Need advice on personal finance

[lillyb]

Originally Posted by amberbamber

South East- North Carolina.

hehe... that made me giggle this morning... only missing west.

[amberbamber]

Well, here's an update. I received my cash out payment from my whole life insurance today. It was 2097.and change. I am applying that to my CC tomorrow so I will have a balance of 1641.43. My Dh is working an extra job on Sunday, hopefully he'll make around $150 and we can add that to the CC also. We have set some goals for ourselves. 1 goal is to have this CC paid off by November of this year.

Hopefully soon, I will receive the cash out from my Dh's and our two kids whole life policies.

Also, we've already got our term life insurance set up. I got $100,000.00 and my Dh now has $500,000.00 Overall our savings are around $175.00 a month just in the life insurance. Plus we stopped contributing to the kids 529 plans also, so that will give us another $100.00 each month. I am excited at the prospect of seeing this CC disappear!!!!

[creditcardfree]

That is so exciting!! Good job making those things happen. Sounds like you are being very focused on what you need to do.

[amberbamber]

Originally Posted by creditcardfree

That is so exciting!! Good job making those things happen. Sounds like you are being very focused on what you need to do.

Thanks! I paid the bill online today- and it was extremely exciting! I'm doing my happy dance

[greedy4chips]

Originally Posted by amberbamber

Well, here's an update. I received my cash out payment from my whole life insurance today. It was 2097.and change. I am applying that to my CC tomorrow so I will have a balance of 1641.43.

Also, we've already got our term life insurance set up. I got $100,000.00 and my Dh now has $500,000.00 Overall our savings are around $175.00 a month just in the life insurance. Plus we stopped contributing to the kids 529 plans also, so that will give us another $100.00 each month. I am excited at the prospect of seeing this CC disappear!!!!

CONGRATS

Cashing out our Universal Life Investment (scam, very similar to whole life) is what helped us get a super fast start on debt reduction.

At a future date you may want to up your term insurance another 100 or 200 thousand. It is cheaper for females and if something were to happen to you your DH would either have to quit working or find someone to take care of the kids.

By the time your DH gets his bonus you should have a pretty good start on budgeting and paying off some of those pesky debts.

Are you still planning on selling the house?

What are your options with the leased van?

I still think you have a shot at being debt free in 12 months if your DH gets his bonus, you sell the house, and the lease goes bye-bye! Selling the house gets you 15-18k profit after realtor fees plus the monthly savings on payment vs rent. Bonus will pay off several debts and you won't have to set aside this money for the next year to make your monthly payments as you have in the past.

If you still can't get out of the van lease some how some way you will have $800 rent + lease payment + $800 monthly bills in expenses which does not leave you a whole lot for food and debt reduction.

The van, while reliable and safe is my deal breaker for me personally. There is no way a vehicle choice would win out over selling our house where we have so many memories of raising our kids. Is our house perfect...not hardly! Will we move someday...perhaps. But we want that choice and not let our bills decide that for us. That is just my opinion and thoughts on the importance of home vs vehicle.

Around here there are some superb SUVs for under $10k and have lots of life in them! You may have a repair bill or two, but the huge difference in payments will easily fund any repairs. If you are totally worried about the repair expenses you can buy those insane extended warranty policies.

Congrats again on your progress

[amberbamber]

Yes, we plan to put our house up for sale by the end of this month. We've set some short term goals and some long term goals. Hopefully with luck and planning everything will go our way.

I have given up the van agrument for now. Honestly it's wasting too much of my time arguing with him about it. And for now, I will let it go. Note: I said FOR NOW! Because I am not giving up, just setting it aside for now.

I was thinking, I don't get a chance to visit this board every day. It would be awesome if someone set up some kind of system that sent out an email a day with a little tidbit of information in it. To keep me going. I find if I don't visit this board enough I start to slack and find myself thinking of things I shouldn't be!! I need a daily push!

[greedy4chips]

Originally Posted by amberbamber

I find if I don't visit this board enough I start to slack and find myself thinking of things I shouldn't be!! I need a daily push!

Make the forum your homepage or better yet make this thread your homepage!

I don't have a blog, but perhaps you should. Each day you could post your progress. Many here have blogs and could discuss their success/failure of having one.

Give us your phone number and you will get 100 calls a day pushing you...I highly discourage this option.

[amberbamber]

Originally Posted by greedy4chips

Make the forum your homepage or better yet make this thread your homepage!

I don't have a blog, but perhaps you should. Each day you could post your progress. Many here have blogs and could discuss their success/failure of having one.

