We’re about of a month ahead of my debt reduction plan. If you’re just joining the blog, one of my 2008 financial resolutions is to pay off $40,000 in debt. April was a good month for debt reduction, but May was much better. I’m still hopeful that we can pay off the full $40,000 by November.
Debt Reduction Successes in May
This month we paid off the second credit card, with an additional $2200 in debt payments. That was partially thanks to our stimulus check, which arrived just in time to make the big payment. The 0% interest rate expired in mid-April, but we managed to only accumulate $14 in interest before paying it off.
Debt Goals for June
We prepaid our December vacation, which means we’ll have to pay that credit card bill this month. We’d hoped to pay off the medical loan this month, but that will wait until next month.
Changes in the Debt Plan
Once again, we have more changes to the debt plan. The windfall I didn’t think we would get is once again on the table, but it will be doled out in smaller amounts between now and next March. We’ll have the bulk by year-end, though. That means we should not only have the debt paid of by November, but we should have the taxes saved up by the end of the year and pay off a third student loan by early March.
We still have our plan to start an emergency fund and boost our retirement, too.
Progress on Other Goals
I’m very concerned about our goal of buying a house early next year. We originally planned to buy a condo, but loans for condos are harder to get now. Home prices haven’t fallen enough to bring them within range, yet. Hopefully things will look better early next year after we’ve both had raises and our debt load is smaller.
How was your debt progress this month?
