PAID ($20 Minimum transferred to AmEx)

American Express - Minimum $38

Prosper - Minimum $101.01

Bank of America - Minimum $105

Car - Minimum $200

Medical - Minimum $86.40

Student Loan - No Minimum

There are a couple of non-traditional aspects to my snowball. My car and medical payments carry no interest so although they have lower balances, I am working on the interest bearing debts first. My student loan was a loan from my parents and we have a separate agreement regarding it's payment. My normal job only allows me room to pay $130 in minimum debt payments currently, so the goal is to get all of my debt paid off or my minimums below $130 before I can stop working two jobs. 

Paying off my Banana Republic card is a great first boost. I am very happy that I was able to do that and I think that with some hard work I might be able to pay my AmEx off within another two months. 

My 2008 Financial Goals are:

Get My Networth to -$28000 - Currently at -$30,981

Get my Prosper Loan down to less than $2000 - Currently at $2575

Pay off my Banana Republic Card - DONE

Pay off my American Express - Currently at $1075

Get Emergency Fund to $1000 - Currently at $243

It looks like I am definitely on track to meet all of these goals with the only one I consider questionable being my Emergency Fund Goal. There is definitely a little light at the end of the tunnel though. 

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