Give us your phone number and you will get 100 calls a day pushing you...I highly discourage this option.

I do have a blog, but I don't post on it regularly. I'll think about making it my homepage... Probably would be the easiest thing to do!!!

[disneysteve]

amber - Just wanted to congratulate you on your progress so far. Keep it up and you'll be debt free in no time.

[amberbamber]

Originally Posted by disneysteve

amber - Just wanted to congratulate you on your progress so far. Keep it up and you'll be debt free in no time.

Thank you!

[amberbamber]

Whooo HOOO! We recieved more back from the cash out of whole life insurance that I thought we would and we are able to pay off one entire credit card! AND I have around $650 left to put on another CC!!!!!!

Question- my first instinct is to put the $650 right away onto another CC and begin paying it off. My Dh says we should put about 200 into a savings account. I then thought I could open one of those Emigrant savings accounts or an ING account, any thoughts?

I'm so excited to have that first CC paid off!!!!

[LuxLiving]

Congratulations. Your husband may be right - IF you guys can leave the money alone until some BIG major unplanned expense comes up that you'd normally put on a CC such as a big car repair.

Twere it me, I'd put 300 (past) onto CC and 20 (present) to a tiny splurge, maybe a pizza for the family and 330 into EF (future).

That is - if you've already put the money back for the premiums on your replacement policies.

Good luck and let us know what you guys decide.

[disneysteve]

Originally Posted by amberbamber

Question- my first instinct is to put the $650 right away onto another CC and begin paying it off. My Dh says we should put about 200 into a savings account.

You already have a $1,000 EF, correct? I think adding another $200 is a good idea as $1,000 is a woefully inadequate EF no matter what Dave Ramsey says. One car repair could wipe that out. Since you got more than you were expecting, putting part toward savings makes sense to me.

[amberbamber]

Originally Posted by disneysteve

You already have a $1,000 EF, correct? I think adding another $200 is a good idea as $1,000 is a woefully inadequate EF no matter what Dave Ramsey says. One car repair could wipe that out. Since you got more than you were expecting, putting part toward savings makes sense to me.

Yes, we already do have the $1000 EF, actually we have around $2500. Just because I thought $1000 was alittle skimpy. I mean it wouldn't even cover ONE house payment. So, still think $200 or so into the EF is a good idea?

Here's a break up of the $2500. $500 into a regular savings account. (I know it should probably not sit in there long) and $2000 in a GMAC Demand Note gaining around 6% interest.

Thoughts?

[disneysteve]

Originally Posted by amberbamber

$2000 in a GMAC Demand Note gaining around 6% interest.

Thoughts?

I'm not exactly sure what the GMAC note is. How liquid is that? Can you access it in an emergency without paying any type of penalty? If not, that's not where your EF should be. You can get a money market account paying over 5% - 5.26% is the highest I know of currently - an be able to get to that money quickly. If the money isn't accessible, it is useless as an EF.

[sweeps]

GMAC demand notes are very liquid, but they're an unsecured loan to GMAC and they're not covered by FDIC insurance. If something bad were to happen to GMAC, your money would be in jeopardy.

[amberbamber]

Originally Posted by Sweepsplayer

GMAC demand notes are very liquid, but they're an unsecured loan to GMAC and they're not covered by FDIC insurance. If something bad were to happen to GMAC, your money would be in jeopardy.

Yep, exactly!

[disneysteve]

Originally Posted by Sweepsplayer

GMAC demand notes are very liquid, but they're an unsecured loan to GMAC and they're not covered by FDIC insurance. If something bad were to happen to GMAC, your money would be in jeopardy.

From what I know, GMAC is a very solid company, but I still dont think that's where I'd keep my EF. Just personal comfort level speaking here though.

[amberbamber]

Originally Posted by disneysteve

From what I know, GMAC is a very solid company, but I still dont think that's where I'd keep my EF. Just personal comfort level speaking here though.

Right now it's gaining the most interest for us. So, DH and I have decided we won't put any more in there than $10,000. For us that is our comfort level.

So, I will put a couple hundred back, and put the rest towards our next CC! Our goal for that CC is to have half paid off by March 1st of 2007. I think we are well on our way there!

[disneysteve]

Originally Posted by amberbamber

Right now it's gaining the most interest for us. So, DH and I have decided we won't put any more in there than $10,000. For us that is our comfort level.

I'm sure if I knew more about it, I'd probably feel the same way. So just speaking out of ignorance, until I learned more I wouldn't recommend it. I'll have to check that out, though.

Bet it felt good to add an "X" to your list of goals in your sig!